12 MARCH <strong>15</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> Viewlink The English Fortnightly (Since November 1999) ISSUE 434 | MARCH <strong>15</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> Engaging with an enigma called Shane Jones New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is a colourful politician. As he admits, his vocabulary is often muscular and bombastic and he is aware that his comments are inflammatory and hurtful. His outbursts against the Indian community caused furore, attracting condemnation from the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and others. Mr Jones and his Leader Winston Peters defend their comments saying that ‘the Indian community tells them.’ But who are these people? Do they represent the Diaspora? Has there been any verification of their comments? Have these leaders considered the enormous contributions of Indian businesses and people towards the economic progress and social development of New Zealand for more than 110 years? If there are problems, how we can we all get together and address them? If Mr Jones is an enigma, it is our duty to solve the puzzle. It is Let us foster our unique unity It is in the law of nature that every living being will come to collective defence in the face of adversity. It happens all the time in the animal kingdom. The human society is torn by hatred, jealously, greed and rage against colour, creed, religion- all of them ironically made by humans themselves. And in this atmosphere of intransigence and intolerance, the unimaginable happens- as it did on <strong>March</strong> <strong>15</strong>, 2019. But we New Zealanders proved that we are different. The death of 51 innocent men, women and children in Christchurch Mosques and the 49 other people injured have touched our hearts. As we marked the first anniversary of the tragedy, we proved that we are a caring nation, and that there is no evidence of any root of terrorism amongst us. The massacre was a reminder of how similar white-nationalist and jihadist killers really are. As the Economist wrote, important to hear him out fully, find out what really bothers him and how we can address his concerns. On his part, Mr Jones must stop castigating a community and work with us. Promoting dialogue After all, any problem can be solved through discussions. Communities and nations are pitted against each other only because of failure of communications and worse, refusal to talk. Indians are known for ability to undertake intelligent discourses, analyse situations and provide solutions that can build a cohesive society – a society that Mr Jones aspires. “A democratic society, in its thirst for liberty, may fall under the influence of bad leaders,” worried Plato, who also feared that “popular acclaim will attend on the man who tells the people what they want to hear rather than what truly benefits them.” These worries seem all the more pertinent today. “though the two groups detest each other, they share methods, morals and mindsets. They see their own group as under threat, and think this justifies extreme violence in “self-defence.” They are often radicalised on social media, where they tap into a multinational subculture of resentment.” The deadliest virus It is unthinkable that in this day and age, certain groups of people can consider themselves superior because of the colour of their skin or the religion to which they subscribe. It is time that people realised that their strength rests on unity than otherwise. There is a larger threat that looms large today across the world- the Coronavirus. It has already affected more than 145, 000 people in 118 countries, killed about 5410 people and has become pandemic. This is an opportunity for all of us to unite and fight this deadly disease. Nothing else matters now. Indian Newslink is published by Indian Newslink Limited from its offices located at Level 1, Number 166, Harris Road, East Tamaki, Auckland 2013 and printed at Horton Media Limited, Auckland. All material appearing here and on our web editions and social media are the copyright of Indian Newslink and reproduction in full or part in any medium is prohibited. Indian Newslink and its management and staff do not accept any responsibility for the claims made in advertisements. Managing Director & Publisher: Jacob Mannothra; Editor & General Manager: Venkat Raman; Production Manager: Mahes Perera; Financial Controller: Uma Venkatram CA; Phone: (09) 5336377 Email: info@indiannewslink.co.nz; Websites: www.indiannewslink.co.nz; www.inliba. com; www.inlisa.com Well, your grammar can or may be questioned Michelle Sheehan People get corrected on their language all the time. With written language, this is mostly about spelling and punctuation. In some cases, though, especially when speaking , we are pulled up on our grammar. Whatever you think about ‘Grammar Nazis,’ there are some times when they are just plain wrong. Here are five examples of grammar you may have been pulled up on which really make no sense at all, grammatically speaking. Can vs May How many accidents have been caused by overzealous teachers correcting their students’ language when they innocently ask: “Can I go to the toilet, please?” “You mean ‘May I go to the toilet?’” was the stock response whenever I asked, and it confused me because I, like everyone else, including the teacher, knew that “can” has two different meanings, depending on context. Yes, it can describe what you are able to do (the “dynamic meaning” in linguistic terminology), but it can also dictate what is permitted. In fact, those same teachers would also say, “You can take your pencil cases out now,” using the permissive (or deontic) meaning. The ability reading of “can” is older, but the oldest OED example of the permissive reading is from 1489, so the idea that “can” is only descriptive makes no sense. “Can I go to the toilet” is simply ambiguous. It can either describe your ability to (well, you get the idea) or it can mean: “Do I have your permission to go to the toilet?” In fact, the word “may” is ambiguous in a similar way in statements (but not questions). Compare “You may come in now” with “It may rain later, judging by those clouds.” So, in short, when asking permission you may use “may”, but you can also use “can”. Well vs Good How many times have you been corrected for saying “I’m good, thanks” in answer to the question “How are you?” This is another kind of correction which makes no sense. The verb “be” (am, are, is, was, were) is what linguists call a “copular verb” (ascribing a property to a subject). This verb can be followed by an adjective. Think: “It is cold,” “I am tired.” “I am good” is no different. So, what are people objecting to Labour picks Michael Wood again for Mount Roskill The Labour Party has selected Michael Wood to contest Mt Roskill at the <strong>2020</strong> general election. Following is a Statement issued by Mr Wood: It is an honour to be selected again to contest my local community of Mount Roskill for Labour. I have worked hard to be a strong voice for Mt Roskill and I want to continue to make progress for local people as part of a government that is delivering for New Zealanders. Diverse Electorate I am proud to represent Mount Roskill, New Zealand's most diverse electorate. This is a place that people have come, seeking to build a good life for generations, and I look forward to campaigning to represent my community again as part of a re-elected Labour-led government. Under Jacinda Ardern’s leadership, New Zealand is making progress on the issues that matter Photo by jeshoots.com on Unsplash here? There is another adjective “well,” which can also be used to describe wellbeing and, until recently, was used rather than good for this purpose. This adjective developed from the adverb “well” in Old English. Often when people correct “I am good,” they claim that we need an adverb here. In fact, the opposite is true; “be” needs to be followed by an adjective and “well” only works because it can be either an adverb or an adjective. So, the moral of the story is that all’s fine with both well and good. “I’m well” is older, but “I’m good” is first recorded in 1921, so only people over the age of 99 can claim it to be a recent abomination. You and Me This is something that gets corrected again and again, and it makes little sense, because many people say “you and me” or “me and you” whenever they join these two little words together (in a coordination). Of course, there is some logic to saying that we should use “you and I” as a subject, as “I” is the subject form. You would not say “me like chocolate,” and so, according to some, you should not say (or write) “you and me like chocolate.” What makes no sense is when people are corrected for using “you and me” in object position or after a preposition such as “for.” People say “for you and I,” because they want to avoid saying “for you and me,” but we wouldn’t say “for I” would we? This “hypercorrection“ shows us that the distinction between subject/ non-subject is breaking down in this context. Things get even more complex when you joint two possessors together. Is it “mine and John’s book” or “my and John’s book,” “John’s and my book” or even “me and John’s book”? I have heard people use all of these. Whom or Who? “Whomever wants to help, can,” says Walter White in Breaking Bad. In fact, White says “whom” a lot. I guess this is because he is an Michael Wood (Picture Supplied) most. Our economy is growing strongly under our strong economic management. With wages rising and unemployment low, our families are better off. Our economy is performing better than Australia, the UK, and the US. Because we’ve run the economy well we can afford the biggest investment in new infrastructure like roads and rail (admittedly somewhat corrupted) high school Chemistry teacher and using “whom” marks him out as an educated person. But what is “whom?” Once upon a time, English was a language with rich grammatical case (like Latin, German, Russian or Polish), a means of encoding whether a noun phrase is being used as a subject, object, indirect object and so on. We still have it to some extent in our pronoun system (as discussed in the previous point), and we used to make a subject/non-subject distinction with who/whom too. Nowadays, most English speakers no longer make this distinction, and many people who use “whom” use it (because of hypercorrection) in contexts where it would not have been used historically, like Walter White does. Avoiding the passive The passive is to be avoided at all costs. To be honest, this was not really advice that I received at school but it is something I have been told (oops – that people have told me) at many training sessions about good writing in my adult life. This myth has already been debunked online, notably Language Log, but it is so commonly cited that it needs to be mentioned here. The passive is just a way of making the under-goer of an active sentence into a subject, and we use it, especially, when we don’t want to say who the instigator of something was. When I wrote “I have been told” above, I did so precisely because I didn’t want to specify exactly who had done the telling. The passive allows me to do this. Now, in some cases, we need to know who did something. The passive allows us to include this information too “I have been told by some people.” In fact, because this information is optional, a case could be made that including it actually creates emphasis. So, in short, there is nothing wrong with the passive. Just like there is nothing wrong with using “can” instead of “may” or saying “I’m good.” We are all entitled to our grammatical preferences, but grammar itself does not care about them one bit. Michelle Sheehan is Reader in Linguistics at Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom. The above article has been published under Creative Commons Licence. for more than 20 years. Long-term issues Importantly, we are also focused on the big long-term issues. We are addressing climate change by getting New Zealand on track for a net carbon zero economy, and we are taking mental health seriously with a record investment to build community level mental health support for people in need. In Mount Roskill, the progress is tangible and I am proud that after first being elected in 2016, I can point to the work that the government has underway on issues on which I campaigned. Local schools are receiving major upgrades after years of neglect, hundreds of new state and affordable homes are being built in Roskill South, and with our investments in more police and fog cannons, we have seen a big decline in attacks on our local small businesses. I am running to continue that progress and deliver for local people.
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