DRUG: to have dragged something across the floor

It must be a huge, complex enterprise to try to learn American English as a second language. We, for whom American English is our natural tongue, take for granted the complexities of the language, overlooking the myriad of exceptions and mis-conceptions which lace themselves through everyday speech.

I stumbled across this thought yesterday when I was watching a movie in which the term "drug" was used...as in "I drug it across the floor." It was intended as a form of the past tense of the word "drag." My immediate reaction was that I think the character meant to say "I dragged it across the floor." And then I began to wonder if I was correct. So I pulled out my recently-purchased Garner's Modern American Usage to check it out. Sure enough, it is allowed as a usage within a dialect from Southern United States. They even reference President Clinton as one who has been known to use the term "drug." My reading of the notation in Garner's however, is that the reference is descriptive and not prescriptive. That is to say, Garner acknowledges that it is used, but refrains from saying it is the best use of the term.

I had a similar response when watching the news the other night and the anchor talked about a convict who "plead" guilty at his arraignment. I'm not sure if her notes read "plead" or "pled." They are homonyms, pronounced the same. I would have said "pleaded." Again, Garner notes that my choice is preferred, but that the other two terms are used in common American English. He stops short of saying that the terms "plead" and "pled" are wrong.

We seem to be living in a permissive age where language is evolving rapidly and previously-scorned usages are acknowledged as being "okay" simply because a lot of people use them. While I am coming to acknowledge that American English is evolving, and that there is no prohibition against it, I have to note that I am increasingly uncomfortable with an easy acceptance of jarring usage.

The examples above have to do with the use of the past tense of words. It is the place where I sense the most jarring use of what I would call "sloppy language." That is my own decision, based as much upon my gut reaction as my mental analysis. I hate to hear someone say "orientated" when they should have said "oriented." Thanks to the military for that violation of grammar! I cringe when people say "Her and I went to the movies." I learned the English language at a time when there were some things that were depicted as "wrong usage." Today, increasingly, it is not politically correct to label anything as "wrong."

As I have said before, I have no control over others' uses of language. But I can choose to employ words which I believe enhance communication without dropping to the lowest common denominator.


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