If only ...

Many people have bees that buzz in their bonnets--language bees. Grammar bees. Usage bees.

I see posts on FB, for example, that chide others (others--of course!) for failing to observe the differences among there-their-they're (notice that I used among--more than two! oh, thank you, Mrs. Rood, my 7th grade English teacher!) or between its and it's (thanks again, Mrs. Rood).

Sometimes these misuses are the products of hurry. I have (rarely, rarely, rarely) caught an its error, say, in my own FB posts, and I scurry to correct it with all the alacrity of someone who's left his/her wallet in the coffee shop. (Who's and Whose--there's (theirs?) another one!)

So we need to be careful: We mustn't condemn the hurried mistake but save our venom for ignorance, right?

Wrong.

In the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (late 14th century), in a passage about the Clerk, Chaucer wrote that famous quotation, "And gladly would he learn and gladly teach."

We need, I think--especially in these days of vicious and viral assaults on those who make a mistake and are thus inferior to the rest of us--to simmer down. To learn what we can, teach when we can. 

Our teaching can be private. When, for example, I see a usage error in someone's post, I will send them a private message about it, not post it for the World to See and Condemn. And I don't always correct things, for I can tell the difference between a speed-induced error and one born of Not Knowing.

I am hardly exempt from such things. After I post this, I will go upstairs; Joyce will read it; Joyce will find a few errors (typos, of course!), and I will hurry to correct them with a sinner's speed.

Anyway, today I posted on FB a quotation from a book I'm reading, and the writer wrote of "a phenomenon whose structure emerges only when we interact with others."

Look at the only in that passage. The placement of only has been something that's bugged me for years now. The author uses it correctly in that passage--putting only as close as possible to the thing that's only. And that's what we all should do--both for clarity and for reducing my blood pressure.

Some examples:

I only found it yesterday. (No: I found it only yesterday.) (You didn't "only find it"; you found it "only yesterday"--not this morning or whatever.)

I only saw the tiger when I stepped into the jungle. (No, I saw the tiger only when I stepped into the jungle.) (You didn't only see the tiger, did you?)

I just found this example online--an example that shows clearly how the placement of only is a key to meaning (I added the parenthetical stuff):

Only John hit Peter in the nose. (Just John did it.)

John hit only Peter in the nose. (John hit Peter--and no one else.)

John hit Peter only in the nose. (John did not hit Peter in the jaw.)

John only hit Peter in the nose.  (John just hit Peter; he didn't shoot him or kiss him, too.)  (link to the site)

That's enough for this mini-rant of mine. I'm sure I will never see (or commit) this error again ...

... if only.

PS: Joyce found ONLY one typo!