Language and how to use it
I’m reading a bunch of American stories at the moment and two of them have used the same phrase ‘he could care less’ to mean ‘he couldn’t care less’. Now I’ve heard this said myself, in Texas, and while I have no objections to it in dialogue (or even dialog) as a common spoken expression, it just drives me wild to see it used in narrative. What does it mean? It means the character cared about something because it says he could have cared less. But the meaning the writer obviously wants us to take from the statement is that the character COULD NOT have cared less, ie that he felt nothing about the situation; it didn’t concern him.
This kind of language creep is downright stupid. People say, every day, things that make no sense and using them as speech in the mouths of your characters is fine and often meaningful. But using a slang statement as part of your description of a character is just not good enough, if it conveys the opposite meaning to the one you wish to express. When I see this kind of laziness the story goes on the reject pile. If the writer can’t be bothered to sort out the difference between a cultural expression that has become commonplace, even if it’s nonsense, and a true description of a character’s state of mind, I don’t see why I should be bothered to work it out either.
4 Comments
Steve Kane
28th June 2006The old “could care less” chestnut drives me mad as well. I’m all for the evolution of language and regional colloquialisms but “I could care less” is just plain dumb fucking wrong.
In dialogue, OK. In first person narration if it is fitting for the character to use the phrase, fine (just). In third person omniscient narration, no way, completely inexcusable, writer should be shot.
Richard
29th June 2006I used to be more of a prescriptivist about these kinds of things, but it’s more fun to be a descriptivist these days–and roll with the punches of a living language.
See this:
The American Heritage® Book of English Usage.
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
3. Word Choice: New Uses, Common Confusion, and Constraints
§ 78. could care less / couldn’t care less
“I could care less!” you might say sometime in disgust. You might just as easily have said I couldn’t care less and meant the same thing! How can this be? When taken literally, the phrase I could care less means “I care more than I might,” rather than “I don’t care at all.” But the beauty of sarcasm is that it can turn meanings on their head, thus allowing could care less to work as an equivalent for couldn’t care less. Because of its sarcasm, could care less is more informal than its negative counterpart and may be open to misinterpretation when used in writing.
The phrases “cannot but” and “can but” present a similar case of a positive and a negative meaning the same thing.
Richard
29th June 2006From Wikipedia:
Both BrE and AmE use the expression “I couldn’t care less” to mean the speaker does not care at all. In AmE, the phrase “I could care less” (without the “n’t”) is synonymous with this in casual usage. Intonation no longer reflects the originally sarcastic nature of this variant, which is not idiomatic in BrE and might be interpreted as anything from nonsense to an indication that the speaker does care.
In both areas, saying “I don’t mind” often means “I’m not annoyed” (for example, by someone’s smoking), while “I don’t care” often means “the matter is trivial or boring”. However, in answering a question like “Tea or coffee?”, if either alternative is equally acceptable, an American may answer “I don’t care”, while a British person may answer “I don’t mind”. Either sounds odd to the other.
In BrE, the phase “I can’t be arsed [to do something]” is approximately equivalent to the American “I can’t be bothered [to do something],”. This can be extremely confusing to Americans, as the Southern British pronunciation of the former sounds the same as “I can’t be asked…”, which clearly sounds either defiantly rude or nonsensical.
Older BrE often uses the exclamation “No fear!” where current AmE has “No way!” An example from Dorothy L. Sayers:
Q.: What are the seven Christian virtues?
A.: Respectability, childishness, mental timidity; dullness; sentimentality; censoriousness; and depression of spirits.
Q.: Wilt thou be baptized in this faith?
A.: No fear!
— from A Catechism for Pre- and Post-Christian Anglicans
This usage may confuse users of AmE, who are likely to interpret “No fear!” as enthusiastic willingness to move forward.
Idioms:
A number of English idioms that have essentially the same meaning show lexical differences between the British and the American version; for instance (the British variant comes first):
not touch something with a bargepole / not touch something with a ten-foot pole
sweep under the carpet / sweep under the rug
touch wood / knock on wood
see the wood for the trees / see the forest for the trees
throw a spanner / throw a (monkey) wrench
two pennyworth / two cents’ worth
skeleton in the cupboard / skeleton in the closet
a home from home / a home away from home
blow one’s trumpet / blow (or toot) one’s horn
In some cases the “American” variant is also used in BrE.
Jim
29th June 2006I’m with you on this, Kay. If it’s at all ambiguous, don’t use it. Period.
And “could care less” or “couldn’t care less,” either one, is enough to distract the reader who shouldn’t be snagging for an instant on the words as she reads.
The continuous fictive dream, and all that…