Jose Carillo's Forum

MY MEDIA ENGLISH WATCH

If you are a new user, click here to
read the Overview to this section

Team up with me in My Media English Watch!

I am inviting Forum members to team up with me in doing My Media English Watch. This way, we can further widen this Forum’s dragnet for bad or questionable English usage in both the print media and broadcast media, thus giving more teeth to our campaign to encourage them to continuously improve their English. All you need to do is pinpoint every serious English misuse you encounter while reading your favorite newspaper or viewing your favorite network or cable TV programs. Just tell me about the English misuse and I will do a grammar critique of it.

Read the guidelines and house rules for joining My Media English Watch!

A note on grammar from a Filipina journalist based in Hong Kong

I received the following e-mail a few days ago from Isabel Escoda, a Filipina journalist and English teacher based in Hong Kong:

Hi Joe!

My elder brother who lives in San Francisco sent me his interesting exchange with you over an item in your valedictory piece for your weekly critiques of media English.* It reminded me of a grammarian years ago who said that the phrase “due to” should be used mainly with schedules, as in “The train is DUE TO arrive at…” and “She is DUE TO deliver her baby on…” and NOT in lieu of “because of” or “owing to” (which you used in your piece). It sounds sensible, doesn’t it?  In fact, I think one could also use AS or SINCE, as in: “SINCE it looks like rain, the picnic was postponed” or “I have to leave a bit later AS my kid is still not ready.” Wouldn’t you say that in both cases one could also use “because”?

English is certainly complicated and fascinating, isn’t it? Right now I’ve been struggling with Cantonese, which is simpler in many ways and quite elemental (especially if you’ve got a good ear).

You’ve done good work in trying to straighten out media English. Best wishes in your future endeavors!

Isabel

My open reply to Isabel:

Thanks a lot for your felicitations and compliments! It sure feels good to hear from you again after quite a long stretch.

As to the usage of “due to,” it does have a nuance different from “because of” or “owing to” but there are actually many grammatical situations where it can be used interchangeably with them in the sense of “as a result of,” as in “Due to abdominal pains, he didn’t go to work today.” See and feel how “because of” or “owing to” works just as well as “due to” in evoking causality rather than the expectation of a scheduled event: “Because of abdominal pains, he didn’t go to work today.” “Owing to abdominal pains, he didn’t go to work today.”

And yes, with some minor modifications in syntax, the coordinating conjunction “as” and the subordinating conjunction “since” can very well stand in for “due to,” “because of,” and “owing to.”

See these alternative constructions for “Since it looked like rain, the picnic was postponed”:

Due to impending rain, the picnic was postponed.”
Because of impending rain, the picnic was postponed.”
Because it looked like rain, the picnic was postponed.”
Owing to impending rain, the picnic was postponed.”

And this lone alternative construction for “I have to leave a bit later as my kid is still not ready”:

“I have to leave a bit later because my kid is still not ready.”

Now see how “due to” and “owing to” fares so badly in that sentence construction:

“I have to leave a bit later due to my kid is still not ready.”
“I have to leave a bit later owing to my kid is still not ready.”

Of course, we can force fit “due to” and “owing to” in such sentences by appending the phrase “the fact that” to “due to” and “owing to,” as in these constructions:

“I have to leave a bit later due to the fact that my kid is still not ready.”
“I have to leave a bit later owing to the fact that my kid is still not ready.”

These constructions are grammatically airtight, of course, but if you use them habitually, you sure would sound like a two-bit lawyer brandishing awful legalese.

Now for the last word on the usage of “due to,” let me quote the usage note for it by my digital Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary:

due to
Function: preposition
Date: 1897

 : as a result of  : BECAUSE OF  <due to the complaints of uptight parents…he lost his job — Herbert Gold>

usage The objection to due to as a preposition is only a continuation of disagreements that began in the 18th century over the proper uses of owing and due. Due to is as grammatically sound as owing to, which is frequently recommended in its place. It has been and is used by reputable writers and has been recognized as standard for decades. There is no solid reason to avoid due to.

Indeed, as you pointed out, English is certainly complicated and fascinating—but eminently and easily learnable once you get the hang of the language. As to Cantonese, Isabel, with the whole of Hong Kong as your support group in learning it, your struggle should be over soon.

With my best wishes,
Joe Carillo

---------
*Isabel’s brother, Dick Taylor, pointed out a grammar infelicity in the posting of that valedictory piece, “The Forum will no longer do its weekly critiques of media English,” that I promptly corrected.

Click to read responses or post a response

View the complete list of postings in this section




Copyright © 2010 by Aperture Web Development. All rights reserved.

Page best viewed with:

Mozilla FirefoxGoogle Chrome

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional

Page last modified: 10 April, 2012, 11:30 a.m.