Learn Another Preposition, PLEASE!

    The word “around” is not the only preposition in the English language. Yet, I keep hearing it increasingly used by people who ought to know better: journalists and their interviewees. It’s bad enough when a local news station has a reporter who does not appear to have gotten past a pre-school level of enunciation, but commentators with nationwide coverage who don’t seem to have taken any serious English classes are really disturbing.

     Let’s go back to junior high, a.k.a. “middle school” for you whippersnappers who actually think you are getting a different form of education. A preposition is a word or combination of words indicating the relationship between two other elements of an expression. Remember that list of over 50 prepositions you had to learn for Mrs. Little’s 8th-grade Language Arts class? They have now come back to haunt you. Examples include the following: about, across, behind, between, from, in, on, outside, upon, and without.

    The book is about a mad scientist who brings his deceased wife back to life.

    The ring fell on the floor and rolled under the table.

    My diary is in the desk drawer.

     Now to the matter at hand. The preposition “around” has multiple meanings, according to Webster’s Dictionary: on all sides of, so as to encircle or enclose, so as to avoid or get past, on or to another side of, near, in all directions outward from, here and there in or throughout, so as to have a center or basis in.

    The squirrels chased one another around the tree.

    The teacher followed the student around the corner of the school.

    King Arthur and his knights sat around the table.

    The President’s healthcare policy is built around fairness.

     Just ahead of the 2023 Super Bowl, the Marketplace Morning Report of February 10 featured an interview with an advertising specialist—another kind of person you would expect to know proper English—about companies engaging in partnerships to produce TV commercials for the one sports event in the world that gets people to fork over $10,000 a pop just so they can see the half-time show, which does not even last a quarter of an hour. Over the course of a three-minute interview, the woman used “around” EIGHT times!

    1. “[B]rands are actually working together around their Super Bowl campaigns.”

    2. “Netflix is working with General Motors to promote efforts around electric vehicles.”

    3. “[W]e send [them] a list of questions around their diversity/equality efforts.”

    4. “There does not seem to be as much transparency around efforts specifically
        around talking about diversity in the Black community.”

    5. “[A]nother area interesting to watch is around representation around
           disabled people and accessibility.”

    6. “They want the most noise and buzz around their commercial…”

    The monotony was maddening! How else could an educated person have phrased these statements? Let’s give it a go.

    Use a different preposition, the correct one:

Brands are actually working together on their Super Bowl campaigns.

We send a list of questions about their diversity/equality efforts.

There does not seem to be as much transparency into 
           efforts specifically related to talking about diversity in
           the Black community.

They want the most noise and buzz about their commercial.

 

 Eliminate the preposition:

Netflix is working with General Motors to promote their electric vehicles.

Another area interesting to watch is representation of disabled
           people and accessibility.

 Rephrase the thought:

There does not seem to be as much transparency concerning efforts specifically devoted to talking about diversity in the Black community.

There does not seem to be as much transparency regarding diversity in the Black community.

They want their commercial to generate the most noise and buzz.

 

    At the end of the interview, the advertising expert makes this statement: “There’s always something up their sleeve.” Didn’t she mean “AROUND their sleeve”??