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PRECISELY what’s so special about “at the end of the
day” and “at this point in time” that probably one out of four
Philippine legislators and public officials and probably the same
ratio of TV talk-show hosts, news anchors, and guests are mouthing
them much too often and with such relish these days?
Nothing really. “At the end of the day” is
simply a longer, flamboyant way of saying “ultimately,” “in
the end,” or “after all,” while “at this point in time” is
similarly a longer, flamboyant way of saying “now” and
“currently.” And these two adverbial phrases—old-time grammarians
call them “ablative absolutes”—aren’t really meant to call
attention to themselves. Like such modifiers as “clearly” and
“definitely,” they are designed simply to call attention to a
point being made by the speaker, so they need to be used very
sparingly to avoid irritating the listener or reader.
What’s very disturbing, however, is that many
people think that liberally spicing their talk with these
expressions is a sign of wisdom, discernment, and sophistication.
Little do they know that on the contrary, “at the end of the
day” and “at this point in time” have for several years now
been condemned as the two most irritating clichés in the English
language.
In a survey conducted in 70 countries in 2004 by
the London-based Plain English Campaign, in particular, “at the
end of the day” ranked first and “at this moment in time” (a
variation of “at this point in time”) ranked second among the
most hated English clichés worldwide. As the group’s spokesman
so aptly observed when the rankings of the most irritating clichés
were announced, “Using these terms in daily business is about as
professional as wearing a novelty tie or having a wacky ring-tone
on your phone. When readers or listeners come across these tired expressions,
they start tuning out and completely miss the message—assuming
there is one.”
Again, in 2005, in a poll of 150 senior
executives all throughout corporate America by the temporary
staffing company Accountemps, “at the end of the day” ranked
first among the 15 most annoying clichés.
Finally, in 2006, in a poll of 10,000 news
sources that included 1,600 American newspapers, the
Australian-based database com-pany Factiva found “at the end of
the day” at the top of the 55 most overused English clichés. But
this is only the tip of the iceberg, to use a cliché, for that poll
did not cover the US broadcast media where the overuse of “at the
end of the day” is decidedly much more pronounced.
If “at the end of the day” and “at this
point in time” have indeed become such dreadful banes to the
English language, why is it that they are now enjoying such wide
currency in the Philippines? They have become such pernicious
semantic crutches for so many public officials, media people, and
students, and their dependency level is such that they may no longer
be able to speak their minds without overusing those two clichés.
I suspect that not so far back, a highly
influential public figure either in government, media, or academe
must have triggered this domestic overuse of “at the end of the
day” and “at this point in time.” Perhaps he or she must have
used these two clichés much too often during a major event that was
covered live by all of the local TV networks, thus setting such a
wrongheaded example for English-savvy speech for audiences all over
the land.
It no longer matters who that culprit was, but
there’s no doubt that we are now in the midst of an “at the end
of the day” and “at this point in time” pandemic, and the
only way to stop it is for all of us to totally retire these damaged
semantic goods from our writing and speech—right now.
(Next: Punctuating ourselves gracefully)
j8carillo@yahoo.com
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