Reader’s Opinion | The reporter would deserve to be punished if he doesn’t know how to use the verb panna

Opinion|Reader’s opinion

Heikki Aittokoski missed in his column (HS 6.7.) to the phenomenon of our nuanced language, which has also troubled me for decades. For an inexplicable reason, people – journalists and public figures in particular – avoid using the excellent panna verb. It is the most common verb in our language when forming idioms.

Now, in the name of fake shyness, it is shunned and suppressed in the strangest structures. It is not realized that Idioms are crystallizations of expressions developed in the language, which in no case should be changed by replacing the verb with some other less shameful verb, such as “put” and “pista”.

I came across this phenomenon already in the 1950s when I was at school in Joensuu, when my classmate used the form “paitta hantit”. To that, my teacher Jukka Thurén stated that it is “put in the hand”. So the problem already has a long history, and there are no signs of a change in attitude.

I am so annoyed by this ruining of the language that I decided to use language technology to build a program that replaces the verbs “put” and “pista” used in idioms with the verb “panna”. The program first analyzes the words, which makes it possible to replace verbs regardless of the form in which they appear in the text. The program doesn’t work with verbs that aren’t idioms. So far, the program is not publicly available. And hopefully it won’t be necessary. It is better that the people learn to use the language correctly without the help of machines.

I suggest that Hesari start a campaign to restore the verb panna to its correct use. For example, the newspaper could monitor the language use of its own editors, and a small penalty would be given for each incorrect verb in idioms. The administration can itself decide on the form and size of the punishment.

Other oddities should also be addressed. The adverb “exactly” has become a buzzword. This word has absolutely no additional semantic content compared to the adverb “root”. Interjections such as “niiku” and “in a way” also deserve their own treatment. I understand that when the thought lags behind and there is a need to keep the speech going, the temptation for such empty interludes is there. But even that has its limits.

Let’s continue the fight for our beautiful and nuanced language.

Arvi Hurskainen

emeritus professor, Espoo

The reader’s opinions are speeches written by HS readers, selected and edited by the HS editorial team. You can leave an opinion piece or familiarize yourself with the principles of writing at the address www.hs.fi/kiryotamielipidekeisuis/.