Saturday, 13 August 2011

The Apprentice

I love The Apprentice. I think it's brilliant, brutal, and deeply admire the contestants for their hard work, creativity, and unfailing self-confidence in the face of such stark criticism, evinced by their often total lack of common sense.

I also love it as a window onto my generation.

One thing I noticed from the last series, won by Tom (who I want to be friends with), is how the candidates tried to ingratiate themselves to Lord Sugar through their use of language. Have a look at their antics in the boardroom and see how they use reflexive pronouns instead of personal pronouns to attempt to create a formal distance, and therefore appear more elevated, and, in their minds, intelligent.

"That was myself, Lord Sugar."
"I look at yourself and see a successful man"

The question is whether the fact that this use of language appears more intelligent in people's heads will influence whether it becomes a feature of the language. English has lost its 'respectful' pronouns, unlike other languages (vous, usted) - and this could be an example of how English is streamlined and less needlessly complex than other languages, or a gap in the market ready to be exploited by a group of sales executives lapping at Lord Sugar's bowl of sycophancy.

Only time will tell, but I hope that in years to come the OED and descriptive grammars cite The Apprentice as the origin of this new usage.

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