Re: The new way to grow (WAS The new way to office)

[aer -at- PCSI -dot- CIRRUS -dot- COM]

Tom,
I'm no quibbler, BUT... I cannot agree with
your ad hoc analysis of how grow came to be so used.

"to cause to grow [i.e. increase in size]"
is the exact wording of the transitive def. of grow.

You may think it's an extension of the *intransitive*
idiom [it's not really an idiom, it's standard usage].
But I can [and do] grow a plant, i.e. cause it to grow,
and by extension, "grow my business" makes sense
semantically and syntactically.
[NB: "A plant grows" is the intransitive form.]

You may not *like* this usage -- I don't much myself -- but
it is perfectly acceptable within the intuitive native speaker's
sense of how to use [even if with a novel word choice] a common
lexical item [a word/phrase in the vocabulary of most users].

Now, I agree, it smacks of MBAspeak, but
it's currently used in the media [which is, like
it or not, a semi-standard form of spoken
English used in the USA].

And I wouldn't choose such an unfelicitous
turn of phrase myself. But I can hardly insist
that anyone else's use of it is somehow
deficient in taste or appropriateness,
for their audience. And if I'm quoting
others who do use it, hey, so be it.
You can always put "(sic)" in your citation
to indicate that's how the other guy used it...

Respectfully,

Al Rubottom  /\  tel: 619.535.9505, x1737
aer -at- pcsi -dot- cirrus -dot- com /\ fax: 619.541.2260

Al Rubottom  /\  tel: 619.535.9505, x1737
aer -at- pcsi -dot- cirrus -dot- com /\ fax: 619.541.2260