Soldiers of the unknown
This showed up on the radio this morning. I'm pretty sure it was one of the national CBS people, but I didn't catch his name (or, owing to basic driving safety habits, the entirety of the quote). But it was a reference to the president's plans to attend a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington and lay a wreath at "the Tomb of the Soldiers of the Unknown."
I'm just about certain it was an error (rather than a clandestine plug for the Missouri grunge band of the same name). I'm at a loss for how it came about, though. There were some similar "of" references in the preceding item -- soldiers of Fort Hood, guardians of freedom -- but "Tomb of the Soldiers of the Unknown" is pretty hard to fathom. May we all be spared the need to speak live on the air, I suppose.
I'm just about certain it was an error (rather than a clandestine plug for the Missouri grunge band of the same name). I'm at a loss for how it came about, though. There were some similar "of" references in the preceding item -- soldiers of Fort Hood, guardians of freedom -- but "Tomb of the Soldiers of the Unknown" is pretty hard to fathom. May we all be spared the need to speak live on the air, I suppose.
Labels: language
posted by fev at 3:07 PM
3 Comments:
If I had to guess, I'd say he omitted the word "Unknown" from the script, and had to squeeze in that information somehow.
Modern DNA and other identification techniques are making unknown soldiers harder and harder to find. Dead soldiers, unfortunately, are still among us.
I agree that it was a repair; if he'd repeated Soldiers it would have come off better.
But yes: I hate speaking live like that, although students are more forgiving than live broadcasts.
I'm much more used to broadcasters' repairing that by backing up: "Tomb of the Sold ... that's Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers." Struck me as odd that he would, erm, soldier on, given the iconic nature of the subject.
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