There’s no such thing as gay marriage

This is not a political statement, it’s a grammar rant.

There’s an often-used figure of speech known as a transferred epithet, which is when you use an adjective to modify something that the adjective doesn’t really describe.

It’s a literary device that can be powerful. Think of lonely nights (a night can’t be lonely, a person can), dizzy heights (heights aren’t dizzy but they make some people feel that way), or sad eyes (eyes don’t feel emotions, people do).

But as effective and expedient as transferred epithets can be, sometimes they’re just irritating. Here are three that I find particularly annoying.

Gay marriage

A marriage is a legally or formally recognized union of two people. It doesn’t have a gender or sexual orientation. The people in the marriage do.

Nude pictures (photos)

Pictures can’t be nude; it’s the people in them who are—or aren’t—nude. The images are printed, digital, or whatever other format. They might be color, black and white, or sepia. They might be beautiful or flawed. But they’re not nude. If the people in the photo aren’t wearing clothes, then it’s a picture of nude people—not a nude picture.

Christian business

My husband and I are Christians. We own a business. Our business is not Christian—it’s just a business. Businesses don’t have the capacity for faith, the people who run them do. The faith of a company’s owners and managers will clearly be reflected in how the business is operated. But a business can’t be Christian or Muslim or even atheist.

What transferred epithet irritates you?

Jacquelyn Lynn
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