Grammar Hang-ups

As a former English teacher, I guess it's only natural that I get bothered by grammar errors (especially, by the way, my own). It goes with the job, I guess. But there are some grammar errors that--I think--bother me MORE than they ought to bother me. Here are a couple that I heard just this week, and in both cases I REALLY had to bite my tongue to avoid saying something.

1. Adding an Intensifier in front of an Absolute Adjective

An absolute adjective is a type of adjective that--by the nature of the word--cannot be added to or subtracted from in any way. Yesterday, at our weekly administrator's meeting, a co-worker said to the group, "Our school district is a little unique in that..."

I'm really not sure what he said for about the next minute and a half. I spent that time biting my lower lip because what I WANTED to say was, "Stop! Something is either unique or it isn't unique!" By definition, the word "unique" means "singular" or "radically different." There is no way to be "a little unique." It's like being "a little pregnant." You either are or you aren't. Other words that also should NOT ever be modified (at least, not if you want me to listen to you for the following 90 seconds) include "perfect," "original," and as the example above mentions, "dead."

2. Adding "-al" to a word that ALREADY is an Adjective

The suffix "-al" turns a word that is another part speech into an adjective. That's great. However, people can get carried away with this suffix. For instance, the other day I heard a talk radio announcer state that he was "sympathetical" to Sarah Palin's posting of cross hairs over the districts of liberal politicians. This announcer's politics aside, I wanted to shout, "The word 'sympathetic' ALREADY is an adjective! You don't have to add the '-al' to the end!" The same goes for "symphonical" and "ironical." The latter of those two is so often misused, in fact, that it is no longer even considered wrong to use it! But it's two unnecessary letters!

Anyway, as I said, these aren't REALLY such big issues. I don't know why they bother me. They just do.

And don't get me started on the confusion that's caused by "flammable" versus "inflammable."