Words, words and more words

[thismaz]

After I posted to complain about the word 'gotten', only to learn that it is correct usage as the past tense of 'get', in American English, I thought I would ask another question, rather than make assumptions in ignorance.

It's the word 'said', used to mean 'the' or 'that particular one', as in, for example, 'Jack and Bob were in a hotel room and Jack spoke as he paced around said room.'

I see it a lot and, on the few occasions I have thought to look, the writers were American. To me, it feels like a very old fashioned and stilted word usage and it usually causes me to back-button out of the story, if it occurs before I have had time to engage with the writing.

But I remember noticing Giles use it once, in an episode of BtVS, so I'm wondering if this is a word in common usage in America, or whether it is believed by Americans to be in common usage in Britain.

For that matter, is it in common usage in Britain and I've just avoided picking it up?

What do you think?

I don't necessarily expect it to bother you, because, well, we all have our own pet likes and dislikes. But I would be interested to know if 'said' used in that way is considered common usage. Do you use it in everyday speech or thought?

Comments

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

Seems old-fashioned British to me.
My objection to it in narration is that it makes the author seem very present in the story. I could put up with a pompous person using it in dialogue though.

[hawera.livejournal.com]

It was, but is no longer, in common useage in English English in legal documents, but not otherwise.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

Giles using it means nothing; ASH never stood up for England against the American writers and just said what was in the script even if it was ridiculous. According to the Buffyverse Dialogue Database he even said "gotten" on occasion. I think he should have had his British passport taken away for that.

[ex_peasant441]

I use it, but only when I'm being mock pompous. And I'm sure I wouldn't use it in speech or a fic. I don't think I've ever noticed it being used in fic. Maybe I read the wrong class of fic.

[quinara]

I'm pretty sure I use 'said', but then my vocabulary is (a) irrevocably influenced by the Buffyverse and (b) chock-full of random archaisms, formal phrases and words/slang that shouldn't technically belong to me... The line between my using words ironically and using them seriously has, in most cases, blurred beyond to the point where I can't really keep up anymore. :/

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

"Said" - I have heard it used for 'that' - and my daughter says it seems fine to her... but actually what it makes me think of is policemen making statements in things like Dixon of Dock Green in my childhood - and in others since.

Actually D-d says 'gotten' sounds OK to her in certain circumstances such as 'I have gotten used to it' of 'If I'd gotten up earlier I would have got more done.' She thinks it flows better that 'I have got used to it'.

We think it is not when she uses 'got' to mean 'received', but when she uses it as part of a compound verb such as to get up, or get over and so on... she is currently sitting here deciding if it is the perfect tense or something - but I was never very good at tenses!

[smwright.livejournal.com]

It's very common in American English, even in common speech. It would be one of those things that would jar if never used (or only in old fashioned speech) in British English. I can see that. There are phrases I've learned to just accept and that no longer trouble me when I read British authors, but it takes time.

[draconin.livejournal.com]

I've certainly seen 'said' used in that manner many times before. It's a rather formal usage that's true, but one that I'd not hesitate to use in writing a textbook, though not in speech.
I'm Australian BTW.

[tabaqui]

Though you probably have enough.....I'm American, i've used 'said' that way, have read it used that way, and i'm sure that my family and my SO have used it that way. So - it's not *common*, and it is a touch formal, and i would not expect the guy at the gas station in the trucker hat and Skoal-stains to use it that way, but it's not something most Americans would look twice at.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

I've used it, although not often. It's just a shorter way to say "the aforementioned".

[suzume-tori.livejournal.com]

"said" in that case is being used as "aforementioned"?

I haven't the slightest idea as to who wrote what lines in Buffy. I generally assumed Americans were responsible, mostly because supposedly British characters said "guys" instead of "blokes", which always sounds odd to me. (I wasn't sure if that meant -- were the people writing the script unaware of the difference in vocabulary? Or -- if someone with the appropriate knowledge were writing the script, perhaps they were pandering to American sensibilities?)

BASICALLY I KNOW NOTHING. Except that it was used to make American audiences feel "ah, I am listening to a stuffy British man". Not that "aforementioned" would be any better, but -- in terms of speech patterns, it sounds pretentious, either way.

As an aside, I am here and sniffing around your livejournal because your writing made me purr on the inside. (And possibly on the outside, but try not to judge. We all have our own bizarre mannerisms, yeah?) Like -- I'd be reading a paragraph of one of your stories, and then I'd go back and re-read it, simply because I liked how everything was structured. Pretty, pretty writing. Excuse me while I roll around and make adoring noises.

(Meanwhile, in my kitchen, my baby brother is inventing words, like 'inhuming', as in the opposite of 'exhuming', mixed up somewhere with 'interring'; he likes to make words. He's decided that a word like 'inhuming' would be a useful addition to the vocabulary of someone in an assassin's guild. I have a very strange family.)

[demongoddess061.livejournal.com]

I believe it's more of a legalese term that found its way in to the common vernacular in America.