‘It is important to remember that despite the invaluable work of hospices and their outreach methods, palliative/terminal care is not as widely available in the UK as would be ideal. This is one of the many tragedies of the NHS. Over-concerns about the ‘slippery slope’ denies choice to patients with full capacity suffering from, for example, intractable pain or paralysis…’ letter, Spectator, July 2023
For many years now (since the beginning of the century, as least) I’ve watched with fascination as common singular nouns have for no apparent reason become plural. ‘Concerns’ instead of ‘concern’ is particularly frequently encountered. ‘Over-concerns,’ in the specimen I give you here, renders the new usage simply ridiculous.
The time-honoured application of ‘concern’ was as a generalised abstract noun: ‘concern was expressed for the child’s safety.’ The new usage will have us say ‘concerns were expressed…’ and ‘We have concerns about the application of the new regulations’. On the other hand, ‘concerns’ can be used quite sensibly as a synonym for ‘affairs’ or ‘preoccupations’ in the business sense: the context makes clear that the plural is really required.
People who use the modern formulation often betray their unease with it. Here is a sentence that unwittingly admits the real, singular nature of the word: ‘To this has been added concerns over mismanagement and fraud ’ – David Heathcote-Amory, The European Constitution and What It Means for Britain, 2003. ‘Concerns’ is substituted for ‘concern’ with no attempt to modify the grammar of the sentence to suit (‘has’ instead of ‘have’). Very often the alteration to the plural creates an awkward and ugly sentence.
Here is particularly unfortunate example: ‘You are also not alone in your concerns at the way companies get a share of any 0870 revenue.’ – article on phone prices, Daily Telegraph, 11 April 2005. The writer has contrived a gratuitously ugly and syntactically messy sentence, illustrating the insidious consequences of misusing the word. Once its true value in a sentence has been blurred, it can find itself in any number of anomalous contexts. ‘Concerns at …’ is an invented construction.
‘Many concerns were expressed by examiners about elementary errors’ – Daily Telegraph 17 September 2005, quoting an Edexcel report on exam results) – here is the complete transformation of the word into its new identity, endorsed by Edexcel, which is presumably an authority on the correct use of English.
‘… the Vice-Chancellor wrote … to express his concerns that the work was going on far too slowly..’ – Lucilla Burn, The Fitzwilliam Museum: A History, 2016. This simple sentence is evidence that ‘concerns’ has actually replaced ‘concern’ as standard usage in such a context. ‘Concern’ would be simpler and clearer.
Unwarranted plurals are now springing up all over the place. Another is ‘actions’ – as in ‘the police praised his actions in saving the baby.’ Once again, conventional use of the singular (‘police praised his action’) has been pointlessly altered into a plural. And we now have ‘attentions’: ‘An anthropologist who tires of studying tribal differences in Africa would do well to turn his attentions to what used to be called Fleet Street …’ – The Oldie, August 2017. ‘Attentions’ is an odd word in the context, having quite other uses of its own. ‘Attentjon’ is the right word here.
The linguistic novelty was in use in America from the start, and I naturally suspect America is its original home: ‘the embrace of cabala symbols has raised alarms among some Jewish scholars ’ – New York Times, 8 July 2004. The singular ‘alarm’ (as in a phrase like ‘caused alarm’) would until recently have been the obvious phrase in the context. We reserve ‘alarms’ for set phrases like ‘alarms and excursions’.
Yet another pluralisation that, to my knowledge, never existed before: ‘… murmuring approvals at her daughter’s many talents’ (Daily Telegraph, 15 August 2005). And what about: ‘The couple were questioned over suspicions of administering a noxious substance …’ (Daily Telegraph, 16 March 2007)? Although the syntax has been made to accommodate the plural ‘suspicions’, it is an odd alteration of the usual phrase ‘on suspicion’ and illustrates, yet again, the strange tendency for these abstract nouns to become plural.
What’s making them do it?
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