Um, excuse me?

[deckardcanine]

I've started reading advice columns a lot. Most of the time, I correctly predict the gist of what the columnist will say, because it tends to align with my own opinion. (You'd never guess it from my entries, would you.)

But Miss Manners said something today on which I, as a linguist, simply cannot bring myself to agree. The asker wanted to know the difference between "Excuse me" and "Pardon me." I would have said they were interchangeable, but she said otherwise:

"Excuse me" is the polite way of acknowledging that you are inconveniencing someone else.

"Pardon me" is the polite way of pointing out that someone else is causing you inconvenience.

Is it a regional thing, or is Miss Manners taking language into her own hands in a deplorable way? Maybe neither. Maybe both.

What made this especially interesting to me is that the very next question on the page, for a different advice column, pertained to etiquette pettiness.

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's regional. The snobby rich guy in the Grey Poupon commercial always said, "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?", even though he was inconveniencing the other guy.

I think Miss Manners is considering the original French origin of "Pardonnez moi!", which in Shakespeare's time was roughly equivalent to today's "Well, excuuuuuuuse me!" It basically means someone is annoying you and you want them to know it.