Hi, Dallas Hinton!
I read your message from 30.03.2018 08:08


 ak>> Why "_a_ confrontation" not "the confrontation"?

 DH> Firstly, this is (again) garbage writing. You can't escalate a
 DH> confrontation; a confrontation either is or is not. Same thing
 DH> with "reached a crescendo" (a phrase I often see). A crescendo is
 DH> an increase in volume over time and yes you can reach the beginning
 DH> of a crescendo in music, but as the journalists (hack, spit) use it
 DH> they seem to think a crescendo is a peak; a point in time.

I guess that it is the way how words change their meaning or get additional
ones. People who know the word poorly may use it in their own way. If such
people are heard by many the new meaning begins to live its own life. And
the dictionary has no choice but to add the new entry.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crescendo

From another side: can we make the confrontation stronger? If it can become
stronger we can escalate it, as we can escalate any crisis.

 DH> This type of abysmal writing is a hot button of mine, and I'm going
 DH> to suggest that all here should be extremely careful of using
 DH> journalistic writing for any sort of exemplar of correct usage.
 DH> Nine times out of ten such writing is crap.

I should read more good books. ;-)

Bye, Dallas!
Alexander Koryagin
ENGLISH_TUTOR 2018

--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox