At first, I was very puzzled by the following news item:
A student was riding the Red Line from the Central Square MBTA stop to Park Street around 11 p.m. Friday when an unknown passenger involuntarily kissed the student, according to Carole McFall, a spokeswoman for the college.
I tried to imagine how this unknown passenger could have kissed the student without wanting to. Since the definition of “involuntary” is “1. not done or made consciously; 2. not done by choice”, it seemed like the passenger lost consciousness and still somehow managed to deliver a kiss. This made no sense at all because non-intentional kissing does not seem to be possible.
Then I realized that “involuntary” was used in lieu of “by force” or “against the student’s will.”
Clarissa's Blog 
I’m wonder how much stylistic and semantic oddities now are a result of stuff like this:
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/179555/journatic-staffer-takes-this-american-life-inside-outsourced-journalism/
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Ah, yet another industry is being destroyed by some fools’ efforts to create puny, short-term savings.
Disgusting.
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“I’m wonder how much stylistic and semantic oddities”
Mine stylistic and semantic oddities are caused by writing things three ways in my head while typing, constantly rephrasing things and rewriting without proofreading – but then no one’s paying me to comment so I have that excuse to fall back on.
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There’s actually an entire page on tvtropes dedicated to this. 😀
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AccidentalKiss
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I think that they used the word “involuntarily” instead of “spontaneously,” thinking they were synonyms. They aren’t, obviously. I think this was just a matter of incorrect word choice. My students use wrong words all the time.
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I just ran into a problem when I discovered that my students believe that saying, “If I were a man, I would not be a woman” is grammatically incorrect. The “were” part sounded wrong to them. As a result, my entire explanation of unreal conditions in Spanish flopped.
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Americans, in general, have no clue about grammar. They don’t understand the subjunctive at all.
My colleagues tell me, “Fie, you can’t teach these students proper grammar. At this age, they either get it or they don’t.” To which, I reply, “Then how did I learn to use proper grammar and mechanics as a graduate student?” (I had been an intuitive writer as a younger student, but never knew the rules until, suddenly, I was responsible for teaching them.)
Students are not hopelessly unteachable! If they were, then why do colleges exist??
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Maybe the assailant was a CU philosophy professor?
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There is quite a possibility of that. 🙂
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Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I just had this sudden urge to kiss someone, and before I knew what was happening I had done so.
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