Re: Grossly overheated news headline

On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 21:21:55 +0200, trio@xxxxxxxxxx (Donna
Richoux) wrote:

Peter Duncanson (BrE) <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

This news headline seems to be excessive:

Malicious fire damages mountain

Is this a theme park mountain or some other artificial mountain
that is susceptible to damage? No it is a geological feature.

The mountain (which is actually a hill, but that's another
matter) is still the same height and shape as it used to be.

A fire on Black Mountain in west Belfast is thought to have
been started deliberately.

About 12 acres of gorse were destroyed in the blaze on
Sunday. Three fire crews worked to quell the flames on the
mountain.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/7429788.stm

I thought you were going to complain about "malicious fire," but maybe
that combination is familiar somewhere -- headline writers do rely on
their own stock phrases. This one isn't short enough to be called a
shortcut.

The formulations "malicious fire", "malicious damage", "criminal
damage" and suchlike are familiar in BrE. The malice or
criminality are to be understood as applying to the person who
caused the harm rather than to the harm itself. There is a law
titled the _Malicious Damage Act 1861_:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/RevisedStatutes/Acts/ukpga/1861/cukpga_18610097_en_1

An Act to consolidate and amend the Statute Law of England
and Ireland relating to Malicious Injuries to Property.

The act refers to the _Criminal Damage Act 1971_.

I don't see much problem with "damages." To damage doesn't mean to
change the essential nature of an object, nor to destroy it utterly. If
vandals damage a store (shop), it's still a store. If a spill damages
your clothes, they're still clothes.

Wasn't everyone brought up believing that forest fires caused horrible
damage? Smokey the Bear and so on? Somewhat contradicted nowadays by
deliberate "controlled burns" -- forests appear to need a certain number
of fires.

Consider a fire in a forest on a mountain. The visual appearance
of the mountain would certainly be affected, but would you
describe the mountain itself as having been damaged by fire?

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
.

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