Juan Cole tries to address problems arising from Americans having trouble understanding the meaning of the term "fixed around", as in But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. Having grown up with some exposure to the English language as used in North America and in the UK and elsewhere in the commonwealth, I did not have trouble understanding that this term meant that a policy was extablished first and then everything else was made to fit. I think the misunderstanding stems from the misapprehension of the word fixed. Fixed can mean to set in place, to glue, to bind to. Americans probably understand it only to mean to repair, to make whole again. I think that this take on the word leads to difficulty grasping the expression.
I do find that when listening to or reading the English as used in the media in the UK, a higher standard of vocabulary usage is found than when one is audience to English used by the media in the US or Canada. This is evident when one watches even popular comedies such as Keeping up Appearances, or Black Adder, or even Red Dwarf. Most North American comedies end up foregoing linguistic comedy and sticking with making people look foolish by placing them in incongruous situations. It's not that the message is not being conveyed in North America, but rather that the arsenal of words to use is smaller. Perhaps it's not even that; perhaps it's that when one has a less subtle and varied grasp of one's vocabulary one is led to a more literalistic and direct usage of the language. Perhaps knowing lots of words is not enough. Perhaps one needs to strive to know words intimately in all their shadings. I think that the result of the failure to do so can be a diminished capacity for subtle communication.
