Solecism: Bad syntax or bad idiom
From A Higher English Grammar by Alexander Bain.
Incorrectly constructed sentences are called solecisms.
I. Bad syntax / grammar
My father, my mother, and myself live in Seattle.
Here the speaker or writer incorrectly uses a reflexive pronoun rather than the correct subjective pronoun: “My father, my mother, and I live in Seattle.”
High school students are done good by having to take three years of science.
There is an error in the tense of the verb “done,” and in the use of the adjective “good” to modify it. This sentence should read, “High school students benefit from having to take three years of science.”
This car needs washed.
The being verb has been omitted: “This car needs to be washed.”
II. Violation of idiom
There may be solecisms that are grammatically correct, but they are violations of idiom.I have hunger.
If we say “I have hunger,” we do not commit bad grammar; still the combination is not English, it is French.
He was acquitted to the crime.
“He was acquitted to the crime” is not according to idiom. The sentence should read, “He was acquitted of the crime.”
We are glad for the chance to serve you.
This is not according to idiom. The sentence should read, “We are glad of the chance to serve you.”
Violation of idiom becomes harder to recognize when living in an area where the violation has become the regional norm.
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