The Acknowledger

I was watching The Buzz last Sunday and there was this guy promoting whatever new teleserye ABS-CBN was going to premiere soon. I'll paraphrase but he said, "Kuya Boy, thanks, it's great to be here dito sa The Buzz. First of all, I'd like to acknowledge (slight but obvious pause) my brother and family who are in New Jersey watching TFC."

This got me thinking -- depending on the context on how this infinitive is used, to acknowledge is either a) to be aware of or b) to bring attention to a thing. So in the first context, one would use the infinitive as, "I'd like to acknowledge the fact that you are an idiot." In the second context, "I'd like to acknowledge the presence of an idiot." Really, it depends on what you are acknowledging. I'd like to acknowledge the FACT or I'd like to acknowledge the PRESENCE of the fact itself. So Mr. Artista would like to acknowledge the brother and family. So did he mean to say, "I'd like to be aware of my brother and family who are in New Jersey watching TFC?" But why would he make such a public declaration of his being aware of the fact of the existence of his brother and his family? Did he not know that he had a brother and family in New Jersey prior to appearing in The Buzz? Or maybe he wanted to say that he was aware that his brother and family were watching all the way from the States. If this was the case, he should have said, "I'd like to acknowledge that my brother and family are watching TFC from New Jersey." He doesn't ridiculously acknowledge the fact of their existence and declares this publicly but rather acknowledges the time and effort that said brother and family devoted to watching him all the way from the States -- because this apparently is a difficult thing to do in Jersey and deserves all the public acknowledgement it warrants. I'd like to acknowledge that my brother and family are watching TFC from New Jersey is certainly different from I'd like to acknowledge my brother and family who are in New Jersey watching TFC. The former is a declarative sentence while the latter can be broken down into an independent clause ( I'd like to acknowledge my brother and family -- again, acknowledging the fact of both parties' existence) and a dependent clause (who are in New Jersey watching TFC -- descriptive in nature and meant to qualify what the subjects, namely the brother and family, are doing). I can understand how confused he got in midsentence when he realized that he couldn't stick the phrase "the presence of" after "I'd like to acknowledge" since Mr. Artista's brother and family were not in the studio but rather in another location. I think he it would have been better if he used the old chestnut, "I'd like to greet my brother and family who are in New Jersey watching TFC. Hello! Kumusta?" More personalized. More showbiz. More plastic.

Also, isn't one's brother part of the collective term family? Legally, isn't the relationship of a sibling considered as first degree in terms of consanguinity? Or maybe he wanted to set his brother apart from the rest of his family for reasons only known to him. In this case, Mr. Artista should have said, "I'd like to greet my brother and the rest of my family watching TFC from New Jersey." Isn't this the best way for him to express his sentiment? He would have had acknowledged that his brother and family are watching all the way from North America and we would have acknowledged that he's not a fucking idiot.