Cato's Grammar Grumble

Started by Cato, February 08, 2009, 05:00:18 PM

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Cato

Quote from: The Six on May 01, 2009, 09:20:57 AM
Ever notice how nobody says "there are" anymore?

There's two pieces of pie left...
There's four things I have to do....

etc.

Yes, I have noticed it, and have been quite properly grumbling about it for some time!   :D

"There are" seems practically dead for plurals these days.  David Ross and Karl Henning are correct about "there're" which I  heard much more often in the good old days than today!  To be sure, when talking faster, the "are" became much less pronounced, but was still there.

The onslaught of the illiterati and their dominance in our Ausonian Age will probably prevent "there are" from ever coming back, except among the few trying to preserve civilization.   0:)
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Ten thumbs

If I had to choose I would do so rather than make choices, which seems to be the current vogue.
A day may be a destiny; for life
Lives in but little—but that little teems
With some one chance, the balance of all time:
A look—a word—and we are wholly changed.

Cato

With evidence growing about global cooling it seems the global warming crowd is changing the vocabulary, according to a New York Times article.

"Global warming" is out: "Climate change" is in, which allows the extremists to blame humans for global cooling/warming/tepidizing/etc., even though sunspot activity and volcanic activity are most probably the direct causes.

Since nobody wants to breathe dirty air or drink dirty water, returning to an emphasis on not polluting is also advised.

"Environmentalist" is out: "Conservationist" is in.

See:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/us/politics/02enviro.html
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

karlhenning

Global tepidizing!  Is that where audiences don't boo?  8)

Cato

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 04, 2009, 07:20:20 AM
Global tepidizing!  Is that where audiences don't boo?  8)

Could be!  And we know what Jesus said about being lukewarm!   0:)

(It was less than pretty!)   :o
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

karlhenning

Quote from: Cato on May 04, 2009, 09:13:52 AM
Could be!  And we know what Jesus said about being lukewarm!   0:)

Yes . . . Dostoyevsky quoted it as an epigram for one of his novels . . . .

zamyrabyrd

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 04, 2009, 10:11:46 AM
Yes . . . Dostoyevsky quoted it as an epigram for one of his novels . . . .

Did you read it in Russian?

ZB

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one."

― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

karlhenning


Cato

Today's grumble concerns the mispronunciation of the short "i" in "immediate" !

I have been noticing this for too many years: yesterday some bureaucrat on TV selling Swine Flu Panic Buttons demanded that we rush to a doctor "EEmediately" if we think we are coming down with this porcine disease.

I suspect the mispronouncers seem to think this emphasizes the urgency of their otherwise highly dubious commands.

"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

karlhenning

Maybe it's a computer utility: eMediately

Cato

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 05, 2009, 08:53:06 AM
Maybe it's a computer utility: eMediately

Wocka Wocka!   8)   But actually, somebody probably has a license for "eMediately" somewhere!

The 90's were big for "e-" prefixes.  My brother's business partner once proposed setting up a website for the "ePsychic" to deliver cheap prophecies to people for $3.95.  I always thought that had possibilities, until Miss Cleo went to jail!   :o
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

karlhenning

Did they pitch Miss Cleo into the slammer?

I foresaw that . . . .

Cato

Over the past few days, I have heard things e.g.:

"He's ran those tests already."   :o

"I thought I had already drank a can of pop."   ::)

"I shouldn't' 'a'  ate so much."   >:(

"Yeah, they got beat real bad."   >:D

Correct Answers: run, drunk, eaten, and were beaten really badly !!!  (Okay, "got" is colloquially acceptable.)

And these monsters were mouthed by parents and faculty members at my school, not the students!   $:)

Anybody else hear similar gorgons of grammar?

"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

DavidRoss

Quote from: Cato on May 08, 2009, 12:55:22 PM
Anybody else hear similar gorgons of grammar?
Constantly.  Civilization (a questionable idea to begin with) is doomed. 
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

karlhenning

In some circles, it is tragically unhip to be heard speaking in correctly conjugated verbs.

Frumaster

#575
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 08, 2009, 02:23:41 PM
In some circles, it is tragically unhip to be heard speaking in correctly conjugated verbs.

Yes, but of course we are labeled as bigots for recognizing it or criticizing it.  We live in an age of liberal equivalency, baby.  Everything that is upside down and degenerate is actually preferred now.

Egebedieff

Quote from: Cato then DavidRoss on May 08, 2009, 01:22:02 PM
Cato: Anybody else hear similar gorgons of grammar?

DavidRoss: Constantly.  Civilization (a questionable idea to begin with) is doomed. 

A spotted gorgon:

"The only positive aspect to the collapse of our civilization is that i won't have to listen to this type of idiotic arguments ever again."

The congressman for our gerrymandered district has phone robots that dial us up for telephone Town Halls. Wednesday night we heard a citizen say "Like most people my age, I'm 27 years old." Her sentence didn't end there, but her nervous thought-gathering pause was long enough to make us think so.'


Frumaster

#577
Ok guys, I need some help.   I'm writing 5 page essay, and I'd appreciate your input.  Is this a legitimate introductory paragraph? Should I add more peripheral information (do you know what the hell I'm talking about)....

David A. Bell's concept of total war is contingent on numerous distinctions, some subtle and others not so subtle.  The point he tries to make often treads a fine line, but that is not to say it lacks ultimate credibility.  Three main periods are examined in the book, ranging from approximately 1750 to 1815: the Age of Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic era.  'Total war' may seem like a misnomer when referring to such a broad span of time and events.  There is no single, all-encompassing front for Bell, nor would he have been justified in pinning all responsibilities a neatly confined episode.  Rather, he argues that extreme evolutions in ideologies and war practices coalesced so quickly as to constitute The First Total War.  Without in any way diminishing the other contributions, Bell suggests that 'modern attitudes towards war' most heavily rest on the legacy of Enlightenment ideals.  Some of the Enlightenment's grandiose ideas ceased to be primary motivators of war after the French Revolution, but the very nature of war remained permanently transfixed by them.

Frumaster

Quote from: ' on May 08, 2009, 03:26:37 PM
Not clear exactly what "distinctions" refers to in the first sentence, and I can't tell whether you address them in this paragraph, esp. which are subtle and which are not. If those distinctions are described here, be explicit, if not, and if they are important, that information might be worth adding (otherwise, eliminate or at least move it out of the lead sentence).

Second sentence lets us know that he has a point that treads a fine line, but not what that point is. Third sentence would be stronger in active voice, especially if this has something to do with the point you refer to in sentence 2. The fine line seems like another loose thread.

Ok, I agree.  I'll try to connect them together with another sentence or two.

Quote from: ' on May 08, 2009, 03:26:37 PM
Fourth sentence has a dangling modifier and is missing a preposition. Seventh sentence seems to say something central to his thesis -- is this his point?

So perhaps making your connections explicit, eliminating any loose threads you don't intend to develop, and moving up the stuff about the Enlightenment (if it is the point) would allow you to set up the context with the information that is here.'


What is the dangling modifer? 

Cato

Quote from: Frumaster on May 08, 2009, 03:37:18 PM


What is the dangling modifer? 


Your Fourth Sentence:

'Total war' may seem like a misnomer when referring to such a broad span of time and events.

Who is doing the referring?  In theory, the last noun is modified by the participle, so how does a misnomer refer to anything?  Is "Total war" doing the referring?

Probably better: ...when one refers to...
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)