dmb

Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397
|
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 9:05 am Post subject: Grammar |
|
|
Thought I'd share this with you
I will celebrate reaching the 150th Blue by going on a linguistic dilly.
Grumpy of Tunbridge Wells strikes again
Some time ago it seemed right to quietly give up worrying about split infinitives. And, having thought about it anxiously, the time also seemed right to give up worrying about hanging participles. But it was easy to give up concerns about sentences beginning "And" or "But". After all, language moves on.
Now there are three more movements in relation to which I have to strive to reach a state of tolerance.
First, there is the use of "I", where previously it would have been "me" � as in "Janet went to the meeting with John and I". That still grates with me because, had John failed to materialise, it would have been "Janet went to the meeting with me". But John�s presence changes the grammar.
Secondly, there is the modern use of "verbal" and "verbally" � as in "it was only a verbal agreement". I have to restrain myself from saying : "Well, of course it was. What were you expecting ? Sign language ?". But I understand that nowadays "verbal" and "verbally" have displaced "oral" and "orally" in most contexts. Last week I read "�.. a solemn undertaking promising never verbally, or in writing �.. " in a book written by a well-known QC.
Thirdly, there is Surplus Apostrophe Syndrome. Last week I saw this example : "�.they were aware of it�s existence". The popular book "Eats Shoots and Leaves" waxes lyrical about apostrophes and insists that "its" as in "his, hers, or its" should not have an apostrophe, whereas, in expressions such as "it�s pedantic to rabbit on about grammar", an apostrophe is needed as "it�s" is an abbreviation of "it is".
I am not allowed to write tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis, because Latin has received a nolle prosequi � or, as it has been called, the order of the noble lupine boot � so I have to say that times change and we change with them. On with the motley. Hope U R the better 4 reading this. |
|