tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10202103.post116145294858758508..comments2024-01-13T02:11:14.727-08:00Comments on grammargrinch: twinkobiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07865056039680988073noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10202103.post-11046968186413522812007-02-05T05:43:00.000-08:002007-02-05T05:43:00.000-08:00If you're going to start off with he/she, keep it ...If you're going to start off with he/she, keep it consistent throughout, Lee. Most style guides will tell you that.<br /><br />You're digging your hole deeper. I'm not sneering at Strunk & White, and you know it. I applaud the fact that they can tell a present participle verbal from a gerund and not stick a possessive in front of everything they see with an "ing" on the end of it, as you do.<br /><br />You've stopped writing in second person, too. Normally you direct your remarks at those you scorn. Aren't you talking to me any more? I feel special. And what's with the "we"? Who else is there with you?<br /><br /><br />><i>This person must be one of those snooty English people: either that, or he/she has put the comma outside the quotation marks incorrectly.</i><<br /><br />Your comma splits a correlative construction, Lee. I know you're teasing! You're wrong on both assumptions, too.<br /><br />><i>majesterially</i><<br /><br />I'll wager that more sources will accept my comma inside quotation marks than will accept your spelling of "magisterially". Do you want to cover that bet?Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05402579416733487159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10202103.post-46008747263478111882007-02-04T10:24:00.000-08:002007-02-04T10:24:00.000-08:00This person must be one of those snooty English pe...This person must be one of those snooty English people: either that, or he/she has put the comma outside the quotation marks incorrectly.<br /><br />Then there is the sneering at the sainted Strunk & White, both lying majesterially in their graves. If this grammar snot shoots at Strunk & White, we have a right to ask him to quote Curme and Jespherson to back up his condescension. <br /><br />But maybe he scorns Curme and Jesperson too.<br /><br />What about God? Does God do grammar? leetwinkobiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07865056039680988073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10202103.post-1161499264491215452006-10-21T23:41:00.000-07:002006-10-21T23:41:00.000-07:00>Is this opposition based on fear of losing their ...><I>Is this opposition based on fear of losing their husbands to an assassin's bullet or to losing him to the corrupting power of perquisites of the office of president?</I><<BR/><BR/>Hmm … “their husbands” – plural; “losing him” – singular. How sloppy.<BR/><BR/>><I>This is the thousandth time I have pled [sic] with you to use the possessive before a gerund: "presidents' driving..." You persevere in this error to be perverse. You learned this technique under the fascism of the sisters who taught you English.</I><<BR/><BR/>Pled? How phonetic!<BR/><BR/>From <I>Strunk & White</I> (you’ve red that book, right?):<BR/><BR/><B>Gerunds usually require the possessive case.<BR/><BR/><I>Mother objected to our driving on the icy roads.</I><BR/><BR/>A present participle verbal, on the other hand, takes the objective case.<BR/><BR/><I>They heard him singing in the shower.</I><BR/><BR/>The difference between a verbal participle and a gerund is not always obvious, but note what is really said in each of the following.<BR/><BR/><I>Do you mind me asking a question?<BR/>Do you mind my asking a question?</I><BR/><BR/>In the first sentence, the queried objection is to “me”, as opposed to other members of the group, asking a question. In the second example, the issue is whether a question may be asked at all.</B><BR/><BR/>You pour your vitriol on anyone who writes “me asking”; maybe <I>Strunk & White</I> isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.<BR/><BR/>Sorry – that was passive, wasn’t it?<BR/><BR/>Maybe <I>Strunk & White</I> isn’t all that retired English teachers crack it up to be.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05402579416733487159noreply@blogger.com