28 de agosto de 2008
Mientras que me preparo para mi catharsis próximo de la ruta 66, o el viaje para descubrir mis raíces (algo debo' ve no ahora hecho hace 40 años,), he estado leyendo todos los libros del “camino” que puedo encontrar, incluyendo En el camino por Gato Kerouac.
Uno de los grandes ironies del americano literatura-e historia-es que Kerouac está mirado como el progenitor del Beatniks, que está alrededor como lejos de la verdad como sea posible.
Kerouac era un católico que salpicó en Buddhism y a través de él todo estaba un Guillermo F. Tipo de Buckley de conservador político. Él no usó ninguna barba y ningún pantalón vaquero sino fumó té, mientras que él llamó marijuana-y por supuesto, bebió mucho.
Cuando él refirió a la generación de golpe, él describió a sus habitantes como siendo “golpe para arriba y golpe abajo” - en otras palabras, una generación que había sido empujada debajo y asunder y los soplos severos repartidos, social, psicologicamente y financieramente. Él incluso comparó ser “golpe” con “Beatific.” Es decir cuando usted ha sido “golpe ascendente y batió abajo” de bastantes, usted hace angelical. Usted ha aspirado a uno de los reinos más altos de la vida en virtud de su sufrimiento.
Ahora, éste es todo el lejos un grito del Beatniks y los Hippies y el doping y el abandono imprudentes con el cual y con cuál le han identificado equivocadamente.
La estancia templó para más encendido Kerouac-y un pedacito después de ésa, detalles en mi propio viaje en el camino.
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20 de agosto de 2008
Mientras que caminaba mi perro a través del parque esta mañana, noté una muestra que dicho, “encintado y limpieza después de su perro.”
¿Por qué es esto peculiar? Un par de razones. Para uno, quienquiera creada la muestra utilizó la forma compuesta del adjetivo (limpieza) más bien que la forma del verbo de limpie para arriba.
Por supuesto, el significado todavía estaba claro: If your dog poops, scoop it up and dispose of it.
The other reaon lies in the use of curb. What does that mean? After your dog defecates, assign him to the curb until the poop police arrive? Or worse, take yourself and your dog to the curb and wait there for the park police to exonerate you?
I have no idea why one would take a dog to a park to curb it. Can someone please explain that to me?
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August 15, 2008
The new Fine Living Network series called Newlywed, Nearly Dead, though aiming at a cute word contrast, instead does nothing but murder the English language.
The combined word newlywed refers to someone who has been recently married, not to the act of being newly wed, while nearly dead refers only to the act of being almost expired.
Therefore, the construction is completely unparallel. Instead, it should be written Newly Wed, Nearly Dead so that it refers to two parallel acts, not to one person or persons and one act.
Newlybutchered, newly wrong.
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August 13, 2008
I received an interesting e-mail from a reader named Todd, who was enquiring about the propriety of using the constructions about how and reason why.
I replied that their biggest sin is their utter redundancy. How, reason and why can, depending on the sentence, stand by themselves and do the job solo. About how is also unspecific and therefore unclear in most instances.
Todd himself later mailed some good examples, one of which I’ll shamelessly repeat here:
Original:
"The Usual Suspects is a 1995 film about how five criminals are brought together and embark on a crime spree, with a spectacular plot twist at the conclusion."
Todd’s revision:
"The Usual Suspects is a 1995 film about five criminals who are brought together and embark on a crime spree, with a spectacular plot twist at the conclusion."
(The sentence could further be rendered more readable by deleting and embark.)
Todd didn’t provide any reason why examples, but here’s a particularly egregious one:
"The reason why I’m hungry is because I haven’t eaten in two days."
First off, you can’t follow a linking verb (is) with an adverb (because), so that whole part is out. Second, and back to my main point, either reason, because or why is sufficient by itself.
Revisions:
"The reason I’m hungry is that I haven’t eaten in two days."
"I’m hungry because I haven’t eaten in two days."
So much for my diet, eh? LOL
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August 5, 2008
I rushed this site into existence to take over for Grammar Sucks for a few reasons, one of them dealing with server-side issues. I was switching servers and wanted to retire Grammar Sucks (and use it as a 301 redirect only).
Thus, I slapped this site together and got it up quickly. When it came to titling it, my official URL was and is GrammarSource, but that doesn’t say much about what the site is all about, even with a subtitle under it.
I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea to create my own word to signify that this site was all about English writing and grammar usage, so I coined the word Englishapedia.
My first impulse was to use Englishipedia, copying Wikipedia, but I thought that would be too obvious a rip-off. Then I toyed with Englishopedia, morphing the generic word encyclopedia.
Now that I look at what I have wrought, and I hate the "a" version. The other two seem much more suited.
If anyone would like to influence my choice over the next few days, please just e-mail me.
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August 3, 2008
Welcome to my new site, which takes over for Grammar Sucks.
The latter site was great and dates back to 1997 or so, but with sucks in the title, my e-mail box was constantly filled with every spammy sexual-perversion offer in the universe. I just got sick of it.
So, welcome to Grammar Source.
I should be back on track here soon with new and substantial postings. To make an excuse, I switched servers this past week, whichI thought that would take a day or less to do. It ended up consuming at least four days, and there are still glitches.
So, to solve the problem, I’m placed Grammar Source on an entirely new hosting service. Things should be fine from now on.
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July 19, 2008
Six-month-old babies in TV ads who speak English like 35-year-old Harvard MBA graduates?
Dogs and other animals that can speak English as well (or as poorly) as your typically addled teenager next door?
(Or lizards that can dance?)
I’d rather see humans’ barking than dogs’ speaking English, or grown adults’ "mewling and puking" like infants rather than infants’ peorating about consumer products. At least it would more accurately depict the human condition.
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June 30, 2008
Okay, I’ve gotten used to the use of the misspelled word judgement on Iron Chef. However, now it’s also being used on ESPN Sports Center.
I did a little dictionary research to see if judgement, the misspelling, has gained acceptability. The answer is yes and no. One dictionary lists the "e" spelling as an alternative, but then goes on to illustrate the use judgement by citing sentence examples using judgment, the correct spelling. It also defined judgement narrowly, saying it was "the legal document stating the reason for a judicial opinion."
Bottom line–judgment is the only spelling, deriving from the French word jugement (which does use an "e," curiously).
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June 27, 2008
No one can ever accuse the authors of our Constitution of being grammar experts. Take the Second Amendment, subject of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling. It reads:
"A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Now, ignoring the fact that, in the 18th century, people often capitalized nouns for emphasis, the sentence still has structural problems. It should read, "A well-regulated militia’s being necessary…." Being is a gerund and thus must be preceded by a possessive. Also, the comma after Arms separates the subject from the verb and is a real no-no.
What about the amendment’s meaning?
Full Story »
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June 20, 2008
In irony of ironies, considering how poor I am, I woke up this morning and opened the shutters in my living room to see the sun rising from the east and said outloud (yes, I do talk to myself), "The world is my oyster." Of course, it’s not, and actually I said, "The woild is my oyster," mimicking a Mafioso or someone from stereotypical New Jersey/New York.
That got me to look up the origins of the saying, and it is indeed something from The Bard in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Said Pistol to Falstaff therein:
Why, then the world’s mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.
Maybe I’ll just fall on my sword. LOL
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