XP: Written Word/English Language&Reading Material

As I see it, "raises the question" has Occam on its side, but provokes the question, invites the question, suggests the question, even beseeches the question, are not novel locutions or neologisms (in the sense of newly-coined words or expressions), just more colorful and less common choices of words that mean roughly the same.
 
Jonathan, I saw "invites the question" used elsewhere here and wondered what your thoughts are. The gist of your response was as expected, particularly your mention of the more common usage of "raises the question". Thanks.

. . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
As I see it, "raises the question" has Occam on its side, but provokes the question, invites the question, suggests the question, even beseeches the question, are not novel locutions or neologisms (in the sense of newly-coined words or expressions), just more colorful and less common choices of words that mean roughly the same.
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Just to be clear, I didn't say it was a neologism, but used the case of neologism as an analogy. I called it a novel locution. It is a novel locution at least insofar as I have not seen it (I readily admit that what I have seen is a highly insufficent sample). Nor have a seen the others you list. More colorful is only a sufficent reason if you like display for its own sake. I am not against that (art-lover that I am), but in daily speech, I am not resolutely for it.
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

I Before E...Except When Their Feisty Beige Reindeer Neighs at Your Heinous Neighbor's Weird Sleigh.

. . . . . Pete
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Explains why I frequently see my hometown spelled Rio de Janiero.
 
Interesting...

Sui generis is a Latin expression that translates to “of its own kind.” It refers to anything that is peculiar to itself; of its own kind or class. In legal contexts, sui generis denotes an independent legal classification.
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. . . . . Pete
 
Someone on WB wrote, "for my wife and I's 40th birthday." I need to put it somewhere to cope with the mental anguish. So here.

Double cringe.
 
I think Jayson is cringing at replacing the possessive my with I’s. One must stand in awe of the inventiveness of this atrocity. It leaves the popular error of replacing the objective with the subjective pronoun so far behind that one can’t even see it in one’s rear view mirror.
 
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
All that, but it's worse because he uses the correct (and actually existent) possessive pronoun in the same phrase.

A triple cringe.
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at the risk of being over forgiving, i think the problem here is that the writer has treated my 'wife and i' as a phrase. if one takes the example of teh famous lifestyle movie 'withnail and i,' then as hideous as it might seem, one could only say something like, "withnail and i's initial screenings were largely met with indifference..." -- "withnail's and my initial screenings..." would mean something else entirely.

that said, while i can kind of see how this kind of misanalysis might fly in speech (though one wonders what it says about the marriage), when it comes to committing to it in writing, i can only agree: triple cringe.

fb.
 
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