shout out for a great Bourgogne rouge cheapie

[Jayson Cohen]

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
So goes the neighborhoodSo many people use compliment when they mean complement that soon Merriam-Webster will record the usage as a second meaning.

Puns aside, this can’t be true. Really? I’ve never seen this.

My biggest peeve is incessant improper use and proliferation of the pronoun “I” in prepositional phrases. It drives me crazy.

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

originally posted by Jayson Cohen:

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
So goes the neighborhoodSo many people use compliment when they mean complement that soon Merriam-Webster will record the usage as a second meaning.

Puns aside, this can’t be true. Really? I’ve never seen this.

My biggest peeve is incessant improper use and proliferation of the pronoun “I” in prepositional phrases. It drives me crazy.

You need to be assigned to grade more student papers--or read more widely on the internet, or even just read more newspapers.

I'm also ticked by such phrases as between he and I. I think it results from all the people who were corrected in grammar school when they said Him and me went to the store and overcorrected, a primary cause of grammatical errors. Since no one seems to know when to use whom, the result is that one occasionally sees it as the subject of a sentence.

But if I am to judge from the movies, Quakers use thee when they should use thou, so these things pop up everywhere.

 

[Jayson Cohen]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

originally posted by Jayson Cohen:

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
So goes the neighborhoodSo many people use compliment when they mean complement that soon Merriam-Webster will record the usage as a second meaning.

Puns aside, this can’t be true. Really? I’ve never seen this.

My biggest peeve is incessant improper use and proliferation of the pronoun “I” in prepositional phrases. It drives me crazy.

You need to be assigned to grade more student papers--or read more widely on the internet, or even just read more newspapers.

I'm also ticked by such phrases as between he and I. I think it results from all the people who were corrected in grammar school when they said Him and me went to the store and overcorrected, a primary cause of grammatical errors. Since no one seems to know when to use whom, the result is that one occasionally sees it as the subject of a sentence.

But if I am to judge from the movies, Quakers use thee when they should use thou, so these things pop up everywhere.

Probably right on “him and me”. We may have even had this conversation before. Is it that complicated to know how to use “I” and “me” properly? It certainly doesn’t help when television gets it wrong constantly, which I think is likely based on people’s impression that it is wrong or awkward to say “you and me” even when it’s correct.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

The worst-sounding correct English, to my ears, is to respond to a ringing doorbell with, "It is they!"

( "Whom" is an object while "who" is a subject; analogous to "him" and "he". )

 

[robert ames]

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
The worst-sounding correct English, to my ears, is to respond to a ringing doorbell with, "It is they!"

( "Whom" is an object while "who" is a subject; analogous to "him" and "he". )

then just say "they're here!" or "they've arrived!"

 

[Oswaldo Costa]

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
The worst-sounding correct English, to my ears, is to respond to a ringing doorbell with, "It is they!"

( "Whom" is an object while "who" is a subject; analogous to "him" and "he". )

You could say "It is Them!" if you were expecting Themistocles for dinner.

 

[Jayson Cohen]

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
The worst-sounding correct English, to my ears, is to respond to a ringing doorbell with, "It is they!"

( "Whom" is an object while "who" is a subject; analogous to "him" and "he". )

When you and Jim arrive for a dinner party, you don’t announce, “It is we!”?

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

Like "it is I," or "this is he," the alternative of using the object form has been common for so long that I think even Browning's Grammarian gave up on it. There was a joke when I was in elementary school in which someone goes to heaven, St. Peter asks who is it, and the soul answers "it is I," to which St. Peter answers "another English teacher. You know where you can go." Unlike replacing variety with varietal, I see no particular horror entailed in this variation to standard grammatical rules, I'm afraid. I am much more bothered by the use of "hopefully" as dangling modifier, another battle that is long since lost.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
The worst-sounding correct English, to my ears, is to respond to a ringing doorbell with, "It is they!"

( "Whom" is an object while "who" is a subject; analogous to "him" and "he". )

You could say "It is Them!" if you were expecting Themistocles for dinner.

Or the giant ants.

 

[Jayson Cohen]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I am much more bothered by the use of "hopefully" as dangling modifier, another battle that is long since lost.

“‘[W]ait' and 'hope'!”

 

[Peter Creasey]

originally posted by Jayson Cohen: My biggest peeve is incessant improper use and proliferation of the pronoun “I” in prepositional phrases. It drives me crazy.

I totally agree with this great aggravation. And even well educated people are doing it. If I correct them, they shrug and could care less.

Horrors!

. . . . Pete

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

originally posted by Jayson Cohen: My biggest peeve is incessant improper use and proliferation of the pronoun “I” in prepositional phrases. It drives me crazy.

I totally agree with this great aggravation. And even well educated people are doing it. If I correct them, they shrug and could care less.

Horrors!

. . . . Pete

I assume you mean they couldn't care less, thus demonstrating William Empson's claim that no one really pays attention to negatives.

 

[Cole Kendall]

Yeah, right

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

originally posted by Jayson Cohen: My biggest peeve is incessant improper use and proliferation of the pronoun “I” in prepositional phrases. It drives me crazy.

I totally agree with this great aggravation. And even well educated people are doing it. If I correct them, they shrug and could care less.

Horrors!

. . . . Pete

I assume you mean they couldn't care less, thus demonstrating William Empson's claim that no one really pays attention to negatives.

There's also the misuse of aggravation.

Mark Lipton

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

Quoth Sidney Morgenbesser at Oxford, though I always heard it was yeah, yeah.

This was a response to Cole. Lipton slipped between the cup and the lip.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I assume you mean they couldn't care less, thus demonstrating William Empson's claim that no one really pays attention to negatives.

Lord Chancellor. "Allow me, as an old Equity draftsman, to make a suggestion. The subtleties of the legal mind are equal to the emergency. The thing is really quite simple the insertion of a single word will do it. Let it stand that every fairy shall die who doesn’t marry a mortal, and there you are, out of your difficulty at once!"

 

[Peter Creasey]

Jonathan, you are missing the West Texas sarcasm, but your point is valid.

. . . . Pete

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Jonathan, you are missing the West Texas sarcasm, but your point is valid.

. . . . Pete

So sarcasm on your part about their attitude manifests itself as an illogical rendering of the response? Or sarcasm on their part excuses their letting slip a negative? I think this is an ambiguity of the seventh type.

 

[Peter Creasey]

Sorry, Jonathan, I'm not following your gist. You probably know this, but "could care less" is a slang expression that is commonplace in some places (used instead of "couldn't care less").

. . . . Pete

 

[Jeff Grossman]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
So sarcasm on your part about their attitude manifests itself as an illogical rendering of the response? Or sarcasm on their part excuses their letting slip a negative? I think this is an ambiguity of the seventh type.

As written, Pete said the wrong thing and then exclaimed, "Horrors!", which is a wry acknowledgment of the previous now-we-know-it-was-intentional error.

At least, that's what's in the glass.