Posted on November 30th, 2007 by grammarblogger
A headline in my local rag, the Los Angeles Times, said in reviewing a reprise of a 25-year-old movie that it was the director’s "biggest, and only, hit."
Ahem. To be biggest, something has to be in competition with at least two somethings else. If it’s competing just with one other movie, for instance, it can be a bigger hit, but to be the biggest, it needs at least two competitors.
So, if this director had only one hit movie, then that movie could not be either bigger or biggest, but just "his only big hit."
Okay, no one cares, but I thought I’d bring it up anyway as an example of abusing the English language without anyone’s noticing it except probably me.
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Posted on November 29th, 2007 by grammarblogger
Body language and other nonverbal cues often (usually) communicate more than one’s spoken words. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to strategize one’s bodily movements; they’re almost involuntary at times, and that’s why they’re so revelatory.
Anyway, watch body language guru Tonya Reiman give you some tips:
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Posted on November 26th, 2007 by grammarblogger
I was having a hard time replying to the old "Ask Grammar Questions" postings because of some built-in limitations on my blogging software, so I’ve set up a forum instead.
If you have a question, please just go to the Grammar Questions Forum and type it in. I’ll check frequently and join in the answer brigade. Others can feel free to answer as well. However, please do so seriously and only if you have something valuable to add to the discussion. It’s not a chat or joke room.
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Posted on November 21st, 2007 by grammarblogger
I got a good laugh on Monday when Billy Martin, the lawyer for now-jailed Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, issued a statement saying that his client had “self-surrendered” to begin his undetermined-in-length prison term.
Martin’s statement went on to further praise Vick for his “self-surrender.”
Now, to surrender is something you do voluntarily anyway rather than (usually) facing some more horrendous consequences, such as being shot dead on the spot. Therefore, it is always an act of the “self.”
Taking Martin’s usage to my more unfamous and mundane self, since I pen this blog voluntarily without compensation and with no gun at my head, I must “self-write” it, and it is therefore “self-written.”
Did you just “self-read” that?
Tags: Billy Martin, Michael Vick
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Posted on November 16th, 2007 by grammarblogger
Recently, I blogged about the difference between me and myself, the latter being unable to stand alone as a pronoun.
However, Yankee scion Steinbrenner Lite (prodigal son Hank) managed to screw it up in this quotation about negotiations with Alex Rodriguez:
"He [A-Rod] wanted to make sure myself [sic] and my brother knew that he was sincere and serious."
I guess Hank didn’t read my post this week about the uses of me and myself.
Of course, if you’re next in line to inherit the New York Yankees, it doesn’t realy matter how grammatical you are.
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Posted on November 15th, 2007 by grammarblogger
My friend Jill, who is Chinese but knows English well and teaches it in Taipei, wrote to ask me about the use of the prepation to (the swift, etc.) in this quote from Ecclesiastes:
“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
Later, I found this bureaucratese (modern) rendition of the same famous passage as satirized by George Orwell:
“Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account."
"Just so," as my Irish ancestors would say. We’re in a bad way. ("Awesome," I should say. LOL)
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