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The Grammar Logs # 132 |
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| QUESTION |
Does the apposition have to immediately follow the item it is describing? For example, can one say:
The newspaper in England, bought by Maxwell, one of the most influential in the country, went bankrupt. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Ofra, Israel ___ Sunday, May 24, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Since Appositive Phrases act as modifiers, expanding upon the thing they refer to, it's a very good idea to get them as close as possible to the thing they refer to. In the sentence you give us, "one of the most influential in the country" is now trying to refer to Maxwell. What you could do in this sentence is tuck the information in the appositive phrase into the Participial Phrase, "bought by Maxwell," so your sentence would read "The newspaper in England, bought by Maxwell and one of the most influential . . ." One wonders, incidentally, if your sentence wouldn't be better starting with the actual name of the newspaper. |
| QUESTION |
Can I use "LACK" in this way?
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| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Hong Kong ___ Sunday, May 24, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| No, this is not one of those Phrasal Verbs that require a preposition to accompany them all the time. It would be better to say, "I lack the confidence to finish this project." You can say "There is a lack of confidence," but I think it would be better to reserve that for situations in which you're talking about someone else's "lack of confidence," although you could say something like "We suffer from a lack of confidence and can't finish the project." (But "We lack confidence" is still better.) |
| QUESTION |
| I often help edit/write scientific papers and grant proposals for a couple of my professors. We have a continuing discussion about the use of 'since' and 'because'. It is my understanding that one uses 'because' when referring to causality ("Because the levels of LDL rose in this instance, we decided to...") and 'since' when there is the added element of time passing ("Since the levels of LDL were taken yesterday..."). I feel that 'since' should be saved for those cases when time is implied. Am I being too restrictive? I should mention that most of the time these words are used to introduce sentences, another practice I try to avoid. Your thoughts, please. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Oakland, California ___ Sunday, May 24, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Especially in formal academic prose, it is a good idea to avoid using since when we mean because, and you do a good job of describing this distinction. "While" and "as" can be tricky subordinating conjunctions for pretty much the same reason. When you see a subordinating conjunction -- such as because -- at the beginning of a sentence, it's probably good practice to see if the sentence wouldn't be more clear if the subordinate clause came later in the sentence. Subordinate clauses at the beginning sometimes lead to sentence fragments, and sometimes it's not clear what's being subordinated to what. However, we do often use subordinating elements at the beginning of sentences to provide logical transitions from one idea to the next and as long as the relationship between clauses is clear, a subordinate clause can appear at the beginning of a sentence to good effect.
Authority: The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers by Chris M. Anson and Robert A. Schwegler. Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.: New York. 1997. G-7.
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| QUESTION |
I am in doubt about how to make the last sentence :
e.g: Mary is scared of mice. Paulo is as scared of mice as Mary.
Jane is more scared of mice than Paulo and Mary. To tell the truth,
Jane is * :
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| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Somewhere, Brazil ___ Sunday, May 24, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Because Paulo and Mary are equally scared, you are still in a comparative mode. You can only compare her scaredness to the scaredness of Paulo and Mary (which they share). If their fright were unequal, I suppose you could say that "Jane is the most scared," but it's no longer to keep throwing that "of mice" phrase in there. (So either of your last two choice will do.) |
| QUESTION |
| What is the definition of writing in the third person? Where would I find this in English books? |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Columbia, South Carolina ___ Monday, May 25, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| In expository prose, writing in the third person means that you talk about what "the reader" sees, or "the viewer" thinks, or what "one does next," etc. It's simply a matter of avoiding the more personal first-person "I," which many writers think is inappropriate for formal, academic prose. I would think that just about any textbook for Composition is going to have at least a short treatment of the use of the third person. |
| QUESTION |
| Dear Grammar: I have some questions about Subject-verb agreement: - Each and every student and instructor in this building (hopes) for a new facility by next year.The answer to this example in the agreement quiz is "hopes", but what if I took "each" as one subject and "every student" as another. I'm mixed up! Another question, which is the correct answer in the next sentences:
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| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Mexico City, Mexico ___ Monday, May 25, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I understand your confusion with "each and every"; however, it is an idiomatic expression which means, simply, "each." Don't be fooled into thinking it's something plural. A fractional expression will be either singular or plural depending on what it is you're talking about. In both "a" and "b," you're talking about three-quarters of the total of something countable, people, so your verb will be plural in both cases. In "c," the same thing applies (but we would not use the article "the" in that sentence). A fractional expression of something not countable would need a singular verb: "Three quarters of the student body is failing at least one course." |
| QUESTION |
| I want to thank you for your web site. I'm homeschooling my son in a very rural area with limited funds and am not good with grammer. This site with the answers is perfect. Also he enjoys using it. He is 12 years old. Do you know of a math site that works much like this? |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| La Pine, Oregon ___ Monday, May 25, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| No, but if you visit our college's Academic Weblist for Mathematics or Education, you'll probably find something appropriate, or at least a good starting point. |
| QUESTION |
| Is there a rule on when to use the prefixes un , in and dis? I appreciate your help, |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Somewhere, Brazil ___ Monday, May 25, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Not that I know of, unfortunately. In- we use only for adjectives: insane, incoherent, incorrect. Un- we use for adjectives and participles: unfair, unassuming, unexpected. Dis- we use for adjectives, verbs, and abstract nouns: disloyal, dislike, disunity. Authority: A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum. Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. 431. Used with permission.
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| QUESTION |
| I don't know how to use neverthless, in spite of and despite. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Taubate, Sao Paulo, Brazil ___ Monday, May 25, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
It's hard to describe the differences between these words. In spite of and despite suggest an attitude: although this is true, we will nevertheless act as if it were not.
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| QUESTION |
| I have taught high school English for 22 years. I have degrees in journalism and English, so grammar and usage have always been important to me. Here is my question: I have always taught my students that commas and periods ALWAYS go inside end quotes -- no exceptions. One day a student told me that he noticed that questions (answers?) on the TV show Jeopardy place those punctuation marks outside end quotes. Our class wrote to the show pointing out this error, and the host Alex Trebec said on the air that he had received many letters over the years from classes and teachers pointing this out. He said, however, "Normally that rule is true, but here at Jeopardy we use a different style manual which says to put periods and commas outside end quotes." Have you ever heard of an exception to this rule, and, if so, what would that exception be? I use this example with my students to emphasize the rule: Everyone called Jimmy "Sparky." Thanks for your help, and congratulations on a beautiful (and very helpful) web site. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Hagerstown, Indiana ___ Tuesday, May 26, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I think the folks on Jeopardy use what is called the Jeopardy Style Manual by Alex Trebek. I assume that show is produced within the United States, which would make it silly to use a style manual written, say, in Canada, where Trebek is from, but maybe he slipped it onto their shelves. In countries influenced by British modes of spelling and typography, rules for placement of punctuation and quotation marks are apt to be more logical; there are surely manuals that recommend Jeopardy's usage, but those books are probably not published in the United States. Say what you want about the American convention of putting periods and commas inside quotation marks, it's consistent. I suspect Jeopardy's typography has more to do with the way things look on the television screen than it does with conforming to any rulebook. An exception to the rule is necessary when you're quoting URLs, say, where it's important not to give the impression that a period ends the URL. Also, when we use parenthetical documentation, we put the period after the quotation mark" (Trebek 141). -- like that. |
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