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The Grammar Logs # 303 |
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| QUESTION |
| I want to ask the difference between " especially " and " specially." |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Malaysia  Wed, Mar 24, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| According to the new Fowler's, the word special has just about crowded out the word especial except that especial is used to mean "notable, exceptional, attributed or belonging chiefly to one person or thing." On the other hand, especially is hanging in there, meaning exceptionally (especially tall) or particularly (especially at night, especially grateful to you, etc.). I recommend Burchfield's note, and the use of a good dictionary. Authority for this note: WWWebster Dictionary, the World Wide Web edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Used with permission. Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996.
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| QUESTION |
Thank you for your explanation. Best regards |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Hong Kong Wed, Mar 24, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Almost all the time, the first sentence is what you want. The second sentence is not entirely impossible, though. If you were standing on a sidewalk near a grassy place, say, and someone asked you to step onto a platform of some kind, they might say, "Please step onto the platform but not onto the grass." But that's rather unlikely, isn't it? They're probably still going to say, "Please don't step on the grass." |
| QUESTION |
Which is the correct use of grammar:
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Kent, Washington Wed, Mar 24, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The parties were affected by something, so that makes them the "affected parties." See the Notorious Confusables article on Affect-Effect. |
| QUESTION |
On a state-wide practice test there is this sentence:
"Each party's candidates is/are ..."They say the correct answer is "is." I believe that "each," in this case is a adjective, not a pronoun, and that "candidates" is the subject of the sentence. What do you think? Thanks very much. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Raleigh, North Carolina Wed, Mar 24, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I think that whoever made up that test made a mistake and that you are absolutely correct. "Each" is modifying "party's," which, in turn, modifies the subject of the sentence, "candidates." The verb should be "are." |
| QUESTION | ||||||
| Thanks for answering my question (See one above this one). Now I'm wondering in that sentence
"Each party's candidates are..." is "each" an adverb. What are distributives? Thanks again. | ||||||
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE | ||||||
| Raleigh, North Carolina Thu, Mar 25, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE | ||||||
| Possessive nouns (like "party's") are weird words, neither fish nor fowl. They are certainly nouns (and thus may be modified by adjectives, like "each") but they are also what are called Determiners, or the signallers of nouns (what follows will always be a noun). Possessive nouns as determiners always have their own determiners (like "each," in this case, or "my brother's car," "this week's news," etc.) Authority: Understanding English Grammar by Martha Kolln. 4rth Edition. MacMillan Publishing Company: New York. 1994.
A distributive is defined this way by Quirk and Greenbaum:
I hope you understand that better than I do. Authority: A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum. Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. Used with permission.
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| QUESTION |
| At the moment we are having an argument if rhetorical questions in writing are to be ended with or without a question mark. Can you help? Thank you in advance |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| London, UK Thu, Mar 25, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I don't know how else we would know they are questions—rhetorical or otherwise. |
| QUESTION |
| Can golf or golfing be used as a verb?
Basically, do you "go golfing" or do "you play golf"? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| San Francisco, California Fri, Mar 26, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I would think you could do either. You can also, simply, golf. When you play golf, golf's a noun (just as "skiddles" is a noun in "I play skiddles."); when you golf, it's a verb. I am golfing is a verb; I go golfing—well, that's a bit more complicated, and I don't know if the copula "go" is connecting to a noun form (a gerund), as in "The county will go Democrat." or if it's connecting to an adjective form (a participle), as in "She will go mad." It doesn't really matter, I suppose. |
| QUESTION |
Which is the correct usage after "based"? Based upon or Based on... example:
Which is the correct usage of within vs. in?
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Greenwich, Connecticut Fri, Mar 26, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| There isn't much difference between these words. The word upon seems to reflect more a sense of the surface of things: he sits upon the edge of the desk feels a bit more tenuous than he sits on the desk. And the word within suggests a greater dimension of enclosure than the simple in. I would recommend the online Merriam-Webster's. The definition of on is amazingly complex. Authority for this note: WWWebster Dictionary, the World Wide Web edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Used with permission. |
| QUESTION |
One of my co-workers made the following statement:
"Mentalize yourself working after 4:30."The other mentioned there was no such word as "mentalize" and that the correct form is: "Visualize yourself working after 4:30."When asked for my opinion, I simply stated that I had seen and heard the word but wasn't certain of its proper use or if it is technically a REAL word. Question(s):
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Linden, New Jersey Fri, Mar 26, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I don't know your definition of a real word. I'm sure it's a real word (it's hard to write something that isn't a word), but it's also a stupid word. Visualize works nicely; imagine (picture, fancy ?) would also suffice, I would think. |
| QUESTION |
| Could you please give me a definition of the term "general truth." In the section on tense squences, only examples of general truths are given. I am still confused as to what is exactly considered a general truth. Some of the examples that are given, e.g. "Slaveowners widely understood that literacy among oppressed people is a dangerous thing," do not appear to be general truths. However defensible this statement may be, it is not appear to be a fact-- at least not to the same validity as a scientific principle. One may argue that a slaveowner should make his slaves literate in order to have them read fascist propaganda; thereby, strengthing his control over his slaves. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Los Alamos, New Mexico Fri, Mar 26, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Whether or not it is true that "literacy among oppressed people is a dangerous thing" doesn't really alter the notion that it was held as a general truth by southern slaveowners (thus the widespread prohibition against teaching slaves to read, even the Bible). Even if something were entirely false, the present tense is used to convey the notion of what is held to be true: "Prior to Columbus, people believed that the word is flat." |
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