The Grammar Logs
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Question

In this sentence taken from a recent column, William F. Buckley uses the plural form of the verb in the first clause, and then refers to the FDA as "it." Surely, if the FDA ARE complaining, then THEY ARE worried that foreign-shipped drugs may be counterfeits, no? Personally, I think it seems more logical to assume that the FDA—as a collective—IS complaining, and accordingly, IT IS worried, etc. Your thoughts, please.

"Who are complaining are the FDA, which says it is worried that foreign-shipped drugs may be counterfeits, or may be impure, and therefore dangerous to health; U.S. pharmacies, who stand to lose business from the competition; and fussy prosecutors who say the law is the law and people are stepping on it all over." (William F. Buckley, March 16, 2004)
Source of Question, Date of Response
Kew Gardens, New York # Wed, Mar 17, 2004
Grammar's Response

I was so excited: I thought you had caught Buckley in a grammatical solecism! But the subject of that first verb, "are," is really the FDA, U.S. pharmacies, and fussy prosecutors. He needs those semicolons to separate the three subjects (which contain internal commas). So I'm afraid his choice of verb is correct and our fun is ruined. But that final phrase — "and people are stepping on it all over" — is really weird, isn't it?


Question

Which is correct of the two possibilities:

  • The three people shared the same pipe, taking turns blowing smoke in each others' faces.
  • or
  • The three people shared the same pipe, taking turns blowing smoke in each other's face.
  • Source of Question, Date of Response
    Elizabeth, Colorado # Wed, Mar 17, 2004
    Grammar's Response

    I'm going to rely upon Edith Wharton's poem, "Ogrin the Hermit," here, where we find the lines:

    Upon each others' hearts
    They shall surprise the heart-beat of the world,
    And feel a sense of life in things inert …

    Here's another example (from H.G. Wells) that I've stolen from the online Atlantic:

    Nobody, it may be said, proposes that Paris and Berlin should in future settle their disputes, like Rome and Alba Longa, by selecting three champions apiece and setting them to cut each others' throats.

    Apparently the logical need for the plural "hearts" overcomes the singular sense of "each." The word "other" can be either singular or pluralized, and here the plural possessive form is preceded by the determiner "each."

    Bryan Garner insists that the proper possessive form is "each other's," but then adds that when the phrase is followed by a plural, the apostrophe sometimes drifts to the right of the "s" as if magnetized by the plural object.

    From Garner's Modern American Usageby Bryan Garner. Copyright 2003 by Bryan A. Garner. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., www.oup-usa.org, and used with the gracious consent of Oxford University Press.


    Question

    What is the proper past tense of "quit"? I looked it up in the dictionary and i saw quitted, but that doesn't sound right? Are quitted and quit both proper uses of past tense?

    Source of Question, Date of Response
    Irvine, California # Wed, Mar 17, 2004
    Grammar's Response

    Normally, when we use the past tense of "quit" to mean "stopped," it is spelled that way, as in "He quit bugging his sister." But if you mean "left," the past tense form "quitted" would be acceptable, at least in England: "Her finances dried up and she quitted the area, moving to Montana." In the U.S., you'd undoubtedly be better off using "left."

    From Garner's Modern American Usageby Bryan Garner. Copyright 2003 by Bryan A. Garner. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., www.oup-usa.org, and used with the gracious consent of Oxford University Press.


    Question

    Is it proper to write

  • A great deal of time and money has been spent
  • Or
  • A great deal of time and money have been spent
  • Source of Question, Date of Response
    Gettysburg, Pennsylvania # Thu, Mar 18, 2004
    Grammar's Response

    The phrase "a great deal of" causes us to mentally congeal the twin notions of "time" and money" and we are not thinking of them as discrete entities. I would use the singular "has." Without the "great deal of," the two subjects can exist separately, and we would use the plural: "Time and money have been spent on this project …"


    Question

    Is there a rule to determine the use of "not aware" vs "unaware". How are they different? Thanks for your help in solving this barn burner of an office discussion.

    Source of Question, Date of Response
    Ottawa, Ontario, Canada # Fri, Mar 19, 2004
    Grammar's Response

    In most contexts, I doubt if there's any difference. However, "unaware" can carry connotations of being not just less than aware but also of being imperceptive, reckless, and even ignorant. It is, therefore, or can be, considerably more negative that "not aware of."

    Authority for this note: Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Fifth Edition. Oxford University Press, New York. 2002.


    Question

    Please help me with this sentence -- I am a national park superintendent who is trying to establish a non-profit group to support several national parks in the northern midwest. We've drafted a mission statement but it doesn't flow well, as I don' think the commas, "of"s, and "to"s work well together.

    Our draft is:
    The mission of the National Parks of Lake Superior Fund is to support the stewardship of the natural and cultural heritage, and enrich the experience of visitors to Lake Superior's national parks.

    We want to support stewardship AND enhance visitor experiences, but these are not independent things — both are related to Lake Superior national parks.

    One alternative I'm considering is:
    The mission of the National Parks of Lake Superior Fund is to support the stewardship of the natural and cultural heritage of Lake Superior's national parks and to enrich the experience of those who visit these special places.

    Source of Question, Date of Response
    Bayfield, Wisconsin # Fri, Mar 19, 2004
    Grammar's Response

    Your rewrite is a definite improvement: you need the parallel form and rhythms of "to support" and "to enrich." Something in the nature of mission statements and vision statements seems to generate windy and gaseous sentences. I could wish for better word than "special,." Maybe "unique"? And if we can find some way to convert "those who visit" to "visitors," that might also be helfpul.


    Question

    Is "engaged in" a phrasal verb or does "in" begin the prepositional phrase? I am trying to determine, in the following sentence, whether the adjective "pattern or serious incident of" applies only to the first direct object or to both. I'd appreciate any guidance. Here is the sentence:

    Did he engage in a pattern or serious incident of battery, defined as hitting, or domestic abuse, defined as threatening.

    There are too many conjunctions and prepositions, and the commas don't help!

    Source of Question, Date of Response
    Racine, Wisconsin # Fri, Mar 19, 2004
    Grammar's Response

    "In a pattern of serious incident" is a prepositional phrase, but it really should read "in a pattern OF or serious incident OF battery." We can use a suspended preposition like that: the first of waits for the common object, "battery" (actually, that, too has a dual object: "battery" and "domestic abuse." You're right about the commas. The definitions of "battery" and "abuse" should probably have been tucked into parentheses, both of them.

    Did he engage in a pattern of or serious incident of battery (defined as hitting) or domestic abuse (defined as threatening)?


    Question

    William Safire's latest column (3/21/04) contained the following sentence:

    "Congress, more hawkish than President Bush on this state sponsor of terror, passed the Syria Accountability Act four months ago with large majorities; this week, he is expected to put some of its authorized economic squeeze on Bashar."
    Congress is the subject of the first clause, but the "he" of the second clause refers to President Bush. Granted that Safire's meaning is clear, has he sinned against grammar?

    Source of Question, Date of Response
    Kew Gardens, New York # Tue, Mar 23, 2004
    Grammar's Response

    This question reminds me of last year's fuss over a sentence in the PSAT:

    Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African Americans have endured.
    The test authors wanted students to say that the sentence was fine, but some students argued that the pronoun "her" has nothing to refer to because "Toni Morrison's" is, obviously, in the possessive case. The writers at ETS finally agreed, and points were added to the score of the half million students who had "missed" that question.

    In Safire's sentence, the nominative "he" apparently refers to the subject of an elliptical clause, "than President Bush [is]." In itself, there's nothing wrong with that; in fact, nominative pronouns can refer to object nouns: "The members of the committee subpoenaed the governor; she intends to respond tomorrow." However, if (in Safire's sentence) President Bush had been the main subject of the previous clause (requiring a rewrite), or if his name had appeared closer to the pronoun, the use of "he" would have been much clearer and more appropriate. As it is, the reader can quickly enough figure out what Safire meant, but it does slow us down, and the sentence is, at best, careless.


    Question

    Is " to better" a verb? I think it is not but I still see it used very often as a transitive verb meaning "to improve". Is that correct? (Example, "three ways to better your grades"; "better your chances of winning a million dollars"; etc.). Thanks

    Source of Question, Date of Response
    Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada # Thu, Mar 25, 2004
    Grammar's Response

    My dictionaries seem to allow for that usage without comment, and none of my usage manuals say anything about it. There are all kinds of idiomatic uses of that word, and a verb meaning "to improve," as in "an attempt to better the aesthetics of urban spaces," seems to be one of them.


    Question

    Is this sentence as unclear to you as it is to me? It is in a weather forecast.

    Sunday may be cooler over all, but mostly due to a colder start compared to Saturday.

    I say this is unclear and should not be in any newspaper, but another editor disagrees with me.

    Source of Question, Date of Response
    State College, Pennsylvania # Thu, Mar 25, 2004
    Grammar's Response

    I agree with you. There are three different comparisons at work in that sentence, and I'm not even counting "mostly." By the time the reader has figured it out, the point of it is completely irrelevant, because it's Monday. I think it means that Sunday will get off to a much colder start than Saturday, so Sunday will seem to be [or will be, in fact], over all, a cooler day. The writer is trying to jam too much into one sentence.


     


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