The Grammar Logs -- Number Two Hundred, Fifty-Two

The
Grammar
Logs
# 252

QUESTION
I have to prove something to a client (grammatically speaking)...could you help me out? Which is correct: "...dramatically lowers price on leading products..." or "...dramatically lowers prices on leading products..."?
thank you
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Brooklyn, New York Wed, Nov 11, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I wish we had the context of the entire sentence or slogan to help us out here, because it might make a difference what's doing the lowering. Let's try another way of saying it: "[something] dramatically lowers the price of our leading products," right? Or "[something] dramatically lowers prices on our leading products"? When I leave out the "the" and use "on," I want to use the plural prices; but when I use "the" and "of," I want to use the singular price. I would use the plural -- to avoid the possible meaning that there is only one price for all these products.
This feels too important to be decided by me; I haven't felt such pressure since some royal society in London asked me to straighten out its name.

QUESTION
What are the different sentence patterns?
Example is S-TV-DO, S-LV and etc.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Antipolo City Rizal, Philippines Thu, Nov 12, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
This is one possible list:

NP -- be -- ADV/TP
NP -- be -- ADJ
NP -- be -- NP₁ (subj. comp)
NP -- linking verb -- ADJ
NP₁ -- linking verb -- NP₁
NP -- intransitive verb
NP₁ -- transitive verb -- NP₂ (direct obj)
NP₁ -- trans verb -- NP₂ (ind. obj) -- NP₃ (dir obj)
NP₁ -- trans verb -- NP₂ (dir. obj) -- ADJ (obj comp)
NP₁ -- trans verb -- NP₂ (dir. obj) -- NP₂ (obj comp)
I recommend you get Kolln's book to see what this all means.
Authority: Understanding English Grammar by Martha Kolln. 4rth Edition. MacMillan Publishing Company: New York. 1994.

QUESTION
I asked him to be a good boy.
Can the pronoun "him" function as the object of the verb "asked" as well as the subject of the infinitive "to be"? This is confusing to me.
Sentence: For him to go is ridiculous.
Again, is the pronoun "him" the object of the preposition "for" and also the subject of the infinitive "to go"? Can one word have two functions in a sentence?
Thanks for your help.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Las Vegas, Nevada Thu, Nov 12, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Yes, an infinitive phrase often has what you refer to as the "subject." And "him" is serving as the object of the causative verb "asked." The answer to your question is yes, a word can serve more than one function in the same sentence.

QUESTION
Which would you say is correct, and why?

"It is you who is the toad."
"It is you who are the toad."

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Jackson Hole, Wyoming Thu, Nov 12, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Who is the subject of that verb and who, in this case, refers to you, so we want the verb that agrees with you-- are.

QUESTION
Is it correct to say "I don't have" or "I haven't"?
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Lima, Peru Thu, Nov 12, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I haven't is more of a British construction. I don't have is more American. But they are both correct.
Authority: A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum. Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. p. 38. Used with permission.

QUESTION
What is correct/proper to use on an invitation?:

Will you be attending the party?
or
Will you attend the party?

Will you be bringing a guest?
or
Will you bring a guest?
And why do I prefer the first one as opposed to the second one? Are the two simply a difference between the active voice and a passive voice or is there a grammatical rule that makes one more correct than the other?
Thanks Grammar - interestingly enough, I call my maternal grandmother 'Grammar' because she was always correcting mine!
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Redmond, Washington Thu, Nov 12, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I don't know why the first options sound better, or more polite. Neither is really a passive construction (the subject is still doing the acting, not being acted upon), but putting things in this conditional progressive makes the question sound a bit more tentative, somehow softer.
Fond regards to the other "Grammar."

QUESTION
We were having a discussion on the proper useage of ME and I in sentences and could not recall what the 'rules' governing usage were. i.e

Mom and I are going to the store
vs
Mom and me are going to the store
It was stated by one, that there was a rule about 'if you drop one of the people (Mom or I) the sentence should still read correctly. True?
Thanks for your assistance.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Seattle, Washington Thu, Nov 12, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Well, sort of. (The verb will change if you go from plural to singular, obviously.) Another way of putting it is this: if you compound a pronoun with something else, don't change its form. (That is, when you add "Mom" to "I" -- as in "I am going to the store." to "Mom and I are going to the store." -- don't change "I" to something else -- like "me.")

QUESTION
Gerund and participle revisited:
According to this grammar book, the word skiing is a participle in

I prefer skiing
but a gerund in
Everyone enjoyed the skiing.
I fail to understand why the word skiing in the first example is not a gerund. ( wouldn't it be correct to say " I prefer tea"? I mean, if this sentence is justified, it should also be correct to say skiiing is a gerund here, right? ) Also, I would like to know whether it makes a difference if "skiing" is substituted for " the skiing" in the second example.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Somewhere, Canada Thu, Nov 12, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I don't know why "this grammar book" calls skiing a participle in "I prefer skiing." As you point out, it is the thing that you prefer, a direct object, a noun; and a verb form used as a noun is a gerund. Putting the the in the second sentence changes the meaning a little bit, but it's essentially the same sentence. Get a new book.

QUESTION
I am writing an article. The first paragraph is a quotation from another article. I have used a dropped cap for the first letter of the quotation. My query: Must I put quotation marks before the dropped cap? Is it arbitrary? Is there a rule about this? I cannot find it in any of the "guides". Again, I thank you and I trust you are having a fine time in the Bahamas.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Pepper Pike, Ohio Thu, Nov 12, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
That's what you get for being fancy with your dropped caps, etc. Pick up your cap and avoid the problem -- or let the publisher worry about it. If the quotation is long enough and it appears as a blocked paragraph, you probably wouldn't have a quotation mark in any case, would you? I doubt if there are any rules about this beyond the rules of the typographer. A tiny quotation mark is going to look odd with the dropped cap, but I don't see how you can get away without one (unless it is a blocked paragraph). Find another beginning or forget the dropped cap -- that's my advice. Or find some journal that does this kind of thing -- Atlantic Monthly? -- and copy what they do.

QUESTION
Could you please tell me if the following sentence contains a mistake in parallelism:
The forces of nature seem less under control on this island than other places.
(This sentence was one of the choices on the Grammar part of this year's PSAT)
Thank You.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Owing Mills, Maryland Thu, Nov 12, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Yes, indeed, there is a problem in parallelism there. The preposition "on" cannot serve as the preposition before "other places." I think it would also be appropriate to reassert the subject-verb. We need to write "The forces of nature seem less under control on this island than they seem/do in other places." There might be a better way of rewriting this sentence, and I'll leave an e-mail icon here in case someone has a better idea.

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