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The Grammar Logs # 344 |
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| QUESTION |
| The teacher sent this home. Onomatopoeia is the use of a word that sounds like what it means. Purr sounds like the purring of a cat. Write five words that sound like what it means. Example moo-cow. Am I making this harder than it is or would something like quack-duck work. thanks for your help. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Pine Knot, Kentucky  Mon, Aug 30, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I suppose a "quack" is certainly as good as a "moo." It might be time to move beyond the realm of animals sounds -- all that buzzing and hissing -- and write about the murmuring of bees and the tintinnabulation of the bells. |
| QUESTION |
I just want to know if theese two sentences make sense:
Thanks for your help (this is a useful web site). |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Franklin Park, Illinois Mon, Aug 30, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I think if we said that first sentence in casual conversation, the other person would know exactly what we meant. I don't think it works so well in writing, though. The two "-ing" endings kind of gang up on each other. I'd change it to something like "I am using my computer to write . . . ." The "being here as a tourist" has the misfortune of being closer to the "school" than it is to you, and thus it looks as though the school is trying to be a tourist. Again, we can figure the sentence out if we just hear the sentence, but in writing we ought to be more careful. Subordinating the second part of the sentence into a dependent clause might help: "Can I attend school here when I am only a tourist?" |
| QUESTION |
I recently wrote a letter using the following sentence:
We will continue to support the system, so long as you pay for the extended warrenty.My colleague made me take out ", (comma) so long as" and replace it with "as long as". Was my wording incorrect? I thought his way sounded harsh. Thanks for your time. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Phoenix, Arizona Mon, Aug 30, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I don't know that "as long as" sounds any more harsh than "so long as," especially if we read "as long as" in the sense of "for the duration of." On the other hand, Burchfield says that "so long as" is an acceptable substitute for "as long as." I don't think the comma is required in either version, though. What about "We will continue to support the system during the period of the extended warranty."? Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996. (under "long") Used with the permission of Oxford University Press.
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| QUESTION |
| I am perplexed over use of my name in all CAPS, especially by government agencies, banks, and credit card companies. Why the use of capitals? Further, when did I give permission to do so? I was not born with my full name CAPITALIZED, so what gives? Thanks for helping me understand. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Tue, Aug 31, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I think it has something to do with machine readability; at least that's why the post office likes ALL CAPS. But probably it's a mistaken notion that you'll like seeing your name in lights. I don't particulary like it either—it's certainly not aesthetically pleasing. But it might be one of the many prices we pay for technology. |
| QUESTION |
| Is it a "principle" place of business or a "principal" place of business? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Houston, Texas Tue, Aug 31, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| "Principal" means "chief" or "most important," which is what you mean. Authority for this note: WWWebster Dictionary, the World Wide Web edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Used with permission. |
| QUESTION |
| Please help our family resolve an issue. Members of our family are spelling out their initals in two separate ways. Our family name is DeCosta. If a person has both a first and middle name what are their initals? For example, Mary Elizabeth DeCosta. If the person does not have a middle name (i.e. Louis DeCosta) what are their initials? Is it L.D.C.? Please advise. Thank you in advance. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Brookfield, Connecticut Tue, Aug 31, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Normally, I'd look in the Chicago Manual of Style for answers to such questions, but I can't find anything that helps us. If there were a hyphen in the name, CMOS suggests keeping the hyphen and using all the letters, as in J.-L.D. for Jacques-Louis David, but that doesn't help the DeCosta family. I would suggest using just the "D," but a good book on etiquette might have some notions about the formation of monograms (for wedding gifts, etc.) that would prove helpful. |
| QUESTION |
| Does an autobiography have to be written in first person? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Batesville, Mississippi Wed, Sep 1, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
As far as I know, the only "requirement" of an autobiography is that it be about the person who is narrating it. It might be a little strange—and an issue ripe for analysis—for this narrator to use third-person, say, to talk about himself or herself, but it seems a safe bet that it's been done before. (Doesn't Wordsworth refer to himself in the third person in The Prelude?)![[E-Mail Icon]](../gif/email.gif){kind=small} I'll leave an e-mail icon here in case someone knows of any better example(s).
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| QUESTION |
| What word ends in "mt"?? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Findlay, Ohio Wed, Sep 1, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| "Dreamt" for one (a variant of "dreamed"). There are probably other verbs ending in "mt," but I can't think of any. It's kind of hard to look up words by endings, I just discovered. This is just the kind of thing that the folks at alt.english.usage like to get into, and you might run it by them.
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| QUESTION |
| A writer friend maintains that, if one inserts an adjective before a non-initial noun in a list of nouns, one makes that adjective modify all of the following nouns in the list. I maintain that this is true only if the word "and" is inserted before the adjective. More precisely, I maintain that an adjective can apply to more than one noun in a list of nouns in only two ways: a) by making the adjective precede the first noun in the list ("blue screws, nails, bolts, and washers"--each is blue); or b) by inserting the word "and" and the adjective together before a non-initial, non-ending noun in the list ("screws, and blue nails, bolts, and washers--the latter three are blue; "screws, nails, and blue bolts, and washers--the latter two are blue). He would maintain that in "screws, blue nails, bolts, and washers," the latter three are blue (I maintain that only the nails are blue in this example). Which, if either, of us is correct? How does one best state the defining principle? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Somewhere, U.S.A. Wed, Sep 1, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I'm not sure there is a defining principle, except that a careful writer would want to make sure the reader knows what is blue and what isn't. I think if one had a bag of "screws, nails, and blue bolts and washers," the latter two are blue, but I wouldn't separate the bolts from the washers with a comma. And I agree that "blue screws, nails, bolts, and washers" are all blue—or apt to be construed as such by the reader. (One should never use "blue," "screw," and "construe" in the same sentence.)
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| QUESTION |
We were pondering this question. Mr. stands for Mister
Mrs. stands for ______? What?Does Ms have a period after it? It seems somewhere we were taught that it is not an abbreviation therefore, no period is needed. Can you tell me the rule on this? Many thanks! |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Mount Vernon, Washington Wed, Sep 1, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| "Mrs." can be regarded as an abbreviation for "Mistress" or the Americanized "Missus." The word "mistress" has undergone a tortured history, so the connection is no longer meaningful. I, too, once read that we shouldn't put a period after Ms because it's not really an abbreviation for anything, but dictionaries suggest we put one there nonetheless to keep it consistent with Mr. and Mrs., if for no other reason. |
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