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The Grammar Logs # 465 |
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| QUESTION |
The following sentence was entered into MS Word 2001 and
was not corrected by the grammar-check and I was wondering if it is actually CORRECT:
The man has deceased. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Albuquerque, New Mexico  Mon, Nov 19, 2001
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| It certainly is unusual. The use of the present perfect, for one thing, suggests an action that could continue into the present time, which is unlikely. That's why we usually say "He is deceased," meaning it's something he went through, already, in the definite past. I think I can understand, though, why the Word grammarchecker is not up to the task of sorting out the nuances of our expressions regarding death. Next to potty-training, death is that aspect of our lives that seems to require the greatest syntactic circumlocutions. |
| QUESTION |
Can an auxiliary verb function as a helping verb and a
linking verb at the same time? For example: They were relatively poor and working in the
mines. If that sentence is correct, were functions as a linking verb first but is also part of the
verb phrase "were working." Or do you need to add another were before "working"? Also,
is it against any rules for the compound predicate to be passive and active? For example:
The courts were seen as a joke by the people and failed miserably. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Houston, Texas Mon, Nov 19, 2001
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| To answer your second question first, that sentence would be regarded as a failure in parallel form — for exactly the reason you point out. It's unlikely that you can create a sentence in good parallel form that contains both a passive and active relationship between subject and verb. I think you've also answered your first question. The were doesn't want to act as a linking verb in the first part of the sentence and as an auxiliary in the second part. You could probably break the sentence and make the second part more obviously a modifier (participial phrase): "They were relatively poor, working in the mines by night and in the vineyards by day." |
| QUESTION |
I need information about:
discontinuous noun phrases, for example:
I'm doing the teachers training college and I don't know how to recognize a discontinuous noun phrase. Can you help me please. Thanks. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Buenos Aires, Argentina Mon, Nov 19, 2001
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Those are good examples of postmodification, taking part of the noun phrase and delaying it until the end of the sentence so that that portion of the phrase (modifying phrases — participial or prepositional — in the sentences that you give us) can receive end weight or focus. In your first example, for instance, we could have put the entire noun phrase together: "Several accidents involving passengers falling from trains have been reported recently." Shifting the red-colored part of the phrase to the end puts additional emphasis on that part. A couple of other examples might help, and I will take them from Quirk and Greenbaum:
(instead of "A rumor that he was secretly . . . .) (instead of "The time to decorate the house for Christmas had come.") (instead of "That loaf that you sold me was stale.") (instead of "What business of yours is it?") I hope these examples help. Incidentally, there is nothing inherently wrong with a discontinuous noun phrase. One very good reason for a discontinuous noun phrase is to achieve a balance between a subject and its predicate: The story is told that he was once a soldier in French Foreign Legion. Without the discontinuous noun phrase, we end up with a twelve-word subject, a linking verb, and a one-word predicate. Authority: A Grammar of Contemporary English by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. Longman Group: London. 1978. |
| QUESTION |
| Why is using "Hopefully" at the beginning of a sentence wrong, such as: Hopefully, we'll get together soon. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| San Diego, California Tue, Nov 20, 2001
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| There are enough people "out there" who think it's wrong, that it's probably not worth it to resist and use it anyway. Apparently, some writers are/were of the opinion that it means "full of hope," so what would your sentence mean? that you're going to get together "full of hope"? Frankly, that's silly. It means that one hopes that we will get together soon. The word is meant to modify the rest of the sentence as an absolute phrase, much as the words "frankly" and "fortunately" would modify the rest of the sentence. You can go ahead and use the word "hopefully" if you wish, but be aware of the fact that some fussy readers are going to object. |
| QUESTION |
| PEOPLE, PEOPLES and person—what is the dfference in these words and when should each word be used? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Singapore Tue, Nov 20, 2001
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
Generally, "people" is the plural of "person." "Peoples" can refer to a group or groups of culturally defined groups, as in the "peoples of eastern Europe." The choice between "people" and "persons" is not always easy, though. There used to be a rule that persons is used when speaking of a number of people who can be counted and people is used when speaking of a large or uncounted number of individuals.
Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996. Used with the permission of Oxford University Press. |
| QUESTION |
| As we are updating our Company Rolodex, a burning question came up-- how many spaces do you beween the state and the zipcode. I swear I remember learning that it is 3 spaces. Others disagree and say only 1. Do you know which one is correct?? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Washington, D.C. Wed, Nov 21, 2001
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The Gregg Reference Manual says to use only one space between the last character of the name of the state and the first number of the ZIP code (always on one line). The USPS Web-page, though, definitely shows two spaces when you use an ALL CAPS style in your address. Authority: The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin. 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill: New York. 2001. Used with the consent of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. p. 364. |
| QUESTION |
| Is "from" understood in "exit"? Must I say Exiting From the Program or is Exiting the Program sufficient? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Toronto, Ontario, Canada Wed, Nov 21, 2001
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I believe that "from" is built into the "ex" of "exit"; you can leave it out. A search of Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times Book Review reveals seveal instances of clauses such as "ServiceMaster said it would also exit the landscaping business." |
| QUESTION |
| I've been searching the web for over an hour and can't find any guidelines for this....help? If it's a KIDS CLUB (a club for kids) do I make it possessive and put an apostrophe at the end of kids = KIDS' CLUB? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Unknown Wed, Nov 21, 2001
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Either way is fine. The apostrophe will make it possessive, and you'll be in good company, along with the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. And the plural can be used as a modifier, too, as in The Boys and Girls Clubs of America (no possessive). It's nice when you can't be wrong. |
| QUESTION |
How do you alphabetize a list of foundation names,
including, for example:
If possible, please cite a source for your answer. We can find nothing on this issue in the Chicago Manual of Style and other reference books. Many thanks. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Brooklyn, New York Wed, Nov 21, 2001
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
For all such names, treat each word in the name as a separate unit and use the order of words as you would find it in a letterhead or similar document. It so happens that the foundations you name above all begin with first names, but that's how you'd alphabetize them. If you need to use an exception to this practice (because you're not sure what people would be looking for in your index), provide a cross-reference and list it both ways.
Authority: The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin. 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill: New York. 2001. Used with the consent of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. p. 330-331. |
| QUESTION |
I am wondering which of the following is correct:
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Los Angeles, California Wed, Nov 21, 2001
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Drop that second comma. In fact, most writing manuals are recommending now that we drop the comma separating the company name from the "Inc." (unless we know that the company actually prefers the comma). |
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