The Grammar Logs
#584

Nouns functioning as premodifiers in nominal phrases?examples and explenation.

In phrases like "the city council," "August weather," "love poem," and "a stone wall," the nouns city/August/love/stone function as adjectival modifiers (premodifiers) of the final noun in the phrase. The difference between a noun as premodifier and a regular adjective can be demonstrated in the fact that we can usually turn the premodifying noun into a prepositional phrase in which the premodifier serves as the noun object of a preposition: "council for the city," "weather in August," "letter of love," "a wall of stone." You can't do that with a regular adjectival modifier: we can't take "a thick wall" and convert it to "a wall of thick."

Authority: A Grammar of Contemporary English by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. Longman Group: London. 1978. p. 240. (examples from that book)

How does one distinguish between the words 'practice' and 'practise'. And how does one know when to use them.

If you live in the U.S., you'll use "practice" only, for both verb and noun situations: "I have to practice the piano." "His practice suffered as a result of the malpractice suit." In England, the noun is always "practice" ("His practice …"), but the verb is always "practise" (as in "I have to practise piano"). I might guess from the way you're using quote marks that you're from a part of the world that is regulated by British spelling, so you'll have to make this distinction.

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.

The other day I put up a sign in our breakroom which read:

In the effort to keep our pesky rodents and other furry friends away from our break room, please clean up after yourself when finished using the facilities. Thank you for your cooperation.

After I posted the sign, someone corrected the notice by crossing out the "the" and replaced with an "an" before the word effort. Did I make a major grammatical mistake. I thought the notice seemed grammatically okay.

Please advise either way. Thank you.

The word "an" would suggest that this is a one-time singular effort to rid the room of unwanted guests, suggesting perhaps that if this doesn't work, we'll try something else. The word "the" suggests that there is an ongoing struggle to keep out the little beasts, and this move is just part of that program, "the effort." I can't explain, then, why your wannabe editor would want to change the "the" to "an" in this case. Perhaps if you changed "the effort" to "the ongoing struggle," the person would see what you meant — since the sign is probably a mess by now anyway.

I'm having a healthy debate with a colleague at work about a sentence that she's written that I'm sure is grammatically inaccurate. It is

"Please find attached the completed application form, which I would be grateful if you would consider with regard to your current vacancy".

I can't explain why I don't like it — it's possibly grammatically correct but I'd be interested in your view of how it would be improved.

If I were reviewing this application, I don't think I'd ever get past the cover letter (and that sentence). The fact that I am applying for a current vacancy is probably pretty obvious, but I might say that in an initial sentence, and then, toward the end of my cover letter, say that my application form is attached (which is probably pretty obvious, too). My undying gratitude could be conveyed in a closing. You're right not to like the sentence you give us: it completely falls apart at the "which I would be grateful if you would consider with regard … ."

When the check arrived after a dinner, one of the patrons asked the waiter whether he would "split" the tab among 3 credit cards.

My question is: do you use the word "split" only in reference to halving something and use a different word (such as "divide") in a situation where the break would result in more than 2 parts? Does the word "split" imply a two-part division only? Or can it be used generically to refer to any number of partitions?

I can find no justification in my dictionaries or usage manuals for limiting the use of "split" to the notion of halving something. In fact, I found several instances when multiple divisions were intended, as in a stock split. Most of the time, I suppose, the verb will mean "halve," as in "Let's you and I split the bill." But if three of us were sitting around, waiting to pick up the tab, it's quite legitimate to say, for all three, "Let's split it."

When a couple takes vows to live with each other, they say "until death do us part." Why is "do" used instead of "does"?

That is a use of the subjunctive mood. In all kinds of formal blessings, commands, wishes, etc., the subjunctive mood is used: "The Lord make his face to shine upon thee," "Peace be unto you," etc. The subjunctive in "until death do us part," has the effect of softening that thought that one us is likely to enter the valley of the shadow before the other (almost always the guy, by the way), so it's kind of nice. Old fashioned, perhaps, but nice.

In the sentence below, please state whether advance or advacement would be the correct word. Thank you for your help!!

Dopamine was a miraculous advance/advancement in the treatment of PD.

Apparently some authorities have claimed that "advance" should mean "progress" and "advancement" should mean something like "promotion," but in truth, the words often overlap. You can use either in that sentence. Generally speaking, "advancement" is a bigger step than an "advance."

By permission, From Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage © 1994 by Merriam-Webster, Inc. (www.Merriam-Webster.com).

I am a member of a local club consisting of women who provide volunteer services to the community. There are many clubs of this nature around the country. Almost all of the clubs refer to themselves as, for example, "Palm Harbor Junior Woman's Club." When I joined the club I insisted that "Woman's" was incorrect, and it should be "Women's." I tried to explain that it is a club belonging to many women, not just one. I cited the example of the U.S. Olympic Women's Soccer Team — one team, many women.

These organizations have been around for many years … part of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. How can so many clubs around the country be wrong? Am I wrong? Yikes, I hope not! I'll have a lot of crow to eat!

I did a search on the Web just now, and it seems that the harm has been done: there are thousands of these "Junior Woman's Clubs" out there. First of all, I don't know why someone would want to be regarded as a "junior woman." (What happens when you reach a certain age and lose your juniorness? Can you be drummed out of the organization for a few white hairs?) Second, I agree with you that "Junior Women's Clubs" would make more sense. The YMCA would never have gotten very as as the Young Man's Christian Association. Still, I'm afraid we can't really argue that the name of the club is wrong, exactly. It's a club that belongs to the Junior Woman; it exists for her (in a generic sense). I still think "Women's" would make more sense. Don't eat crow, but stay out of the way.

Can "for" be used in the simple past? Some teachers have been telling me that simple past tense usage with "for" is incorrect.

• "I have lived in Toronto for five years." — OK
• "I lived there for five years." — apparently bad
• "He ate his supper for 2 hours." — also apparently bad

Clearly, "for" (as a preposition of enduring time) works fine with the past perfect progressive: "He had been working for the sanitation department for ten years when he found his true calling." It works with the past perfect: "He had lived in Paris for five years before moving to Toronto." And it seems to work with the present perfect progressive: "He has been living with us for two months now." It's OK with the present perfect when it's emphasizing duration: "This cold spell has lasted for three weeks already," but we often drop the "for" in that context. I think that you could use "for" in the simple past tense if you were in the business of reporting something that lasted from a specific time to a specific time: "He worked in Albany for ten years between 1972 and 1982" (and I doubt if it has to be that specific to work). But can you say "He ate his supper two hours"? No, you can't.

I would like to ask you about this sentence:"Out of all that is supposed to make for happiness, she had very little.", which I found in "On the Gull's Road"(1908) by Willa Cather. First, what is the meaning of this sentence? Can I paraphrase this sentence into "She had very little of all that is supposed to make for happiness." or, bluntly, into "She was very unhappy in a usual sense"? Second, isn't this sentence "archaic"? Can I use this as a model sentence when I write an English sentence? Can I say, for example, "I had very little out of happiness", meaning "I was very unhappy"?

I would be very happy if you answered my question.

It's probably needless to say that "I was very unhappy" is a simpler, more efficient way of saying "Out of all that is supposed to make for happiness, she had very little." However, the sentence by no means accomplish the same thing. Cather's sentence, for one thing, saves the best for the last, giving end-focus to the notion of her being destitute of those things that make for happiness. Cather's sentence causes us to contemplate the riches of happiness and then ends by saying she has virtually none of those things. Would it have been better to say, "She was unhappy because she had few of those things that make for happiness"? Hardly. That rewrite would be like a club as opposed to a scalpel; it doesn't cut to the heart of the matter. It just feels redundant. In short, Cather's inversion (saving the best for last) is a bit of stylistic finesse. You wouldn't want to see this kind of thing overdone; it would get tedious. But every once in a while, it makes for a nice flourish.

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