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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

 

Archive for July 2008

Number of comments in parentheses

26: Words for our times

Here is an entry in the 2008 Associated Press Stylebook: outsourcing A business practice used by companies to reduce costs by transferring work previously performed in-house to outside suppliers. I am reading a book (review to come when I finish) about words that have come into English from other languages. I am struck by how the author shows the connection between what was going on in the world and what words entered the language. The Associated Press Stylebook shows the changes in the language, too. The 1996 version of the stylebook appears to be the first one that had[.....]

21: Bread and circuses

Recent letters to the editor refer to "bread and circuses," a phrase that refers to choosing short-term diversions over more important matters. It comes from the Latin phrase panem et circenses, and the English version is a literal translation. Such loan translations are called "claques," which derived from a French word for "to trace," as in making a copy. English is full of calques. A "marriage of convenience" is a translation from French mariage de convenance. "Worldview" is a translation from German Weltanschauung. "Brainwashing" is a loan translation of a Chinese term.   This article was originally posted by[.....]

13: Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Today’s quiz has five sentences. You will choose the better of two choices given in the sentences. Have fun and leave a comment. By the way, not everything on the Triangle Grammar Guide quiz or on the blog is about grammar. "Grammar" is my shorthand for all the language problems that come up. Click here or on the question mark icon to begin. Have fun.   This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity; and is copyright © 2011 The News & Observer Publishing[.....]

11: AP Stylebook changes for 2008 (second post)

Among the new entries in the Associated Press Stylebook for 2008 is one on "myriad." The AP says that "myriad" is an adjective and is not followed by "of." The dictionary that AP uses, though, gives the noun use of "myriad" first. "Myriad" means an indefinitely large number; it is a synonym of "innumerable." Bryan A. Garner writes in A Dictionary of Modern American Usage that "myriad is more concise as an adjective than as a noun." Fowler’s Modern English Usage points out that the word comes from Greek for "ten thousand." Almost no one adheres to that old[.....]

6: AP Stylebook changes for 2008

I ordered the new version of the Associated Press Stylebook for my home use (we expect to get them in office soon). The book has a summary of the changes right after the foreword on a page titled "What’s New." One of the most interesting changes for grammar geeks is the "collective nouns" entry. Here is a part of the entry: Collective nouns: Nouns that denote a unit take singular verbs and pronouns: class, committee, crowd, family, group, herd, jury, orchestra, team. … Team names and band names, however, take plural verbs. The Miami Heat are battling for the[.....]

5: Let's get "its" right

My colleague Karen spotted this sign at Umstead State Park: The sign writer needed the possessive "its" in the second sentence, of course. (Notice the wildlife crawling on the word "wildlife"!) [P.S. added Monday morning: Take a look at the comments for a dissent and an answer.] This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity; and is copyright © 2011 The News & Observer Publishing Company, which reserves the right to remove this post.

5: Nothing could be finer (adjective forms)

A reader from Charlotte, Anita Keller, sends two of her peeves: The first is the trend toward not using superlatives [comment from Pam: and comparatives]. Example, "more quiet" for "quieter". It happens all the time. It seems I notice it more and more every day. The other gripe I have is how society now says "It was so fun". When I was growing up, learning English, it was always "so /much /fun" or "such fun". Why does that seem to have changed? What is the rule that prohibited "so fun" to start with? As I told Anita when I[.....]