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Re: and then

Subject: Re: and then
From: Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2004 15:20:52 -0400




Bonnie Granat wrote:


So, I remain mystified. (Well, Cambridge may well be just wrong. It's
not impossible, although it's more likely that *I* am wrong, but I
haven't yet seen an explanation of why I am wrong, if I am wrong.)



Bonnie,

I think you've fallen into the Purism trap. You are thinking (only momentarily, I hope) of grammar as a logically consistent, mathematically perfect set of prescriptivist rules rather than as the much more flexible underlying structure of a human language.

However, the fact that it _sounds_ wrong to you is a clue that this is a construction in transition from not acceptable to acceptable. You're not comfortable with it, so you will avoid it; others _are_ comfortable with it and see nothing wrong with using it. Those who write and edit from the point of view of wanting to offend/confuse/startle the fewest number of people will probably continue to eschew the construction for some time yet. Others who are less concerned about that issue and just want to push the language along a bit faster will use it as they see fit.

In the end it comes down to What would Norma say? And right now, apparently Norma is on a bio break, so we can't ask.

Dick


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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: and then (was: Silly but important to me): From: John Wilcox
Re: and then (was: Silly but important to me): From: Bonnie Granat

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