Luckily, E.E. Cummings poses no such problems.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:55 (sixteen years ago) link
i once had to stomp on a gallery who insisted for the catalogue we were producing that we put TWO spaces between the "The" and whatever their poncey name was -- i told em that the computers wouldn't let us, it automatically corrected and they would have to lump it (= a lie, obv)
they went out of business so the problem disappeared
― mark s, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:59 (sixteen years ago) link
"a pair of legal analysts say(s)"
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 16 August 2007 17:42 (sixteen years ago) link
"says." The object is the pair-- ONE pair, therefore singular :)
― Will M., Thursday, 16 August 2007 17:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Or were you asking?
― Will M., Thursday, 16 August 2007 17:48 (sixteen years ago) link
My answer depends on what they're saying.
― jaymc, Thursday, 16 August 2007 17:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, in the strictest sense, it'd be "says." However, if these two legal analysts were saying it seperately, that wouldn't be conveyed with "says," so the sentence would need a rewrite to something like "Two legal analysts say..."
― Will M., Thursday, 16 August 2007 17:49 (sixteen years ago) link
I was asking, thx. (They're writing together, those analysts, which by AMA standards clinches "says.")
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 16 August 2007 17:51 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost, exactly
Yeah, that's sort of what I was getting at. Are they saying the exact same thing at the same time? (Of course, changing "a pair of" to "two" avoids this dilemma altogether.)
― jaymc, Thursday, 16 August 2007 17:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Is it bad that I'm more than a tiny bit proud that I answered that?
― Will M., Thursday, 16 August 2007 17:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Nope. I just sat through an hourlong "grammar review" at work this morning.
― jaymc, Thursday, 16 August 2007 18:02 (sixteen years ago) link
love reading this thread
― deej, Thursday, 16 August 2007 18:04 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost
and you agreed to abolish hyphens in prenominal adjectives?
(ducks)
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 16 August 2007 18:04 (sixteen years ago) link
prenominal compound adjectives, natch.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 16 August 2007 18:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Why would we do that?
― jaymc, Thursday, 16 August 2007 18:38 (sixteen years ago) link
"black cab driver" vs. "black-cab driver"
― jaymc, Thursday, 16 August 2007 18:39 (sixteen years ago) link
1/N, damnit
pear says pears say
― nabisco, Thursday, 16 August 2007 18:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Black-cab? Is that a thing?
― Will M., Thursday, 16 August 2007 19:05 (sixteen years ago) link
It is in the UK.
http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Travel/Transport/Taxi/TaxiCab.jpg
― jaymc, Thursday, 16 August 2007 19:10 (sixteen years ago) link
Is it something you have to specify at any point? Like, are there yellow cabs and black cabs and one's worth more or less than the other, and you have to say to someone "Hey, I think he's a black-cab driver, let's ask him for a ride"?
― Will M., Thursday, 16 August 2007 19:53 (sixteen years ago) link
"Hey, you --- you black cab-driving jerk!" = comes off racist "Hey, you --- you black cab--driving jerk!" = doesn't
― nabisco, Thursday, 16 August 2007 19:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Further confusion is added when you realise there are no* black black-cab drivers in London.
*or if there is I've yet to see one
― onimo, Thursday, 16 August 2007 19:59 (sixteen years ago) link
or if there are
― onimo, Thursday, 16 August 2007 20:00 (sixteen years ago) link
they'd be black-^2-cab drivers
― nabisco, Thursday, 16 August 2007 20:03 (sixteen years ago) link
Is it something you have to specify at any point?
Apparently.
― jaymc, Thursday, 16 August 2007 20:11 (sixteen years ago) link
er, yes: ie to differentiate between a dude who drives a minicab and a dude who drives a black cab.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 16 August 2007 20:19 (sixteen years ago) link
minicabs = unlicensed black cabs = licensed, have to pass an exam where everything within a certain radius is
― mark s, Thursday, 16 August 2007 21:27 (sixteen years ago) link
not all black cabs are black these days
pedant.
;)
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 16 August 2007 21:37 (sixteen years ago) link
IT'S MY JOB
AND YOURS
AND MORBSES
LUCKY US
― mark s, Thursday, 16 August 2007 21:42 (sixteen years ago) link
praise be! w00t, etc.
actually, i got asked in the pub last night what subeditors actually did.
"everything".
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 16 August 2007 21:59 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm glad I do "everything" in the US, since I'm not sure I like what the "sub-" prefix implies. Nor do I like your period outside the quotes, but we've been over that.
― jaymc, Thursday, 16 August 2007 22:13 (sixteen years ago) link
actually, no, you're right; shoulda been inside there.
as for the "sub" bit ... people infer all sorts of oddness. at the first (very small) place i was a staffer, i went from being a subeditor to being assistant editor.
"oh," said a relative. "so, you were ... umm, demoted?"
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 16 August 2007 22:31 (sixteen years ago) link
Hi there. Few questions...
1. Is the word "quintessence" an absolute? I mean, is it alright to say "the most quintessential" for instance?
2. This is down to style really, but what do you prefer - If referring to oneself in, say a review, do you say I/We/You/One?
― the next grozart, Tuesday, 28 August 2007 00:25 (sixteen years ago) link
I've got a question:
long johns (the kind that keep you warm in winter)
Is this an Americanism?
― Maria :D, Tuesday, 28 August 2007 01:48 (sixteen years ago) link
maria: i don't think so, no. i'd call a pair of long johns a pair of long johns before anything else.
TNG: 1) i think it is. "most quintessential" just sounds tautological.
2) "I". i think all else looks like you once read somewhere that you shouldn't use the word "I" in a review, so you're feebly trying to avoid it ;)
― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 28 August 2007 10:31 (sixteen years ago) link
You can't be a bit quintessential any more than you can be a bit unique or a bit pregnant: it's an absolute. It's also a cliche, but that's by the by.
Re: using first person in copy, I'm tacitly happy to use "I" in a review, but I'll pretty much always favour "we" in a feature.
― CharlieNo4, Tuesday, 28 August 2007 10:40 (sixteen years ago) link
Or a bit dead! The unique thing, man that drives me CRAZY.
― Laurel, Tuesday, 28 August 2007 11:34 (sixteen years ago) link
"Hey, you --- you black cab--driving jerk!"
Dear Efrim, this is the silliest name yet, but good work on the dash differentiation.
Thangyewverymuch, and apparently I won't be here all week, since it took me a week to reply to that and all.
(I love this thread! I'll stop ruining it now.)
― a passing spacecadet, Tuesday, 28 August 2007 12:10 (sixteen years ago) link
hahaha, the BBC News website is such shit. They do this kind of thing with a little too much frequency:
The 23-year-old is due to make her first public appearance since attending rehab at the award ceremony.
― Rock Hardy, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 18:34 (sixteen years ago) link
these data vs this data
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 21:40 (sixteen years ago) link
Webster's says that both are standard. My inclination would be to go with "this data," since "these data" is starting to sound stuffy, but I suppose there's a place for the latter if it's actually in reference to multiple, discrete pieces of information.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 21:52 (sixteen years ago) link
the AMA likes stuffy, it seems.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 21:53 (sixteen years ago) link
how about "this data translates" vs "these data translate"
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 21:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Guardian style guide says
data takes a singular verb; like agenda, strictly a plural, but no one ever uses "agendum" or "datum"
which is even more liberal than it used to be; it used to say something like "the battle over data being a plural is now lost", which at least conceded that it was once a contentious issue. And I think that scientific publications might still go the traditional route but yeah, for everyone else data is now a mass noun, so "this".
― ledge, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 21:56 (sixteen years ago) link
What do this/these data translate to? If it's a single conclusion or result or whatever, then the singular makes even more sense to me, on the logic of a one-to-one translation: X means Y.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 22:01 (sixteen years ago) link
i gen agree.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 22:03 (sixteen years ago) link
I saw "datum" in print last week and was momentarily amazed.
― nabisco, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 22:19 (sixteen years ago) link
is the word "actress" as anachronistic in 2007 as "comedienne"? It seems odd to me to see, say, Diana Rigg referred to as "an actor". Am I over-reacting?
― CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 13:52 (sixteen years ago) link