El archivo para la “gramática aspira” categoría

No es usted enfermo y cansado de…

¿Seis-mes-viejos bebés en anuncios de la TV quiénes hablan inglés como los graduados de Harvard MBA de 35 años?

¿Perros y otros animales que saben hablar inglés también (o como mal) como su puerta siguiente típicamente addled del adolescente?

(O lagartos que que puede bailar?)

Vería algo a seres humanos el' raspar que' inglés de discurso, o los adultos crecidos' “mewling y puking” como los infantes más bien que los infantes' peorating sobre productos de consumo. Por lo menos representaría más exactamente la condición humana.

Fijado por el grammarblogger

Un Seriouse Lacke del juicio

Autorización, he conseguido utilizado al uso de la palabra deletreada mal juicio en Cocinero del hierro. Sin embargo, ahora también se está utilizando encendido Centro de deportes de ESPN.

Hice una pequeña investigación del diccionario para ver si juicio, el falta de ortografía, ha ganado la aceptabilidad. La respuesta está sí y no. Un diccionario enumera el deletreo de “e” como alternativa, pero después se enciende ilustrar el uso juicio citando usar de los ejemplos de la oración juicio, el deletreo correcto. También definió juicio estrecho, decir era “el documento jurídico que indicaba la razón de una opinión judicial.”

Fondojuicio es el único deletreo, derivando de la palabra francesa jugement (que utiliza una “e,” curiosamente).

Fijado por el grammarblogger

Fraseología de la segunda enmienda examinada

Nadie pueden acusar siempre a los autores de nuestra constitución de ser expertos de la gramática. Tome la segunda enmienda, tema de la decisión de ayer del Tribunal Supremo. Lee:

“No infringirán a una milicia bien-regulada, siendo necesaria a la seguridad de un estado libre, la derecha de la gente de guardar y de llevar los brazos.”

Ahora, no haciendo caso del hecho que, en el décimo octavo siglo, pueblan los sustantivos a menudo capitalizados para el énfasis, la oración todavía tiene problemas estructurales. Debe leer, “una milicia bien-regulada que es necesaria….” Siendo es un gerundio y se debe preceder así por un posesivo. También, la coma después Brazos separa el tema del verbo y es un ninguno-ningún verdadero.

¿Qué sobre el significado de la enmienda?

Historia completa”

Fijado por el grammarblogger

Credit Shakespeare With Oyster Supremacy

In irony of ironies, considering how poor I am, I woke up this morning and opened the shutters in my living room to see the sun rising from the east and said outloud (yes, I do talk to myself), "The world is my oyster." Of course, it’s not, and actually I said, "The woild is my oyster," mimicking a Mafioso or someone from stereotypical New Jersey/New York.

That got me to look up the origins of the saying, and it is indeed something from The Bard in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Said Pistol to Falstaff therein:

Why, then the world’s mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.

Maybe I’ll just fall on my sword. LOL

Posted by grammarblogger

AP Takes on the Blogosphere

A site called the Drudge Retort, a liberal answer to the Drudge Report, was ordered by the Associated Press (AP) to cease and desist using snippets of AP articles in its own articles this past week.

Drudge II complied, but objected that copyright law permits the "fair use" of copyrighted material, in limited portions, for scholarly and academic purposes.

I doubt I’d consider either Drudge I or Drudge II scholarly or academic, but I defend their right to quote from published sources and comment on them. This is the meaning, to me, of a free press. I do it all the time here and on my other blogs.

Anyway, a spat ensued, and eventually AP backed away from its legal threat and said the organization "needed to rethink" matters.

What really galled AP, from what I can determine from reading between the lines, is that Drudge and other sites were using the quotations as tie-ins to advertising.

If that’s the case, then AP has a good argument.

Posted by grammarblogger

Happy Friday the 13th, You Paraskavedekatriaphobiacs

Paraskavedekatriaphobia is a word formed from three Greek words: paraskevi (Friday,) dekatreis (thirteen) and phobia (fear or phobia), meaning "fear of Friday the 13th." Triskaidekaphobia means just "fear of the number 13."

There you go. Learn something everyday. Happy Friday the 13th!

Posted by grammarblogger

Nothing to Do With English Grammar, But Useful

I came across this site that lists the highest–and lowest–gasoline pump prices in each state and counties, parishes, areas, etc., within that state.

I checked it against my local knowledge, and while it was good, it didn’t list the stations that I know to consistently have the lowest prices. Still, it beats not knowing where to save money.

It’s called Gas Buddy.

PS Unless I’m mistaken, look for gas prices to reach $5 a gallon by the Fourth of July, or shortly thereafter. They’ll come down in September or October for the presidential election and then continue their upward march after the new president is elected.

Posted by grammarblogger

Congrats to Spelling Bee Champ Sameer Mishra

Much was made on the video waves about his earlier confusion of the word numnah with numbnut, but 13-year-old Sameer Mishra finally won the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee with the word guerdon. Watch below:

Posted by grammarblogger

NOPEC Shows Government Garble at Its Standard Worst

The politics is bad too, but I’ll leave that aside.

Congress recently passed a piece of legislation known affectionately as NOPEC, which may as well stand for No One Possibly Expects Clarity, but instead is an acronym for The No Oil-Producing and -Exporting Cartels Act." Okay, I added the hypens because no one in Washington, D.C., could possibly understand compound adjectives, let alone writing basic, clear English.

What this act does is allow Congress and its designated henchmen to sue OPEC countries if they feel the latter has been withholding production of oil and thus artificially raising prices through manipulation of supply and demand. Good luck with these lawsuits, but let’s take a look at the enabling language of NOPEC:

"It shall be illegal and a violation of this Act," declared the House of Representatives, "to limit the production or distribution of oil, natural gas, or any other petroleum product … or to otherwise take any action in restraint of trade for oil, natural gas or any petroleum product when such action, combination, or collective action has a direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on the market, supply, price or distribution of oil, natural gas or other petroleum product in the United States."

As I said, good luck with NOPEC. And good luck with writing clear English. You’ll need it in both cases.

Posted by grammarblogger

Nice Use of Juxtaposition in Newspaper Story

The sports journalists of the world made hay this past week with allegations that USC college basketball phenom O.J. Mayo had been on the take the whole time since high school.

A few days after the story broke, Mayo met with Los Angeles Times reporter Ben Bolch to deny the allegations, saying:

"So for them to say I received $30,000 or whatever the case is, I definitely don’t think that’s enough to sell out myself and my family."

That was in the next-to-last paragraph. Here’s what the last paragraph observed:

"Following the interview, Mayo slipped off into a new red Porsche Cayenne GTS with two friends and drove off."

Nice juxtaposition. Or was it irony?

Posted by grammarblogger