Pedants' Paradise

[jean]

When I was still at school I had a holiday job in a department store.

I worked on the children's underwear counter (girls' vests, 1s. 11d) with a woman who would always ask me when I came back from lunch in the canteen 'Did you have a good feed?'

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When I was still at school I had a holiday job in a department store.

I worked on the children's underwear counter (girls' vests, 1s. 11d) with a woman who would always ask me when I came back from lunch in the canteen 'Did you have a good feed?'

An interesting perception, though I doubt whether she would have referred to the food you consumed by that name.

[Nick Armstrong]

"The Apostrophiser"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39459831

This is really great.

I saw a new low in apostrophe abuse this morning:

"I learn't so much...."



(The perpetrator is 17. Obviously didn't quite learn enough.)

[Pulcinella]

"The Apostrophiser"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39459831

This is really great.

Not in the eyes of Oliver Kamm, The Times Pedant, in today's Times (not able to share link).

Nothing to do with grammar: merely spelling and punctuation conventions.

[french frank]

Nothing to do with grammar: merely spelling and punctuation conventions.

Technically, that is correct. Not sure that it necessarily implies that because it's merely a question of 'spelling and punctuation conventions' no one need bother with it.

'No one need bother with it'
'No one needs to bother with it'. Why the subjunctive? Negative necessity?

[Zucchini]

... in today's Times (not able to share link)].

I'm surprised forum members don't use free registration at The Times to get access to 2 full articles of choice per week (including archive):

https://store.thetimes.co.uk/registered-access/

[P. G. Tipps]

Consulting the Oxford Etymological Dictionary ....

[french frank]

I'm surprised forum members don't use free registration at The Times to get access to 2 full articles of choice per week (including archive):
https://store.thetimes.co.uk/registered-access/

I did that but got fed up with it. And you can't comment on articles.

Thanks to the friend who shared the link. I can see that not many of his readers agreed with Mr Kamm, who started out in a career in 'the financial sector' and became a journalist with no discernible credentials for his giving his opinions - except that that's what journalists do. I liked the comment:

"Oliver Kamm is an annoying little man who always presumes he is right. Never was the term pedant more correctly applied. The sooner he retires from journalism and open's (sic) his cafe in Bristol the better. Mr Hughes's comment below completely negates Kamm's argument about the spoken word."

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Who's Oliver Kamm?

[french frank]

Who's Oliver Kamm?

He wrote the Times piece and has a Wikipedia article. As Mr March used to say: "I don't know why he should be particularly competent to judge."

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

He wrote the Times piece and has a Wikipedia article. As Mr March used to say: "I don't know why he should be particularly competent to judge."

Quite. That was the point I was making (in my usual subversive way).

[Lat-Literal]

I can cope with the Shadow Secretary of State for Education saying "I have spoke to" such and such. After all, she has no academic qualifications. However, I do have some issues with her use of "universalism" instead of "universality" when it comes to universal benefits because it shows a lack of knowledge about the politics she is supposed to represent.

[jean]

I had never heard the phrase 'to lie in rest' before it was used of PC Keith Palmer, who was given the rare honour of his coffin being placed in the Palace of Westminster before his funeral.

Is it a version of to lie in state?

[french frank]

I had never heard the phrase 'to lie in rest' before it was used of PC Keith Palmer, who was given the rare honour of his coffin being placed in the Palace of Westminster before his funeral.

Is it a version of to lie in state?

I think it must be. It mentioned two other people who had lain in rest in Parliament. One was Tony Benn and I've forgotten the other. Maybe it applies to the Palace of Westminster, rather than a religious building?

[jean]

I think it must be. It mentioned two other people who had lain in rest in Parliament. One was Tony Benn...

Yes I see! I didn't notice at the time.

It's a rather odd phrase though, isn't it? Perhaps they were thinking of illi autem sunt in pace...