Pedants' Paradise

[french frank]

In a cooperative.

But a person can be employed and/or employ. A meeting cannot be attended and/or attend. Since it cannot attend, it cannot have attendees - though it can quite easily have attenders. I believe that addresses the point with ample, nay otiose, explication.

[oddoneout]

I'm not sure if this belongs here but it seems the best fit?
The tiresomely repeated trailer about the BBC NOW 90th celebrations contains the following phrase - "music by Welsh composers Bruch and Mozart". It seems to me to be an excellent illustration of why sentence construction matters.A 'first aid' remedy for the misinformation would be a better delivery by the announcer to place distance between 'composers' and 'Bruch', but how much better to have changed the word order to avoid the problem in the first place?

[oddoneout]

But it is surely possible to be both employee and employer simultaneously, n'est-ce pas?...

Not of the same organisation probably, but if you as an employee of Company A take on Blogs Builders to renovate your house, then yes?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm not sure if this belongs here but it seems the best fit?
The tiresomely repeated trailer about the BBC NOW 90th celebrations contains the following phrase - "music by Welsh composers Bruch and Mozart". It seems to me to be an excellent illustration of why sentence construction matters.A 'first aid' remedy for the misinformation would be a better delivery by the announcer to place distance between 'composers' and 'Bruch', but how much better to have changed the word order to avoid the problem in the first place?

- this occurs to me every time they run this trailer - and, boy, do they run it!

A pity they didn't play any Bach.

[french frank]

A pity they didn't play any Bach.

Maybe Tye Bach and Bruch?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Serial_Apologist]

Tye dies

[Lat-Literal]

Abba have announced that they have recorded their first two new songs in 35 years and their avatars are going on a worldwide tour. The announcement was personally signed. While three names were recognisable, I was a bit surprised to see a hyphen in Anni-Frid. Perhaps it was always so although mainly she was known as Frida. But it strikes me as somewhat odd because an Annifrid would be like a Winifred whereas this Anni-Frid looks like a female prefix to a male suffix unless Frid here isn't male. How in Norwegian does this work, isn't it a bit questionable in terms of gender equality, and could it make any difference that she is the Dowager Princess Reuss of Plauen, given the nobility do names differently across the globe?

[vinteuil]

.... could it make any difference that she is the Dowager Princess Reuss of Plauen, given nobility do names differently across the world?

... a good example, indeed, being the various lineages of the Houses of Reuss : all the males are called Heinrich, followed by a number. Different numbering systems apply in the Older and Younger branches of Reuss -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_County_of_Reuss

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Reuss-Greiz

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Reuss-Gera

.
.

[Lat-Literal]

... a good example, indeed, being the various lineages of the Houses of Reuss : all the males are called Heinrich, followed by a number. Different numbering systems apply in the Older and Younger branches of Reuss -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_County_of_Reuss

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Reuss-Greiz

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Reuss-Gera

.
.

Fascinating but I became a bit lost after Erkenbert I (1122).

Have you answered the question?

My apologies if you have.

[vinteuil]

.

... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anni-Frid_Lyngstad

She'll be viscountess Hambleden before you know it.

.

[Lat-Literal]

.

... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anni-Frid_Lyngstad

She'll be viscountess Hambleden before you know it.

.

Ah, so she was a Reuss by marriage and if she gets married again her name will cause more confusion, only this time along British lines with a reference to WH Smith. Therefore, unless it has been hyphenated artistically, the question about the hyphen in the name and the second part of it would be about Norwegian usage generally or, perhaps, German given that her estranged German father was an Alfred which is close to Frid. But there is now yet another question. She seems to have been born Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad. Her mother was Synni Lyngstad. That's double the mother - her first name and surname - and half of the father's first name turned into Norwegian? So maybe there is another root - ie family complexities?

[Lat-Literal]

Further to the discussion above, the actress Ann-Margret. Born Ann-Margret Olsson but never in celebrity surnamed, she slightly predates all the Lulus and the Madonnas. What stands out is not just the simple use of a first name but the combination of that use and the hyphen. Clearly both parts of her name are female. She was also born in Sweden rather than in Norway. But it could give support to a Scandinavian convention with names. In the broader context, I'm cross-referencing, albeit vaguely in my mnd, with the Icelandic son and dottir.

[Serial_Apologist]

"Less than 10 % of burglaries were solved by the police last year".

This was the heading to a discussion on The Wright Stuff this morning. Matthew Wright immediately said that the wording should have been "fewer", not "less", and nobody disagreed. But is this correct? We're talking a figure here, rather than what that figure stands for. We wouldn't say that the number 9 is fewer than the number 10, would we? What do others think?

[jean]

I think you are correct.