Pedants' Paradise

[subcontrabass]

I noticed the Guardian is today writing about $2,000 checks (why) - and no option to comment on this.

It is in a column addressed to the US readership of the Guardian.

[french frank]

It is in a column addressed to the US readership of the Guardian.

Oh, I didn't know that. I just clicked on the link in my newsletter.

[Probably irrelevant then, but I was going to point out that most publications have their own (sometimes idiosyncratic) house style. When I was a sub, our house style included protestor and Roumania. If the reporter had written protester and Romania we dutifully altered it. No one dared ask why we were out of step with the majority].

[oddoneout]

My was entirely directed at the notion of the PM as having good speaking skills!

I hoped that was the case but when I saw your post I realised what I had done, and the pot/kettle potential!

[french frank]

But wouldn't you expect them to write, for example, Department of Defense

Much water seems to have passed under the bridge but…

No, because it's a name. Nor would I expect them to refer to the IRS as HMRC, or their Secretary of State to be called the Foreign Secretary. I must get a British version of the NYT because the stories are focused on the UK/Europe, but they don't adopt British spelling conventions - nor do I expect them to (I see EU programs, somber, defense, theaters in today's UK news stories about Brexit and coronavirus).

BUT - it is not obligatory to be a pedant

[kernelbogey]

From today's Guardian:
Allen has and is doing it all
It's become quite a common error to omit the full form of the verb appropriate to the earlier position:
I.e.: Allen has done, and is doing, it all.
This is more than mere pedantry, IMV, since no one would claim 'Allen has doing it all' would be correct.

[Serial_Apologist]

From today's Guardian:
Allen has and is doing it all
It's become quite a common error to omit the full form of the verb appropriate to the earlier position:
I.e.: Allen has done, and is doing, it all.
This is more than mere pedantry, IMV, since no one would claim 'Allen has doing it all' would be correct.

Indeed - it sets a terrible example, one which I have probably myself followed on occasion, admittedly.

This morning, on a TV ad previously not seen, we had an actress telling us, "I am a sustainable fashion model". No doubt she is high maintenance, as well!

[Pulcinella]

From today's Guardian:
Allen has and is doing it all
It's become quite a common error to omit the full form of the verb appropriate to the earlier position:
I.e.: Allen has done, and is doing, it all.
This is more than mere pedantry, IMV, since no one would claim 'Allen has doing it all' would be correct.

Agreed!
I read it as: Allen has it all (whatever 'it' is!) and is doing it all.
Rather like having your cake and eating it.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Much water seems to have passed under the bridge but…

No, because it's a name. Nor would I expect them to refer to the IRS as HMRC, or their Secretary of State to be called the Foreign Secretary. I must get a British version of the NYT because the stories are focused on the UK/Europe, but they don't adopt British spelling conventions - nor do I expect them to (I see EU programs, somber, defense, theaters in today's UK news stories about Brexit and coronavirus).

BUT - it is not obligatory to be a pedant

I'm always intrigued by the National Geographic, an American magazine that often uses British spellings. I wonder whether they are unusually tactful, in that they blazon words like "travellers" (rather than "travelers") on the front cover, by publishing a special edition for the non-US market. It seems unlikely.

[oddoneout]

From today's Guardian:
Allen has and is doing it all
It's become quite a common error to omit the full form of the verb appropriate to the earlier position:
I.e.: Allen has done, and is doing, it all.
This is more than mere pedantry, IMV, since no one would claim 'Allen has doing it all' would be correct.

But who bothers these days to 'deconstruct' to check? It takes time and I think that to many people the correct form sounds clumsy or laboured. The irony is that in a good few cases the correct form adds emphasis which would be appropriate, for instance when refuting an accusation of lack of effort.
Far too much of what I read now gives the impression of having been the first draft, and checking that spellings are contextually correct (homonyms) or that the right word is being used when writing up phonetic spellings from interview notes about unfamiliar subjects, seems to have been abandoned some time ago.

[Wychwood]

But who bothers these days to 'deconstruct' to check? It takes time and I think that to many people the correct form sounds clumsy or laboured. The irony is that in a good few cases the correct form adds emphasis which would be appropriate, for instance when refuting an accusation of lack of effort.
Far too much of what I read now gives the impression of having been the first draft, and checking that spellings are contextually correct (homonyms) or that the right word is being used when writing up phonetic spellings from interview notes about unfamiliar subjects, seems to have been abandoned some time ago.

"Refuting" -- a frequently misused word, imv

[alycidon]

From today's Guardian:
Allen has and is doing it all
It's become quite a common error to omit the full form of the verb appropriate to the earlier position:
I.e.: Allen has done, and is doing, it all.
This is more than mere pedantry, IMV, since no one would claim 'Allen has doing it all' would be correct.

Agreed. You are not being pedantic. It is an awful solecism.

[french frank]

I wonder whether they are unusually tactful, in that they blazon words like "travellers" (rather than "travelers") on the front cover, by publishing a special edition for the non-US market. It seems unlikely.

https://www.isubscribe.co.uk/National-Geographic-Traveller-UK-Magazine-Subscription.cfm

[subcontrabass]

https://www.isubscribe.co.uk/Nationa...bscription.cfm

As distinct from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/t...x/trindex.html

[kernelbogey]

The Wall Street Journal in an editorial urged the resignation of the President, saying “It would give Mr Trump agency, a la Richard Nixon, over his own fate,”

This a la jumped out at me, Nixon being male. So I wonder, my knowledge of French being unequal to the question, whether you could write that in the original language. If so, has a word been historically elided with usage, such a la maniere de Richard Nixon?

(Sorry can't do accents.)

[french frank]

The Wall Street Journal in an editorial urged the resignation of the President, saying “It would give Mr Trump agency, a la Richard Nixon, over his own fate,”

This a la jumped out at me, Nixon being male. So I wonder, my knowledge of French being unequal to the question, whether you could write that in the original language. If so, has a word been historically elided with usage, such a la maniere de Richard Nixon?

(Sorry can't do accents.)

I always took it as à la mode de, but certainly elliptical.