Linguistic Pet Peeves

crashfrog responds to Lam:

quote:

---

quote:

---

Well, I said that it sounded better with "have" as oppose to "has". What I was asking for is why.

---

​

Verb tense. Actually, we're looking at two different main verbs in these phrases. The main verb in the first is "has"; in the second, the main verb is "does."

​

You can see that, in fact, they're in the same tense, and the plurality rule does hold. You're just getting hung up on the fact that a verb form of "have" is in both sentences; it's not, however, the main verb in both sentences.

​

But that is a tricky point. That one bugged me all night until I figured it out in the shower.

---

Incorrect in pretty much every respect. The answer is right and the important words are correctly chosen, but the reasoning is completely wrong. It has nothing to do with plurality and "does" is not the main verb in either statement. It has to do with the fact that we're in the subjunctive mood through the use of the word "does." We are stating a qualified, non-definite question. English doesn't use the subjunctive nearly as much as other languages, but it does use it."The boss has asked that I be here.""I be"? Yes. Subjunctive mood in English is that, except for the past of "to be," you use the infinitive. That's why we say, "If I were you." It is incorrect to say, "If I was you," because the use of "if" signals a conditional context which puts us in the subjunctive.You say, "The boss has asked that she work late," and not "The boss has asked that she works late." Subjunctive...use the infinitive form.

---

Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Mr Jack writes:

quote:

---

In natural English grammar a double negative, like a double positive is an affirmation or strengthening of the statement.

---

Yeah, yeah....

---

Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Arachnophilia responds to me:

quote:

---

quote:

---

The replacement of "fewer" with "less." "Less" is singular. "Fewer" is plural. It isn't: "Less calories." It's: "Fewer calories."

---

​

ahem.

​

fewer is quantitative, less is not. if you can count it, you use fewer. if you cannot, you use less.

---

As I said: "Fewer" is plural. "Calories" is plural. Therefore, you use "fewer." "Fat" is singular, therefore you use "less."The fact that a sandpile is made up of a bunch of grains of sand doesn't change the fact that it is a singular sandpile. The fact that "fat" is made up of individual fat cells doesn't change the fact that it is considered a singular object.Thus, you'd say "less fat" and "fewer fat cells."

---

Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Arachnophilia responds to me:

quote:

---

has no one mentioned "your" for "you're" and vice-versa?

---

I put that on the same level as confusing their, there, and they're. It's an error, yes, but most people know that there is a distinction among the variant spellings. It isn't like they think "you're" really does mean the second-person possessive. They're just being clumsy in their spelling.In other words, I'm looking for linguistic peeves where the person doing the utterance is making a mistake while thinking it is absolutely correct. Your/you're, their/there/they're, to/too/two, etc....those are annoying but not what I'm after.

---

Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Dan Carroll writes:

quote:

---

ATM machine.

​

See also: PIN number, SAT test, and so on.

---

Yes! I had forgotten about those. The worst one I saw was a menu that served "French Dip with au jus sauce." A triple redundancy since "French Dip" means "roast beef on a baguette served au jus" and "au jus" means "with sauce." Thus, the phrase becomes "roast beef with sauce with with sauce sauce."

---

Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Mr Jack responds to Dan Carroll:

quote:

---

quote:

---

ATM machine.

​

See also: PIN number, SAT test, and so on.

---

​

All of which are the correct grammatical usage. Sorry.

---

No, they're not. They're common, but they're not correct. PIN is an acronym that stands for "personal identification number." It is therefore redundant to say "PIN number" since what you just said was "personal identification number number."You go to the ATM. You enter your PIN. You take the SAT.Want more proof? Make the sentences plural. "We installed five ATMs today." "I scored a 1360 on my SATs."

---

Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

You are wrong.I'd dig out references to Style manuals, but I really can't be bothered.

Redundant AcronymsRrhain,
I also looked at new style guides and found that the use of apostophes differs depending on the guide. Looks like we pick a preference and be consistent. So I guess I quit complaining and just keep the person consistent.

---

A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Are you sure it's subjunctive mood? That was my first thought as well, but I couldn't see that this was a subjunctive situation, particularly since it's an interrogative and not a counterfactual/conditional statement:

quote:

---

The subjunctive mood is used to express counterfactual (or conditional) statements, and is often found in if-then statements, and certain formulaic expressions. It is typically marked in the present tense by the auxiliary "were" plus the continuous aspect () form of the verb.

---

"Does God have" is the same kind of verb phrase as "God does have"; when you contrast "God has" and "God does have", it becomes pretty obvious that we're dealing with declarative mood in both cases, and that the only difference is the main verbs - "Does" in the first, and "has" in the second. After all, you could just as easily say "Has God free will?"If we were in the subjunctive mood, it seems to me that the phrase would be "had God free will", and it would be a dependant clause. Subjunctive, according to the Wiki, uses the continuous form, not the infinitive. The presence of the infinitive "have" in Lam's second phrase implies, to me, that it is an auxillary verb to the main verb "does."You're free to disagree, I guess. Am I all turned around on subjunctive mood? It's Wiki's fault.

My sandwich place goes it one step further: "French Dip with au jus sauce for dipping."I guess they want to make absolutely sure you get your sauce...

Nah, I tend to prefer the company of Wonder Woman.
Thor tends to be a bit of a egoist.

Wait till he gets hammered!Get it? Hammered! Dan Caroll, your A$$ is 0wz0rd!This message has been edited by crashfrog, 10-19-2004 11:36 AM

Oh, that was just terrible.

i'm mostly just tired of people who refuse to speak their own language. english is becoming a written lnguage while the slang derivative 'hollywood' is taking over.

Couldn't resist.