Regarding the use verb and a preposition

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Sentence: The report of one-man committee "led by" Joseph M is out.
Or
The report of one-man committee "of" Joseph M is out.

Question: Generally we use the word "led by" to suggest that somebody is leading a "group of people". Means there are many people the guy in question is heading or leading for some purpose etc. However, the word "led" has many meanings. One of them is "be in charge of".

Which brings to my questions :

Would it be grammatically correct to use the word "led by" in the above mentioned sentence for the "one-man committee"? Or

Would it be grammatically more correct to use the preposition "of" in the sentence, like has been done in the alternative sentence?

**Google results are favoring the preposition "of" for the information. But I would like to know your honest opinion on this as it's confusing me a lot.

Thanks and regards

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@Razer,

If there is only one man, it is not normal to speak of a committee, unless the intention is to be ironic.

In that case, "the one-man commitee of Joseph M" would be okay.

It doesn't make any sense to refer to "the one-man committee led by Joseph M"

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@McTag,

McTag wrote:

If there is only one man, it is not normal to speak of a committee, unless the intention is to be ironic.

Like a "one-in-a-bed orgy".

1 Reply

@McTag,

Quote:

If there is only one man, it is not normal to speak of a committee, unless the intention is to be ironic.

In that case, "the one-man committee of Joseph M" would be okay.

It doesn't make any sense to refer to "the one-man committee led by Joseph M"

Thanks for replying McTag. Yes, it's the one man committee. Thanks to your explanation, now I can use the word "of" with sureness. Thanks once again McTag. Smile

However, I just want to point that you brilliantly captured my unsaid 'aspect/expression' in your first line. I indeed intended to be ironic. Hence I used the word "led by" in that sentence. But I wasn't sure it can be use in that sense or not. So I thought better to ask the sires of the community. Since now you have raked up this matter, I would like to make it clear also. So can the word "led by" be used in ironic sense in an informal discussion? If one has, as you said "intention is to be ironic".

Regards

Thanks and regards Smile

1 Reply

@contrex,

Quote:

"one-in-a-bed orgy".

Eh?

Didn't get, sorry! Confused

1 Reply

@Razer,

Quote:

So can the word "led by" be used in ironic sense in an informal discussion? If one has, as you said "intention is to be ironic".

Yes it can, why not? If it's a joke , all bets are off, as one might say.
In a way, it's making the same point twice, an over-emphasis.
But there's nothing much wrong with that, in the field of humour.

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@Razer,

Razer wrote:

Quote:
"one-in-a-bed orgy".

Eh?

Didn't get, sorry!

It is a humorous British term for a session of masturbation. You know what an orgy is, right? A number of people having sex all at once in the same place such as a bed. For example a "three-in-a-bed orgy". Well, imagine one person, all alone, in a bed, having sex. With themselves. That is a "one-in-a-bed orgy". Not an orgy really because an orgy requires more than two people. Therefore a jocular deliberate misnaming. Just like an orgy, a committee needs more than one person.

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Regarding the use verb and a preposition

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