"There was two Mini Cooper parked in front of my house", or "there WERE two mini coopers"?

@JTT,

Your post is also a breach of etiquette, and thus a solecism, because you have replied to the post without bothering to answer the only question it addressed to you.

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@JTT,

Quote:

It does, does it, Spendius? Did you hear that, Frank? You violated etiquette with your sentence.

I live in a country whose founding fathers were intent on "forming a more perfect union."

'Nuff said?

@Spendius: Look up the word "joke." That was what I was intending. Obviously I failed...or you did not get it.

1 Reply

@spendius,

Quote:

A word you usually, possibly always, fail to use when asserting something is "nonsense" or that someone is an "idiot". Which is why your statements including such epithets with a "because" are real nonsense and idiotic.

There's something incongruous there, Spendi. Is this then a solecism? Which kind? Are you guilty of a breach of etiquette? Did you let your knickers down?

1 Reply

@Frank Apisa,

Quote:

I live in a country whose founding fathers were intent on "forming a more perfect union."

'Nuff said?

Not hardly for a guy who was at the top of his class in language, vocabulary and grammar, Frank.

Quote:

@Spendius: Look up the word "joke." That was what I was intending. Obviously I failed...or you did not get it.

What you are probably [85-90%] looking for is "word play".

The issue wasn't and isn't solely that, Frank. You asked if it was "correct". What did you mean by "correct"?

1 Reply

@JTT,

Quote:

What you are probably [85-90%] looking for is "word play".

The issue wasn't and isn't solely that, Frank. You asked if it was "correct". What did you mean by "correct"?

Did you watch the Oscars, JTT?

1 Reply

@Frank Apisa,

I was joking, Frank. It's oxymoronic to suggest that you could have been a top student in your grammar classes.

But I must note your focus on issues that you raise. Can your focus be described as anything short of stupendous?

1 Reply

@JTT,

Quote:

Re: Frank Apisa (Post 5264189)
I was joking, Frank.

Okay.

Quote:

It's oxymoronic to suggest that you could have been a top student in your grammar classes.

Why is that?

Quote:

But I must note your focus on issues that you raise. Can your focus be described as anything short of stupendous?

Sure it can.

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@JTT,

I do feel a little bit like I'm talking to a wall with you JTT.
I would like to leave you with just a few thoughts before I move on to things I consider more fruitful and/or more entertaining.

Pure scientific research regarding linguistics, sociology, education, or any other field is very important.
Application of research is however is not the same ball of wax. You seem to posture yourself as the defender of the poor abused underclasses, but I think you have very little understanding of the conditions on the ground. I don't mean this next suggestion in any patronizing or sarcastic way (though I can think of no way to prevent it from sounding that way).
You might benefit from some volunteer work. Maybe tutor some children?
I don't really know your situation or where you live, so I can't really make a more specific recommendation.

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@Frank Apisa,

Quote:

Is this a correctly worded sentence:

I didn't understand Fresco's joke and was happy Spendius asked for an explanation, but I didn't understand the explanations even more than I didn't understand the joke.

You asked if it was "correct". What did you mean by "correct"? Do you think it's a correctly worded sentence?

Quote:

I live in a country whose founding fathers were intent on "forming a more perfect union."

'Nuff said?

I'm sure that you also had a point to make about language/ grammar/vocabulary here. What was it?

1 Reply

@JTT,

Quote:

Quote:
Re: Frank Apisa (Post 5264199)
Quote:
Is this a correctly worded sentence:

I didn't understand Fresco's joke and was happy Spendius asked for an explanation, but I didn't understand the explanations even more than I didn't understand the joke.

You asked if it was "correct". What did you mean by "correct"? Do you think it's a correctly worded sentence?

By “correct”…I meant…”correct.” If someone else had written it…and asked me the same question, I probably would have replied, “It was perfect. I laughed my ass off.”

Quote:

Quote:
Quote:
I live in a country whose founding fathers were intent on "forming a more perfect union."

'Nuff said?

I'm sure that you also had a point to make about language/ grammar/vocabulary here. What was it?

If you were "sure"...you were wrong.

The point was not about “language/ grammar/vocabulary” at all. It was about the discussion you were having with Spendius regarding his assertion that the phrase “didn’t understand” was “a limit.”

1 Reply

@Frank Apisa,

Quote:

I'm sure that you also had a point to make about language/ grammar/vocabulary here. What was it?

Quote:

If you were "sure"...you were wrong.

The point was not about “language/ grammar/vocabulary” at all. It was about the discussion you were having with Spendius regarding his assertion that the phrase “didn’t understand” was “a limit.”

[bold added to point out Frank's incongruity]

Right after telling me I was wrong in believing you had a point to make "about language/ grammar/vocabulary", Frank, you tell us what that point was. And it was about at least two out of the three things I mentioned. Possibly, all three, considering how poorly the term 'grammar' is understood.

1 Reply

@JTT,

So tell me, JTT...DID you watch the Oscars?

1 Reply

@Frank Apisa,

Ya really gotta change your dog and pony show, Frank. It's so abundantly clear that you use these h2omanisms in a vain attempt to get out of answering questions about which you don't have the foggiest notions.

I had asked you:
I'm sure that you also had a point to make about language/ grammar/vocabulary here. What was it?

To which you replied:
If you were "sure"...you were wrong.

The point was not about “language/ grammar/vocabulary” at all. It was about the discussion you were having with Spendius regarding his assertion that the phrase “didn’t understand” was “a limit.”

[bold added to point out Frank's incongruity]

Then when I point up your incongruous answer:

Right after telling me I was wrong in believing you had a point to make "about language/ grammar/vocabulary", Frank, you tell us what that point was. And it was about at least two out of the three things I mentioned. Possibly, all three, considering how poorly the term 'grammar' is understood.

You bring out your dog and your pony.

1 Reply

@JTT,

I actually stayed up until the end...which came when Michelle Obama uttered the word, "Argo."

Lincoln was a much, much better picture...and although I enjoyed Argo, there were at least four other pictures last year that were of better Best Picture caliber.

Have you seen any of them, JTT?

1 Reply

@JTT,

Quote:

There's something incongruous there, Spendi. Is this then a solecism?

Yes. It comes under "mistake". I made a typo, or lack of concentration, on "without" by having "with" instead. I have no excuse. I'm sorry.

I don't make up excuses for any mistakes I make after they have been pointed out and especially that well-known lame one about it having been a joke.

Actually, I think the whole position of attacking prescriptivism based on one or two examples of usages which have gone out of fashion is a solecism.

If one attacks the hooped crinoline fashion on the grounds that it is designed to show that a woman is disabled from engaging in any useful work, useful work being an odious activity as 80% of Americans know well enough, one does not conclude that women should go around naked.

But such an attack on so fine an item of dress is also a solecism because any bloke who has seen a woman fall backwards onto a four-poster bed, during a country-house weekend, in a hooped crinoline knows how useful the contraptions are. It would be necessary to define "useful work" before launching into criticism from that point of view.

Hence Veblen's essay: The Economic Theory of Women's Dress, is a solecism probably caused by his preference for ladies who have just mucked out a shippon and his masculine notion of "useful work".

Of course, he might have been taking the piss; which is not an outlandish suggestion considering his literary style which owes a great deal to prescriptivism for its humour and for being allowed to appear in print in a prestigious American publication.

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@Frank Apisa,

You haven't noticed that your dog and pony have died, Frank. What other lame ideas can the boy who excelled at language, vocabulary and grammar come up with?

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@MattDavis,

Quote:

I do feel a little bit like I'm talking to a wall with you JTT.

You should try Apisa Matt if you really want to try to conjure up the sensation. On any subject more or less.

JT is an amateur wall compared to Apisa.

1 Reply

@MattDavis,

I would have preferred spaghetti to wax Matt. Oodles of it.

Metaphors need very careful thought.

1 Reply

@JTT,

Quote:

Berty, you missed very little. Grammar isn't taught at school. The simplistic gobbledygook that passes as grammar instruction in school can't hold a candlestick to what you knew about grammar by the time you were five years old. At the age of three you were a grammatical genius.

i know what you are saying, but what i meant was don't ask me for grammatical jargon, or structure...i just know what sounds right.

to clarify what i meant by my lack of grammar at school...i spent my teens in france, and when i moved there didn't speak a word of french. by the time i left i spoke it better than some french people but obviously a direct result of that was i never learnt english grammar, and never caught up with french grammar, and therefore my technical knowledge of language is lacking, but i feel i intuitively know what sounds, or looks right.

btw...i'm a gent. "berty" (with a "y" as opposed to "ie") is a scottish shortening of "robert", as are rab, rabbie, and bert (not to be confused with "burt")

1 Reply

@Berty McJock,

Quote:

…., but i feel i intuitively know what sounds, or looks right.

Yea Jock, indeed there's a lot to be said for that approach, the Intuition

0 Replies

"There was two Mini Cooper parked in front of my house", or "there WERE two mini coopers"?

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