In Defense Of Bad Grammar

More Intelligent Life:

I've long been the office language nerd. This isn't a terribly distinguished position. Every office has at least one person who proof-reads with extra zeal, striking out "between you and I" with three slashes of the pen rather than the requisite one.

Read the whole story: More Intelligent Life

Comments

[beninabox1]

12:07 PM on 05/22/2011

"I was asked if a letter should read: "Staff members at the Local Planning Council, with whom we've worked for over ten years" or "Staff members at the Local Planning Council, which we have worked with for over ten years...I said that there's no clear answer. Both are correct. "

Nope. The answer is not that both are correct. The answer is it depends on the rest of the sentence or the sentence afterwards. If the speaker is referencing the 'staff members', then the first is correct. If the speaker is talking about the 'local planning council' then the second is correct.

[3fingerbrown]

06:55 AM on 05/02/2011

The author's main thrust is sound: There are fewer hard-and-fast rules in English than people think.

But I'm not sure I agree with the author's first example of linguistic "fluidity."

In one version of the sentence, the meaning conveyed is that some members of one organization are working with another organization. In the second, the meaning I receive is that one entire organization is working with another. The context in which the sentence appears might make it clear which version is true. But standing on their own, the two sentences mean two different things. They can't both be true.

[beninabox1]

12:16 PM on 05/22/2011

Dang, you made my point before I did.

[Oginikwe]

02:07 AM on 05/01/2011

Remember the rule of two with quotation marks:
Two go inside--periods and commas
Two are outside--semicolons and colons
Two can be placed either way, depending upon the context--exclamation point and question mark.
Clearly, you can't be THAT much of an English Nazi...

[3fingerbrown]

07:01 AM on 05/02/2011

Remember that The Economist is an English magazine; the rules governing these constructions are different in British English.