queerbychoice (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
queerbychoice) wrote2005-09-10 01:22 pm
queerbychoice) wrote2005-09-10 01:22 pm
Entry tags:
Quote Meme
1) Quote from nearest book to you:
"So my grandmother's father, who was a doctor in Pulaski, had his office in what was known as the Ku Klux Klan Building because it was where they had originally met, and it was a building that for a long time certain of their members would own. Until the early 1990s, the building bore a plaque commemorating its history as the 'Klan building,' without any particular concer, sadness or criticism. Likewise, my great-grandfather apparently never thought much of it; which is to say that the Klan, though he would never have joined, probably also didn't cause him to lose much sleep at night."
(From White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise. It wasn't actually the closest book to me, but it was the closest book to me that wasn't a dictionary, Spanish dictionary, or thesaurus, and none of those would have provided quotes likely to be at all interesting.)
2) Quote from nearest CD insert:
"Down where your paint is cracking, look down your backstairs, buddy - somebody's living there and he don't really feel the weather. And he don't share your pleasures, no, he don't share your pleasures - did you see his eyes? Did you see his crazy eyes? You're so surprised he doesn't run to catch your ash. Everybody always wants to kiss your trash."
(From Lust for Life by Iggy Pop, not the mutilated David Bowie version.)
3) Quote from nearest piece of paper written on by you:
"Some people like purple. More people like blue. Write a single sentence that conveys this information and uses the word than. Make the sentence as short as you can while keeping it grammatically correct."
(Follow the instructions and I'll tell you whether you used correct grammar or not. If you really want to know.)
4) Quote from nearest piece of paper that was written to you:
"Hello! My name is Baxter the cat! Meow!! I am a talking cat. Mikie sent me your way to keep you company."
(From a postcard postmarked January 2004, still sitting on my desk almost two years later, because I am like that.)
5) Quote from something on your desk:
"Citrus Heights, CA 09-04-05
O'Brien Going After Cacciato 14.95
Murakami Sputnik Sweetheart 12.00
MacDonald Fall on Your Knees 15.00
Erdrich Last Report on the Miracles 12.95
SUB TOTAL 54.90
SALES TAX 4.25
TOTAL 59.15"
(That was exciting, wasn't it? And you'd think a bookstore should know that subtotal is one word.)
"So my grandmother's father, who was a doctor in Pulaski, had his office in what was known as the Ku Klux Klan Building because it was where they had originally met, and it was a building that for a long time certain of their members would own. Until the early 1990s, the building bore a plaque commemorating its history as the 'Klan building,' without any particular concer, sadness or criticism. Likewise, my great-grandfather apparently never thought much of it; which is to say that the Klan, though he would never have joined, probably also didn't cause him to lose much sleep at night."
(From White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise. It wasn't actually the closest book to me, but it was the closest book to me that wasn't a dictionary, Spanish dictionary, or thesaurus, and none of those would have provided quotes likely to be at all interesting.)
2) Quote from nearest CD insert:
"Down where your paint is cracking, look down your backstairs, buddy - somebody's living there and he don't really feel the weather. And he don't share your pleasures, no, he don't share your pleasures - did you see his eyes? Did you see his crazy eyes? You're so surprised he doesn't run to catch your ash. Everybody always wants to kiss your trash."
(From Lust for Life by Iggy Pop, not the mutilated David Bowie version.)
3) Quote from nearest piece of paper written on by you:
"Some people like purple. More people like blue. Write a single sentence that conveys this information and uses the word than. Make the sentence as short as you can while keeping it grammatically correct."
(Follow the instructions and I'll tell you whether you used correct grammar or not. If you really want to know.)
4) Quote from nearest piece of paper that was written to you:
"Hello! My name is Baxter the cat! Meow!! I am a talking cat. Mikie sent me your way to keep you company."
(From a postcard postmarked January 2004, still sitting on my desk almost two years later, because I am like that.)
5) Quote from something on your desk:
"Citrus Heights, CA 09-04-05
O'Brien Going After Cacciato 14.95
Murakami Sputnik Sweetheart 12.00
MacDonald Fall on Your Knees 15.00
Erdrich Last Report on the Miracles 12.95
SUB TOTAL 54.90
SALES TAX 4.25
TOTAL 59.15"
(That was exciting, wasn't it? And you'd think a bookstore should know that subtotal is one word.)
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(...and now i feel REALLY self-conscious about my grammar)
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Also, the sentence you describe as incorrect isn't. It's slightly informal, but it's perfectly clear. At least some native speakers use that construction (according to some quick Google searches).
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Okay, I grant you that.
"Also, the sentence you describe as incorrect isn't. It's slightly informal, but it's perfectly clear. At least some native speakers use that construction (according to some quick Google searches)."
Yes, plenty of native speakers use it (the people whose work I get paid to correct it in every day are almost all native speakers), and yes, the meaning is perfectly clear, but that does not make it grammatically correct. To be grammatically correct, whatever follows the word than in a sentence must always parallel the grammatical structure of whatever came between the word more and the word than in the same sentence.
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*More people like purple than people like blue
But that's not even correct. Instead, the subject of the second 'like' is elided. Why can't the verb be as well? Oh, I see.
More Americans like Italian food than Chinese.
Ok, but with people, blue and purple, there's no such confusion possible.
Also, what about "more people voted for Bush in 2004 than would vote him now"? That's a non-parallel structure, but it's still definitely correct.
Yes, plenty of native speakers use it (the people whose work I get paid to correct it in every day are almost all native speakers), and yes, the meaning is perfectly clear, but that does not make it grammatically correct.
Sure it does -- actual usage is the only way to determine what's grammatical.
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You're right; I did explain that badly.
"Ok, but with people, blue and purple, there's no such confusion possible."
For the most part not - but in theory, your writing should be intelligible even to people with extremely imaginative interpretations, who might suppose you're turning "purple" into a verb and contrasting "liking blue" with "purpling."
"Sure it does -- actual usage is the only way to determine what's grammatical."
No, it isn't. When you work as an editor or a writer of English usage guides, you're not supposed to just write down exactly the way language is used. Rather, you're supposed to try to formulate consistent rules that resemble the way language actually is used, but that are more organizationally coherent than actual usage.
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"Victory" Joseph Conrad
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one word shorter than "more people like blue than like purple".