adverb

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
41

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

As a moderator, Beeesneees has the duty to make sure that learners who come to this website speak the most current and natural English.

So she wants to make sure that learners use an article in such a sentence. Since the context is missing, it is impossible to know whether it should be “a” or “the.”

When I first read that sentence , I, too, was slightly taken aback, but the more I read it, the more I liked the sound of “He was incidentally news dealer.”

I checked up on the author, T.B. Alrich (1836 - 1907). He was an American novelist, poet, travel writer, and editor (according to Wikipedia).

I think that established writers are often able to break rules. Furthermore, he was writing at an earlier time.

My books tell me that sometimes the article is optional if the noun refers to a unique role. Thus, we can say:

John F. Kennedy was (the) President in 1961. (That is a unique role, for there was only one president in 1961.)

There is no context for the book’s sentence. But it is possible that there was only one “news dealer” in that place, and “he” was it.

Learners, of course, should always follow Beeesneees’s advice.

As they become more fluent, they will discover that there are always exceptions to every rule.

James

42

Hi JM.

I couldn’t agree more. The purist insist that only prescriptive grammar should rule the usage of language. It’s not always the case. Placing and choosing articles is sometimes complicated thing to do, especially for a non-native. When some purists, for example, are not accepting the usage of the split infinitive I cite Raymond Chandler’s sarcastic remark to his editor: ‘Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois, which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will remain split, and when I interrupt the velvety smoothness of my more or less literate syntax with a few sudden words of bar-room vernacular, this is done with the eyes wide open and the mind relaxed but attentive.‘

43

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Tkacka:

  1. As a member for two years, I can assure you that the people who answer most of the questions here are NOT purists. They do not always agree, but they do their best to help learners speak the most natural and current English.

  2. Thanks for Mr. Chandler’s quotation. Of course, you have heard of the quotation attributed to Winston Churchill when a purist wanted to change one of his sentences that ended with a preposition: “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.”

a. In fact, my Web research tells me (i) There is no proof that he actually wrote that and (ii) There are many versions of what he actually wrote! But, hey, it’s a good story, so it has passed into legend.

b. By the way, Winston Churchill should be an inspiration to all writers of English (native speakers as well as learners). It is a fact that he failed his English composition class in secondary school (at some prestigious private school) and had to repeat it. He says that being forced to repeat it was one of the best things that ever happened to him. Just dip into any book written by him, and you will see what majestic English he writes. His writing is so, well, English!

James

44

Aside from all that, I still doubt that ‘news dealer’ is a title relating to one specific individual here, and should carry the article. :slight_smile:

45

I remember my English professor, while teaching ‘Prepositions’, referring to the quotation thus: “This is the sort of pedantry up with which I will not put.”. As I also use it in the class, could you please confirm the word so that I can do more justice to the original quote in future?
(I have seen it appearing as ‘something’, ‘nonsense’, ‘rule’ etc as well.)

46

The reason for the confusion is that this account is apocryphal and there is no guarantee that Churchill said it at all, though it is attributed to him.

“This is the kind of tedious [sometimes “pedantic”] nonsense up with which I will not put!” was allegedly a marginal note by Churchill, 27 February 1944, to a civil servant’s memo objecting to the ending of a sentences with prepositions.

In 1944 there were accounts in two newspapers, The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. The New York Times version reported that the Prime Minister underscored the word “up” several times.

However, the Yale Book of Quotations quotes The Wall Street Journal of 30 September 1942, which, in turn, quoted an undated article in The Strand Magazine:
“When a memorandum passed round a certain Government department, one young pedant scribbled a postscript drawing attention to the fact that the sentence ended with a preposition, which caused the original writer to circulate another memorandum complaining that the anonymous postscript was ‘offensive impertinence, up with which I will not put.’”

So this is likely to be a phrase which has been put into Churchill’s mouth. Nevertheless, it is an excellent example of the nonsense of Fowler’s original ruling that an infinitive should not be slit.

47

As I previously opined, learners should definitely follow the moderator’s advice.

James

48

Good morning, Anglophile (4:01 a.m.):

When you get time, you may wish to google “Winston Churchill – On Prepositions.”

It lists all the variations of his alleged quotation.

It even suggests that maybe (a big maybe!) the variations were created because the original contained the B-word! (I’m blushing!)

James

49

Good Morning to you, too.
Yes, I have found even the ‘B-word’, James! Thank you. The list will be exhaustive if you ransack the various sources available from the Google. Though the very remark may allegedly be controversial and whether the actual word is ‘pedantry’ or ‘English’ or ‘nonsense’, the glittering crux of the matter is: ‘up with which I cannot put’ which is universally attributed to the well (still)-known British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, the Nobel laureate (Literature), and which is the best ‘repartee’ or ‘tit-for-tat’ I have ever read! And it’s a classic example to open the eyes of the purists or the sticklers of prescriptive grammar.