It's National Grammar Day.
03-05-09, 03:34 PM
#27
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I too remember diagraming sentences............could not do it now though, not even sure I could do it then. Does the verb go on the slanty line up or down???
03-05-09, 04:37 PM
#28
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Verb goes on the horizontal line after the subject, separated by a vertical line. The adjective, adverb, or preposition goes on the slanty line.
03-05-09, 05:17 PM
#29
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03-05-09, 05:40 PM
#30
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It's a beautiful thing. I read an article about a grammar cop who was asked about the grammar of the preamble of the Constitution. She replied that "a more perfect union" was gramatically incorrect since "perfect" is absolute and cannot be compared.
However, from Wikipeida:
Some rigid, traditional grammarians object to the use of the superlative or comparative with words such as "full," "complete," "unique" or "empty," [or perfect] which by definition already denote either a totality, an absence, or an absolute. However, such words are routinely and frequently qualified in contemporary speech and writing. This type of usage conveys more of a figurative than a literal meaning, since in a strictly literal sense, something cannot be more or less unique or empty to a greater or lesser degree. For example, in the phrase "most complete selection of wines in the Midwest," "most complete" doesn't mean "closest to having all elements represented," it merely connotes a well-rounded, relatively extensive selection. Browsing in some of the best-known search-engines for "more complete" or "most complete" would establish the frequency of this usage by many millions of examples.
However, from Wikipeida:
Some rigid, traditional grammarians object to the use of the superlative or comparative with words such as "full," "complete," "unique" or "empty," [or perfect] which by definition already denote either a totality, an absence, or an absolute. However, such words are routinely and frequently qualified in contemporary speech and writing. This type of usage conveys more of a figurative than a literal meaning, since in a strictly literal sense, something cannot be more or less unique or empty to a greater or lesser degree. For example, in the phrase "most complete selection of wines in the Midwest," "most complete" doesn't mean "closest to having all elements represented," it merely connotes a well-rounded, relatively extensive selection. Browsing in some of the best-known search-engines for "more complete" or "most complete" would establish the frequency of this usage by many millions of examples.
03-05-09, 11:21 PM
#31
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Personally, I dislike superlaxitive words. They tend to make sentences "run-on"...........
03-05-09, 11:24 PM
#32
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03-06-09, 06:11 AM
#35
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03-06-09, 09:03 AM
#36
Don't mince words
