Parenthesis is the strategy of setting a word, phrase, or clause off from a sentence to interject additional information into that statement. Despite the name, parenthesis can be accomplished with two commas or a pair of dashes as well as with a brace of parentheses. However, several problems can occur when writers attempt to parenthesize: … Read more
Traditional Christmas songs are a treasure trove of archaisms and words that have changed their meanings through the centuries. “Deck the Halls,” published in 1794, but dating from a much earlier Welsh carol, contains several such words. The melody dates to the sixteenth century. The familiar English lyrics were written by Thomas Oliphant (1799-1873) in … Read more
We’ve all noticed it in the speech of celebrities—a tendency to refer to themselves in third person. “Make no mistake, Bob Dole is going to be the Republican nominee.”— Robert Dole. “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore…” —Richard Nixon to the Press. ‘Trump hears that you don’t like what Trump is doing.’—Donald Trump … Read more
When referring to a paraphrased question, writers often introduce grammatical mistakes in the course of confusing the query for a quoted question. In the following sentences, errors are introduced in the course of posing an indirect question (or, in the case of the final example, a direct one). Discussion of the specific error, and a … Read more
Most English speakers have no difficulty with first and second conditional clauses, but a great many speakers get into trouble with the third conditional. First a review. Conditional clauses take their name from the fact that they place limits or conditions on the main clause they modify. Here are three examples of subordinate if clauses … Read more
The phrase at the heart of the current impeachment process, quid pro quo, is unaltered Latin, but several words less obviously Latin have been sharing the spotlight. Their etymology is interesting. castigate More than one person involved in the hearings has been reported as “castigating” someone or other. The verb castigate comes from Latin castigare, … Read more