attribute . . . as"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Tue Dec 15 21:29:28 UTC 2009


With these words I officially stigmatize it.

Good work, Charlie. They'll stop at nothing.

JL

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      attribute . . . as"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> One of my least favorite locutions, just encountered in a pretty good
> student's final exam paper: "The poet attributes the stars as having the
> ability to create emotion."
>
> That "attribute . . . as" construction (also "attribute . . . with") is
> somewhat common in student writing. Is it "officially" stigmatized anywhere?
>
> --Charlie
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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