Exposed!: Famous ungrammatical quotes!

[Jonathan Lighter]

John McPhee in the April 29 _New Yorker_ (pp. 34-35) protests that there
*can* be (my emphasis) "situations...wherein words or phrases lie between
the specific object and the clause that proves its specificity, and would
call for the irregular restrictive which."

But very rarely! In one hundred thousand words of his own writing, he dared
it only three times! He cites Leviticus as precedent, though in the passage
cited *no* words or phrases lie between the elements.

I like "irregular." "Specific object" instead of "specific word" is good
too.

JL




On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 11:43 PM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Exposed!: Famous ungrammatical quotes!
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> One slight quibble with the "9 famous quotes..." piece.  On the "split
> infinitive," Harbeck attributes the mythical prohibition to an 18th c.
> grammarian.  David Mulroy points out in his *War against Grammar
> *(Heinemann
> 2003)* *that after an extensive search he could find no reference to a rule
> against splitting infinitives before the mid 1860s.
>
> Herb
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 9:58 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Exposed!: Famous ungrammatical quotes!
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> >
> http://news.yahoo.com/9-famous-quotes-technically-grammatically-incorrect-065300736.html
> >
> > You will be shockedshocked.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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