"New device may have prevented tragedies"

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:38 PM -0500 1/28/02, Alice Faber wrote:
>On Monday, January 28, 2002, at 03:49  PM, sagehen wrote:
>
>>"New device may have prevented tragedies"
>>
>>This is a beautiful example of  may/might confusion that produces a very
>>bad result. We read the headline & think, "Whew!  tragedy averted; glad to
>>hear it," and move on to the next item.
>>
>>In the case of  "Colts Want This One? >So Don't the Pats,"at least  the
>>ambiguity (if not opacity) leads us to check the text to see what's meant.
>>A. Murie
>>
>I think Larry's point (if I may be so bold as to speak for him) was that
>in large chunks of New England "so Don't the Pats" isn't at all ambiguous.
>  It's just in a stylistic level one wouldn't expect to find in a headline,
>  even in Boston.

What she said.

L