commas and restrictive clauses

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Aug 4, 2007, at 10:58 AM, Laurence Urdang wrote:

> Perhaps I should have added that from the early 1950s till the
> early 1960s I taught what we used to call "Freshman English" at New
> York University.  I won't go into the numbers of books I have
> written and co-authored, the number of papers of mine published in
> recognized journals, and my editorship of Verbatim, The Language
> Quarterly, for twenty-three years, during which I edited every
> syllable that was published in it.

you thoroughly misunderstand what i was saying, or perhaps i was
thoroughly unclear.  your scholarly qualifications (which, of course,
i was familiar with) are entirely beside the point.  what *anyone*
thinks

>> ... about who uses which variants,
>> for how long, how often, on what occasions, and for what purposes

is not at all reliable; these judgments are distorted by a collection
of reasonably well-known unconscious biases.  this is true of
*everyone*, including the most distinguished scholars of language.
as i've admitted several times in public in the past few years, it's
true of me.

a scholar's impressions can serve as a source of research questions.
but they are not evidence, and they should not be framed as factual
observations -- even when they come from someone with long experience
in dealing with texts and from someone who is absolutely certain that
their impressions are accurate.  you have to do the counts,
carefully, and when you do, you might well be surprised.  (i have
been, on several occasions.)

arnold

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