"fact" = proposition, nonfact

[Jonathan Lighter]

No charity is possible in this case, other than to say the speaker (age about 40) was merely using a familiar locution, one which would be impossible for me, at least.

  JL




Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: "fact" = proposition, nonfact
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If we wished to be charitable to the vulpine speaker (but, then, why would we?), we might plead that the phrase "preached the fact that" could mean "preached AS fact that"--though why not simply "preached that"?

Cf. Arnold's very recent posting, which notes (in another connection) the superfluity or emptiness of the locution "a fact that" replacing "which" (as deemed faulty for its lack of a definite noun antecedent).

--Charlie
_______________________________________________


>_Fox & Friends_ news anchor just now:
>
>"And there was the professor in Wisconsin who was preaching the fact that the United States was behind 9/11."
>
>JL
>

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