X marrying Y <> Y marrying X?
Benjamin Barrett
gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM
Mon Sep 10 19:35:09 UTC 2007
That's exactly what I thought, which is why the original sentence is so
puzzling. I think CW got it right, below, though. It's the unusual
nature of the reciprocity of the act of marriage that results in people
constructing odd-sounding sentences.
Perhaps "...that prevented white folks and black folks from
intermarrying/marrying each other" is the best way to fix this. BB
Baker, John wrote:
> The point is, if it's mutual, you don't have to tell who is the
> marrier and who is the marriee.
>
Chris F Waigl wrote:
>
> Benjamin Barrett quoted:
>> =============
>> From http://bbsnews.net/article.php?story=20060824223757467
>>
>> A 1967 Supreme Court case that struck down a Virginia law that prevented
>> white folks from marrying black folks and vice versa.
>> =============
>>
>>
>
> Well if you leave out the "and vice versa", the sentence sounds as if it
> was only the white folks that were being "prevented". The entire thing
> needs rewriting.
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list