"Five features that the iPod Nano needs _over_ a camera"

[Dan Goncharoff]

I suggest the "that" and the "over" stumble over each other.

 "Five features the iPod Nano needs over a camera" is a lot clearer to me.

 "Five features the iPod Nano needs" sounds like a complete thought.
"...over a camera" sounds like an added concept that doesn't seem
sufficient.

"Five features that the iPod Nano needs..." doesn't sound complete (although
it could be), and "...over a camera" completes the thought.

DanG

On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 2:15 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "Five features that the iPod Nano needs _over_ a camera"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In order to understand WTF this headline was supposed to mean, I had
> to read the article. But, after I'd read it, I realized that I've
> heard - and used - _over_ in this kind of construction as long as I've
> been able to talk. I'm not sure why seeing it in print was such a
> problem.
>
> If there be others to whom the meaning is not immediately clear, it's
>
> "... needs _more than it needs_ a camera"
>
> or suchlike.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org