Old-school prescriptivism WRT to sports

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Aug 8, 2012, at 6:25 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> Olympics sportscaster:
>
> "_The two teams_ …"
>
> We were taught, back in the '40's, that "If, in a contest, there are
> only two teams competing, then, in description, the use of 'the _two_
> teams' is to be avoided, even in speech."
>
> You really have to wonder that people have nothing better to do than
> to try to make others feel that they or others are, in some sense,
> ignorant. It was nearly seventy years ago and I'm *still* finding "the
> two teams" jarring!

that's just sad.

but yet another silly application of Omit Needless Words.

arnold

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