reversal or just muddle?

[Dan Goncharoff]

I would argue that "prospect" is already conditional; following it with
another conditional is redundant.

DanG


On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 9:11 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: reversal or just muddle?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 3/10/2013 06:10 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> >I think "reduce the prospect" is correct.
> >
> >I also think the "needed" should be "will need".
>
> I would say "reduce the prospect that the Wildcats would need to win
> the SEC tournament in Nashville to secure a bid." "Prospect" leads me
> to a conditional.  (Actually, I'd say "chance".)
>
> Joel
>
>
> >DanG
> >
> >
> >On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 7:05 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      reversal or just muddle?
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Here's a sentence from an ESPN report on the Kentucky-Florida
> basketball
> > > game that Kentucky won. The context is that Kentucky has had a mediocre
> > > season and there was some speculation that they may not be selected for
> > > the NCAA Tournament and would have to win the conference tournament to
> > > qualify. The rest of the piece appears to suggest that this is no
> longer
> > > the case and all that UK needs to do is perhaps win its first game in
> > > the conference tournament. Then you get to this point:
> > >
> > > http://goo.gl/Qh7nP
> > > > Kentucky's win ended a two-game losing streak and increased the
> > > > prospect that the Wildcats needed to win the SEC tournament in
> > > > Nashville to secure a bid.
> > >
> > > The choice of "increased the prospect" is what makes it interesting.
> > > "Decrease the prospect" doesn't make sense to me--would not be a
> > > legitimate expression for me. Perhaps "reduce the prospect". But this
> is
> > > a "prospect" of a speculative negative outcome, so the whole "prospect"
> > > theme would not make sense. An alternative would be something like "the
> > > win reduced the pressure on the UK team to win the SEC tournament to
> > > qualify, as they will likely qualify on lesser accomplishments". But
> > > that's a complete rewrite of what's there, not merely a correction.
> > >
> > >      VS-)
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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