[Ads-l] "to keep up" -- 'to continue' or 'to be au courant'

[Joel Berson]

Yes, that's a way to read it, as I realized after being led down the garden path.  But not, I think, a way to write it -- something's wrong with the comma's interruption of "see commentators invoking ...", which itself means "who are invoking ...".

Joel

      From: Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Friday, July 17, 2015 3:08 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "to keep up" -- 'to continue' or 'to be au courant'
   
I read it while adding a missing comma:

"You still see commentators who haven't kept up, invoking this story as if
it were obviously true."

DanG

On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 1:55 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:      American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:      Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "to keep up" -- 'to continue' or 'to be au courant'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "You still see commentators who haven't kept up invoking this story as if
> i=
> t were obviously true."
>
> The story is the discredited belief that technological change is the
> inesca=
> pable cause of low wage rates for low-skilled jobs.=C2=A0 Quote from Paul
> K=
> rugman, NYTimes Op Ed page, today.
>
> Does "commentators who haven't kept up invoking this story" mean
> "commentat=
> ors who have stopped invoking this story"?=C2=A0 My first try, but it
> contr=
> adicts what precedes and follows.=C2=A0 The "still" is a signal, but it's
> a=
>  weak one.=C2=A0 So it must be "You see commentators who haven't kept
> abrea=
> st -- au courant -- about the discreditation [of the story] still invoking
> =
> this story".
>
> "Kept up-to-date" would have helped.
>
> Joel
>
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