[Ads-l] Not "150th anniversary," writes...

Benjamin Barrett gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM
Tue Mar 31 00:33:43 UTC 2015


FWIW, I read cardinals like that as ordinals. I thought it was just a 
lack of paying attention. I see a similar lack of care in Japanese. BB

> Wilson Gray <mailto:hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> March 30, 2015 at 2:31 PM
>
>
> The point is that it's *not* exceptional - in expressions like one-week
> "anniversary," three-month "anniversary." What else are you going to say?
> But "150 year anniversary" - not even "150-year anniversary" - and not
> "150th anniversary" is an indication that writers for the Smithsonian 
> - and
> their editors - are no more aware of the traditional use of the word,
> "anniversary," than the average "guest" on the Jerry Springer Show is.
>
> Hearing random people use a novel, non-traditional, syntactic structure
> shouldn't make it, thereby, "correct." But it does, even among those of
> academic background.
>
> Language-change in progress.
>
>
>
> Dan Goncharoff <mailto:thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> March 30, 2015 at 12:46 PM
>
>
> Exceptional (but for the 150 part)? Not to my ear. I hear references to
> seven-year and ten-year anniversaries all the time.
>
>

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