the epidemic with which we're dealing with
listen, rock stars. paul mccartney, coldplay- this includes you. i know you want to communicate powerful messages and ideas with your lyrics. i know you want to create perfect rythyms, certain moods- and as such, you have to let certain grammar rules fall by the wayside. that's fine. nobody wants to sing along to "you are the one whom i love" or other such atrocities.
but when you use the phrase "in which we...in", you sound ridiculous.
i'm sorry. i am just sick and tired of lyrics like 'the space in which we travel in' and 'this world in which we're living in.' you're artists, for pete's sake! is there not a single english major among you? does it even TAKE an english major to realize that logically, 'the space in which we travel in' doesn't make SENSE?
and these are grammy winners!
don't even get me started on u2.
'where there's trees, we teared them down and used them on our enemies.'
my four year old sister teared stuff. you preach world peace. sound educated.
some of us are just destined to be librarians.
but when you use the phrase "in which we...in", you sound ridiculous.
i'm sorry. i am just sick and tired of lyrics like 'the space in which we travel in' and 'this world in which we're living in.' you're artists, for pete's sake! is there not a single english major among you? does it even TAKE an english major to realize that logically, 'the space in which we travel in' doesn't make SENSE?
and these are grammy winners!
don't even get me started on u2.
'where there's trees, we teared them down and used them on our enemies.'
my four year old sister teared stuff. you preach world peace. sound educated.
some of us are just destined to be librarians.
posted by fudge at 7:06 PM
14 Comments:
you already said 'with' already
abba, when i am king, you will be first against the wall.
I don't see anyone nominating you.
Curly-haired people, UNITE!
you don't NOMINATE kings!
Don't even get me started on "doubled" verbs: What do mean, "The problem is, *is* that . . .?!!!"
Explanation: B.A. in French, 3 semesters of college Spanish, and 14 credits of college English. We language mavens can be dangerous. :)
And, by the way, break it up, you two! :)
So is it good to be a librarian?
no, i mean no offense to goodly librarians everywhere. what i meant was, for those of us so obssessed with language, that's probably all the excitement life has to offer.
When talking about the rule not to end a sentence with a preposition, Churchill once said "That is a rule up with which we should not put."
"and these are grammy winners! "
But not grammar winners
As the local linguist, i'd just like to suggest basking in the glow of linguistic creativity. Just go with the flow, yo...
Grammar book Prescriptivism is one thing up with which I will not put!
I can't wait until the demographics shift enough that in 50 years we'll all be speaking Spanglish ;-) .
great, now i notice that Dr. Bean has already quoted the Churchill preposition line...
I say we switch to Engrish right now!
A linguist is you!
ah yes, creative glow is one thing. needless stupidity, on the other hand, is Something Completely Different. i think what pisses me off the most though is that all the people i've mentioned - chris martin, bono, paul mccartney - all like to be accorded higher intellectual status than normal people, and STILL they can't figure out the stupid 'in' rule!
whoa. sorry for going all caps on you. perhaps i would not make a good librarian after all.
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