Thursday, May 27th, 2004

Time	Event
9:53p	Participial relative clauses Language Log noticed this kind of sentence, and Languagehat has got a large number of comments, most of which regarding them as ungrammatical. Here are four ways of saying the same thing: (1) At present, personal injury cases are heard by many different judges, some having no experience in this field. (2) At present, personal injury cases are heard by many different judges, some of them having no experience in this field. (3) At present, personal injury cases are heard by many different judges, some of whom have no experience in this field. (4) * At present, personal injury cases are heard by many different judges, some of whom having no experience in this field. Now to me, (4) is plainly ungrammatical; but why, when it's so close to all of (1)-(3)? My reaction to it is that it's a confusion, a blend of (2) and (3), and in writing you don't notice these errors, but if you read it aloud you'd pick up that you can't say it. But enough examples were found that perhaps some people do say it. So let's look at some toy examples and try to work out what's going on. ( Go on, let's look... but it's long... ) So I still have no real idea why. Current Music: I Pagliacci (in English) (8 Comments | Comment on this)
10:27p	Sorry, we don't dumb that far down Fratboy: Oh. Well how about "The Stand" or "The Dark Tower"? Me: No, I don't think there are Cliff's Notes for Stephen King books, but I can check... Me: No, I'm not finding anything Fratboy: Oh. Well, just order them for me then. See, my girlfriend likes Stephen King and I want her to think I like him, but I don't like to read. And many more Stupid Research Tricks (thanks to the ever-rewarding frightened). Eta. Oh gawd, I've read more of it... must share this... "It's a history report on Kent State. ... I've looked in four atlases. There IS no state called Kent." Current Mood: Hoo boy (1 Comment | Comment on this)

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