Carry away

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Rotter  #121637  Tue, 26 Jul 05 11:23 PM


According to the detractors - who include opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwarts like the former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee - the prime minister is compromising national interest.

It all started with Mr Singh's speech at Oxford earlier this month where his opponents say he lavished needless praise on the days of the British Raj.

'Confidence of present'

His remarks praising the British for their good governance, and their legacy of a judiciary, police force and the civil services all attracted severe criticism from a wide cross-section of political foes and friends.

They accused the prime minister of glorifying the Raj and insulting the entire freedom movement, including those who sacrificed their lives trying to oust the British from India.

Mr Singh's close aides however deny that he got carried away by the occasion and made a mistake.

They argue that his comments should be seen in the context of India-UK relations of the present, not of the past, and were made at the time he was receiving an honorary degree.

Mr Singh's defenders point out that the Raj left India with the English language and helped to inspire the writing of the Indian constitution.

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He got carried away by the occasion and made a mistake.

What does it mean?  My guess is that he was overwhelmed by the occasion.

Is it correct English?  I haven't learn to write this way. Your comments, please.

  
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davkett  #121664  Wed, 27 Jul 05 01:33 AM
'Overwhelmed' isn't quite right.  Picture ocean waves 'carrying away' a thing that's afloat.  It's more like a euphoric state in which one is lifted up on a wave of excitement, caused either by the atmosphere surrounding the occasion, or by some internal state that takes hold and sends a person off to the farther reaches of appropriate behavior.
  
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CalifJim  #121701  Wed, 27 Jul 05 06:52 AM
"got carried away":  "was influenced by the enthusiasm of the moment to the point that his rationality was diminished and his emotions took over, leading him to 'go too far', to 'say too much' at a time when he should have been more circumspect, cautious, and measured in his remarks".
  
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K.O.  #121897  Wed, 27 Jul 05 08:27 PM
     Hi,  I think it can be replaced with 'blown away' as in 'the movie will blow you away' and of course disregarding the informal quality of it.
  
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davkett  #121907  Wed, 27 Jul 05 09:49 PM

Not really, K.O.  By the way, does your login name stand for Knock Out?--which could be another term related to the use of 'blown away'.  Also, you get 'carried away', if you've been knocked out.  But that's a different kind of case.

In this context, even if you want to be informal, you can't replace 'carried away' with 'blown away'...unless you want to make the comical suggestion that he was blown away by his own breath.  Reread CalifJim's definition.

  
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