I think Nona's example about talking about your mother when she was a child and still referring to her as your mother is a good analogy. First,. let me say that I agree usage-wise Nona and you. I also think that the mother-example is a good

Schetin, I am still trying to dial to the right frequency so that we can communicate. I am afraid I have failed because I realize we are not talking in the same wave length. I find your pattern of thought difficult to understand. I once heard

"Grammar and exercises are only requirements of the syllabus, not of learning a language. Did you learn the grammar of your mother-tongue when you were acquiring it? Most of you may still not know the grammar of your mother-tongue but you speak

Another kind of illegitimate argument is based on analogy between one area of grammar and another. consider yet another construction where there is variation between nominative and accusative forms of pronouns: a. They invited me to lunch. b.

Mr Pedantic wrote: Grammar isn't everything, K. It's always worth considering the context of a phrase. In this instance, the context includes the fact that while perfectly grammatical, and commonly used, it will sound strange or flabby or

People sometimes refer to the CGEL on this site. Conveniently, some sample chapters from this publication are now online at CGEL sample chapters The preliminary chapter includes the odd lapse of logic. This is one of the first. Apologies for the

From: HOW GRAMMARS OF ENGLISH HAVE MISSED THE BOAT (ref above) Consider the English pronoun pairs, her : she, him : he, me : I, us : we, and them : they. It is easy to show that the uses of these paired forms are not directly related to

Essay on The Collective Noun by Sophie Johnson Traditionally, the noun that names a collective is considered to be singular. Being singular, the verbial that denotes its act is also singular: (1) The family prays every evening. (2)

You are, I think, falling into the common error (one notably common, and apparently controversial, hereabouts) of conflating inflection ... only what forms what inflections we will recognize as marking that case for that noun (or, of course, a

Hi, this is just a cut & paste job from various internet resources: 1 The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology 2 The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar 3 Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language 4 The Concise Oxford