Comments on Grammar Puss: The grammar police

Providing a space in which people can talk is the ...

2005-09-27T11:12:00.000+01:00

Providing a space in which people can talk is the kind of thing that makes me feel all warm and giving, sissy-fuss. You're welcome any time.

Thank you much, patroclus. Hope to see more of yo...

2005-09-27T10:36:00.000+01:00

Thank you much, patroclus. Hope to see more of you. Thanks to pashmina for providing a space for like-minded folk to talk.

Hear hear, and oo, nice name, Sissy-fuss.

2005-09-26T09:56:00.000+01:00

Hear hear, and oo, nice name, Sissy-fuss.

Great site. Thank you for bringing up this most im...

2005-09-26T05:49:00.000+01:00

Great site. Thank you for bringing up this most important subject.

The opening paragraph of the _Constitution_, while beautiful, seems to me to be a bit cumbersome. Besides fixing the comma omission, a little more proofreading might have rendered the opening sentence of the premable as follows:

"In order to form a more perfect union, We, the people of the United States, strive to establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Prosperity. In so doing, we ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

That seems a little more clear to me (though perhaps only a little less elegant?). Ah, who knows. All I can say is that the capitalization of the Virtues seems a little too on the neo-classical side to me. Very anthropomorphic.

Another defender of the language who too often is less diligent about his own proofreading,
Sissy-Fuss

I got it at once. Either I'm some sort of incredib...

2005-09-24T15:31:00.000+01:00

I got it at once. Either I'm some sort of incredible genius or I need to get laid; quite possibly both.

Personally, I like to use as many commas as I can without rendering my sentence grammatically incorrect; a semicolon always adds something, too, I think.

I'll shut up now, because obviously my grammar is really awful.

Whatever you do, Cello, don't buy the drugs. They...

2005-09-24T11:51:00.000+01:00

Whatever you do, Cello, don't buy the drugs. They don't work...apparently.

my junk thing tends to filter things i want. never...

2005-09-23T21:58:00.000+01:00

my junk thing tends to filter things i want. never mind.
so, when do you use 'people' and when 'persons'?

Hmm, not sure about the "expert" part, but...cello...

2005-09-23T18:21:00.000+01:00

Hmm, not sure about the "expert" part, but...cello, is the spam coming to your work inbox or to Hotmail? If the former, do as Pash says and turn it over to your IT people to fix. Gives 'em something to do. If Hotmail, then, er, do as Pash says (I'm *so* value-add, me) and go into Hotmail, click on Options, click on "Junk E-Mail Protection" and choose from a whole bunch of helpful features.

And never, ever reply to spam. Also, try not to publish your email ID on the internet, because that's how they get wind of you in the first place.

Having said that, my hotmail address is all over the bloody interweb, and I don't have any trouble with spam, so the Junk E-Mail Protection thing is probably a good bet.

Yours,

Dilbert

Get your IT people to set up a Spam Filter. Or if ...

2005-09-23T16:30:00.000+01:00

Get your IT people to set up a Spam Filter. Or if it's a hotmail account turn on the junk filter - you have to keep checking to make sure emails you actually want to read aren't getting caught up, but it's worth it.

Actually I expect Patroclus will have expert advice on this front.

Are you getting those as well Jack? I don't what ...

2005-09-23T16:25:00.000+01:00

Are you getting those as well Jack? I don't what rule I have transgressed that means I am being overwhelmed with offers of drugs to 'lengthen my penis'. Anyone any idea how to get rid of them?

I don't mind at all - as long as you haven't set u...

2005-09-23T11:11:00.000+01:00

I don't mind at all - as long as you haven't set up as an online Pharmaceutical.

Sorry about the word verification thingy, I know i...

2005-09-23T10:57:00.000+01:00

Sorry about the word verification thingy, I know it's a pain but I was getting *so* fed up with the comments spam...

Ooh, by the way, I'm going to try and email you in a minute if you don't mind.

I always preferred Peanuts anyway.(This may end up...

2005-09-23T10:51:00.000+01:00

I always preferred Peanuts anyway.

(This may end up as a double post, I'm having trouble with a character verification thing.)

You and me both...You're right (again) though, tha...

2005-09-23T10:45:00.001+01:00

You and me both...
You're right (again) though, that must be it - I did know that those were the opening words of the Constitution but, now you mention it, *obviously* the point of the cartoon is that there's a grammatical error in the opening sentence of what must be the US's most famous historical document.

Good grief, I can't believe all those people on the Language Log were talking about it and no-one got that. Someone's student even suggested that was the answer and they dismissed it and carried on talking about people/persons. There's no comment box there in which to make this point, unfortunately.

Still, nice to have that one sorted, thank you.

That comment was a bit inelegant, but I'd got over...

2005-09-23T10:28:00.000+01:00

That comment was a bit inelegant, but I'd got overexcited. Grammar has a tendency to do that to me. Oh dear.

OK got it, the infraction is the missing comma aft...

2005-09-23T10:24:00.000+01:00

OK got it, the infraction is the missing comma after "we". See being totally ignorant, I didn't know that "We the people" are the opening words of the US constitution, and there's definitely a comma missing.

Yes, of course! That's right - but in that case yo...

2005-09-23T10:06:00.000+01:00

Yes, of course! That's right - but in that case you would *have* to have the comma, and it would still mean the sentence was incomplete. More to the point, it would be nonsensical in context. What would they be going on to say?

Actually it's not a complete sentence anyway as there's no verb (although there is an argument that it's possible to construct a verb-free sentence, I've yet to be convinced of it).

Surely "we, the people" is correct where the peopl...

2005-09-23T09:57:00.000+01:00

Surely "we, the people" is correct where the people are the subject of the sentence, and "us, the people" where the people are the object?

Or am I missing something?