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Re: duzzinny?
(eyes lighting up [sic]):
"there do not happen to be EITHER design or
architecture firms in the area" -- this is correct
construction too, yes? (as is the neither/nor
construction, which likely is more formal/higher
english). why not eliminate the singular adjective
and go for parallel construction?
i'm a rookie, but when i met the mother of my most
recent lady friend and was pestered with critiques
over whether i really should have attended grad
school, i believe my predication to her "solution"
was: "if i were going to have done THAT, i would have
had to have had done.... so and so."
all of which effectively exploded her eyebrows. :)
how i love the subjunctive mood,
ewg
--- "J. Marie Hall" <fionaeval at yahoo_com> wrote:
> grammar...hmm.
>
> heh heh heh...
>
> > Should't it be "There does not happen to be ANY."
> >
> > Confusion created with plural "design firms," but
> I
> > think s/v agreement
> > is between "does" and "any," both singular. So,
> > right the first time.
> > But, really, this is one of those ambiguous
> > situations in the sense that
> > no one is likely to notice it except composition
> > teachers, and not even
> > all of them.
> >
> > Or I could be wrong.
> >
> > Marie?
>
> well....any is an adjective here. so "firms" is
> really your subject. you wouldn't say "there isn't
> any firms." you'd say, "there aren't any firms."
> if
> "any" stood alone, we could make it singular or
> plural...since it can modify grammatically singular
> (e.g. "glue?--there isn't any") entities or plural
> ones (e.g. "geraniums?--"there aren't any").
>
> but even so...about whether or not we should care,
> that depends on the environment. if it's written
> (or
> if it's spoken in a formal/professional/academic
> environment), we is gettin' anal about it.
>
> now if we're just chewing the phat, well, that's
> another story. i won't get into why...if you wanna
> know, lemme know. see, this sociolinguistics thang
> is
> something i love well. so i'll share it with you
> personally if you want. otherwise, i'll only allow
> it
> to bubble out here in spurts so as not to overcome
> the
> list with the sheer genius of it all. it's too
> much,
> ya know. just makes ya wanna cry it's so good.
>
> > That is all.
>
> is that possible?
>
> -j. marie
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