atw: Re: This does not make sense
- From: Ros Byrne <ros.byrne@xxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 21 May 2013 11:03:33 +1000
Tks for the Wooster examples, Howard - amazing how rapidly anything from his
life manages to lift my day (not to mention the corners of lips)!
Ros
PS: And tks for the terminology - I've only known these as 'misplaced
modifiers'!
__
On 21/05/2013, at 10:15 AM, Howard Silcock wrote:
> It's a common phenomenon that every generation thinks the next one is letting
> language go to the dogs. But relax, Bob - your examples are all instances of
> a linguistic usage that is known well enough to have a name: 'transferred
> epithet' (or sometimes 'hypallage'). If you search the Internet (or try
> http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/hypallageterm.htm), you'll find examples
> going back to Shakespeare.
>
> I associate this particularly with P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, who often
> used phrases like 'I lit a nonchalant cigarette' and 'I sat in the bath
> soaping a meditative foot' writing as the narrator in the 'Jeeves' books.
>
> Howard
>
>
> On 21 May 2013 06:45, Bob Trussler <bob.trussler@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> We all moan about the falling standards in grammar these days, but something
> strange is happening. Forget the standards, as some things don’t even make
> sense.
>
> An ABC TV newsreader said “a high day of drama”.
> Suely, it should be “a day of high drama”? Maybe the writer was a bit high
> when they wrote this.
>
> Later in the same news broadcast, we were told about thieves in Cannes who
> stole “the safe in a hotel room packed with jewels”.
> Why would anyone steal the safe when the room was packed with jewels? Now I
> am really confused.
>
>
> Then I relaxed with some good news as I read about “a suspected boat of 83
> asylum seekers …”
> At least the asylum seekers had been accepted as genuine and only the boat
> was a suspect. I am still wondering what would the boat be suspected of.
> Maybe someone suspected that it was a boat but wasn’t sure.
>
> Bob Trussler
>
>
Other related posts:
