[softwarelist] Re: Spull and grammar checking
- From: M Harding <riscos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: davidpilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2017 20:23:19 +0100
In article <e50a037a56.jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Jim Nagel <opro130803@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
M (for Michael) Harding wrote on 10 Sep:
Currently pundits (e.g. Oliver Kamm in 'The Times') seem to be
trying to say that there is now no such thing as "English
grammar":
Mr Kamm's column is entitled "The Pedant". It should really be
called "The Pedantically Anti-Pedantic Pedant." He is so boringly
predicatable: one paragraph and you know the rest of what he's
going to say. I think the German term is "ein fertiger Satz".
Sorry, I never learnt German. I was wondering whether my memory was
failing, for I recall that years ago Kamm had been concisely
elucidating some dark corners of English grammar - but suddenly he
seemed to change from a former pedant to one who decries all norms of
grammar. You reassure me about my memory. I find his current views
irritating.
Provided the words strung together are true, clear, unambiguous and
helpful then I regard grammatical accuracy as an elegant bonus to be
savoured by such quaint people as my generation. If, as in Dave's
case, the words are also lively, picturesque and challenging, then
that is the cherry on top of the icing on the cake of grammar.
Michael Harding
Rev. Preb. M.D. Harding riscos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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