Brad,
For those of us who don't have the book, why don't you give us a few
examples?
Craig>
Before you wave the white flag to the advancing forces of demotic English,
> look at the first 21 pages and count them for yourself.
>
> See what you get.
>
> "Veit, Richard" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> To know what is good English, see what literate speakers and writers do.
> If everyone but me is making errors and the everyone includes our most
> distinguished and accomplished speakers and writers, then it is me, not
> everyone else, who is wrong.
>
> Language is an evolving process, and correctness is determined internally
> by usage, not externally by the pronouncements of experts.
>
> Dick Veit
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Brad
> Johnston
> Sent: Mon 2/18/2008 2:34 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama
>
> Dear Grammarians,
>
> In the first twenty-one pages of "The Audacity of Hope", by Barack Obama,
> c.2006, the word "had" appears 68 times.
>
> Of the total, 16 are used correctly as the past tense of the verb "to
> have" (11), or in the past perfect (2), or in the subjunctive (2).
>
> Of the 52 in error, 5 use "had been"' instead of "was" or "were", 13
> insert the word 'had' in front of the wrong form of an irregular verb, and
> 34 insert the word "had" in front of a past tense verb.
>
> Before you decide to kill the messenger, let me remind you that they are
> all there in black and white. They await the scrutiny of doubters.
>
> When you are satisfied, tell me ( a ) what difference does it make? and (
> b ), assuming you think it makes a difference, what can be done about it?
>
> The misuse of the past perfect is widespread. Obama's error rate of 76%
> puts him about the middle of the range in the 50 texts I have examined,
> where error rates run from 48% (John Coetzee) to 100 % (Henry Kissinger,
> believe it or not).
>
> You are welcome to see the numbers on some of the others. It was tedious
> to collect but is not particularly tedious to look at and consider.
>
> .brad.18feb08.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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