|
|
|
timmy
|
 |
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13783
|
|
|
Even (especially?) The BBC fails with language:
Quote:After school, he worked as an upholsterer's apprentice, singing as he stuffed old armchairs, and then a milkman
Ah well.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ivor slipper
|
 |
Likes it here |
Registered: September 2013
Messages: 128
|
|
|
Evidently the milkman wasn't Ernie 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It brought tears to my eyes and probably to the poor milkman too!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
dgt224
|
 |
Toe is in the water |
Location: USA
Registered: May 2011
Messages: 81
|
|
|
"timmy wrote on Thu, 13 October 2016 08:16"Even (especially?) The BBC fails with language:
"Quote:"After school, he worked as an upholsterer's apprentice, singing as he stuffed old armchairs, and then a milkman
--
I think technically the BBC got it right - the last two commas make "singing as he stuffed old armchairs" a parenthetical expression, so that without mention of the singing it becomes "... he worked as an upholsterer's apprentice and then a milkman", although "then as a milkman" would certainly reduce the ambiguity. Without the last comma, on the other hand...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The commas around 'singing as he stuffed old armchairs' are what is technically known as bracketing commas. I think this is more commonly done with speech as who can pronounce a bracket? '(' I say, and ')' to you...
However, I know of no reason why the same device cannot be employed in any text. Not usually done, and liable to misinterpretation as here though.
Sorry Timmy
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13783
|
|
|
The issue is not that the words are capable of being interpreted as the writer hopes. The issue is, rather, that they are capable of such easy misinterpretation. It would not have been hard to write a sentence that had no inherent gotchas in it. They chose not to. It needs the simple word "as" inserted, not in the milkman, but before "a milkman"
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Does the "after school" referred to mean these jobs were done before or after any homework when the school day was over or does it mean when his education finished and he no longer attended school?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Quote:"timmy wrote on Sun, 16 October 2016 13:39The issue is not that the words are capable of being interpreted as the writer hopes. The issue is, rather, that they are capable of such easy misinterpretation. It would not have been hard to write a sentence that had no inherent gotchas in it. They chose not to. It needs the simple word "as" inserted, not in the milkman, but before "a milkman"
That is true, but you are missing the fact that most journalists will blow their own trumpet at the slightest provocation, and using fancy construction is just part of it.
[Updated on: Sun, 16 October 2016 19:56] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13783
|
|
|
"Nick "
"Quote:"timmy wrote on Sun, 16 October 2016 13:39The issue is not that the words are capable of being interpreted as the writer hopes. The issue is, rather, that they are capable of such easy misinterpretation. It would not have been hard to write a sentence that had no inherent gotchas in it. They chose not to. It needs the simple word "as" inserted, not in the milkman, but before "a milkman"
That is true, but you are missing the fact that most journalists will blow their own trumpet at the slightest provocation, and using fancy construction is just part of it.
--
And yet the simple solution retains the fancy construction and is easy to interpret correctly and hard to misinterpret.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
Goto Forum:
|
] 
A Place of Safety
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
Re: Mangled news 
Re: Mangled news 