Messages

121

You Asked Me This Question / Choice of lexicon matters?

« on: June 27, 2012, 02:05:54 PM »

Mine is Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictonary, and yours is presumably Merriam-Webster. I have been using it since I started my campaign to expand my word stock, but it appears to me that I am not making any heartening step forward towards accomplishing that end. So will I be accurate if I put down my slowly growing vocabulary to my seems-to-be wrong choice of wordbook. 

122

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: 'That'

« on: June 27, 2012, 12:42:29 AM »

I acknowledge both compliments! But, Sir, does it not seem that I have somewhat botched my explanation, especially in the final part of it? Indeed, I have come to think that in order to help the reader not mistake the clause 'it had no intention of pulling...' for a direct object of verb 'stressed,' the word 'that' is really necessary before 'it,' as it had been suggested by Miss Mae.

123

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: 'That'

« on: June 25, 2012, 06:47:56 PM »

They say that the word 'that' can be ommitted after a verb of attribution( said, stated, announced, disclosed, stressed) without a loss of meaning. For instance, it's not inccurate to write 'The minister has said he would open a case against the newspaper.' On the other hand,  'that' is not optional in the sentence 'The president announced (that) his new tax plan would be introduced soon.' Because without including 'that' in that sentence, the clause 'his new tax plan...' can be mistaken as direct object of verb 'announce.' Also, 'that' is not optional when one verb of attribution is shared by two thats, for example, in the sentence 'The minister said that he would open a case against the newspaper, and he would drag to the court all his attackers' the word 'that' should have been inserted after the second he for the sake of parallelism. As to whether the sentence you have given is correct or not, my view is yes it is grammatically airtight for one reason: It has used two different verbs of attribution, said and stressed, in two different clauses, one independent and the other dependent. You might recall clause being defined as a contruction consisting of a subject and a verb and bear its own meaning. Even if those two clauses had shared same verb of attribution, the inclusion of word 'that' in either clause would still be optional as long as the two clauses have different subjects.        

124

You Asked Me This Question / Re: What modifies gerunds?

« on: June 19, 2012, 09:39:16 PM »

Thank you! I have learnt something new: Modifiers can do their job externally as well as internally.

125

You Asked Me This Question / Re: Differences in the nuance of certain sentence constructions

« on: June 18, 2012, 08:12:02 PM »

Thank you for the clarification!  English studying may be such an effortful and demanding thing, particularly for a nonnative English speaker.

126

You Asked Me This Question / Differences in the nuance of certain sentence constructions

« on: June 16, 2012, 02:10:19 AM »

Could you explain for me the difference or not the difference between sentence (1) and (2) and between sentence (3) and (4) below:
1. Parents should not choose their daughters suitors.
2. Parents should not choose for their daughters suitors.
3. He appointed her US Secretary of State.
4. He appointed her as US Secretary of State.

127

Use and Misuse / Re: Adverbs first?

« on: June 14, 2012, 10:03:57 AM »

Thanks! But why did you think I can place [an] adverb anywhere in a sentence? I guess you intended to say I thought one can place an adverb anywhere in a sentence.

128

You Asked Me This Question / What modifies gerunds?

« on: June 14, 2012, 01:14:31 AM »

The sentences ''I regretted his leaving the job'' and ''He enjoys jogging three miles during evenings'' have the pronoun 'his' and the prepositional phrase 'during evenings' used as an adjective and an adverb to modify the respective gerund phrases 'leaving the job' and 'jogging three miles.' My question ''Can  adverbs and adjectives both be used to modify gerunds or gerund phrases'' is occassioned by my understanding of the fact gerunds are nouns and my awareness of the rule stating only adjectives modify nouns.

129

Use and Misuse / Re: Adverbs first?

« on: June 12, 2012, 03:26:15 PM »

I'm neither a Briton nor an English language wizard, but I considerably believe I can offer sort of assistance here. My understanding about the word 'also' is that it's a conjuctive adverb on a par with other adverbs like 'in addition' and 'additionally' and it serves to modify the whole verb phrase rather than an individual verb. Consequently, my judgement is that the construction ''also seems to have.'' is truly grammatically correct as opposed to ''seems also to have.'' To me, ''also seems to have'', in relation to your above sentence, means in addition to previously mentioned problems, the subject has this another problem. The meaning can't be evoked by ''seems also to have'', which I can't even explain its intended sense. My answer might be off considering that I'm but a beginning grammar studier; I suppose Carillo would conclusively solve the matter when he comes.

130

You Asked Me This Question / Articles really befuddle me.

« on: June 02, 2012, 02:30:24 AM »

Spending two hours a week on visiting this forum has made my grammar understanding surge at a spectacular pace. Whereas I revel in my expanded knowledge on such structural grammar aspects as parallel construction, types of English verbs, verbals and all that, I can't do the same thing about articles. Indeed, I find learning articles the most difficult thing to do in my efforts to become proficient in English language, and their subtlety particulary substantial snag. My hope is that you would kindly provide me with the easiest and appropriate method of approaching the study of articles; otherwise, I am likely to spend a hundred years trying to make a meaning out of them. 

131

You Asked Me This Question / Re: Wrong sentence construction?

« on: May 30, 2012, 02:32:09 PM »

It is sufficient, adequate and satisfying, your above explanation anent 'stative verbs' and how to apply them precisely. Perusing it, I only have come to ascertain that depending on how they are applied, stative verbs can give a meaning of continuousness in the same magnitude as they can do to deliver a sense of stativeness. The remaining hard task ahead is to get myself familiar with a list of stative verbs that can be employed to convey a sense of progressiveness and a sense of stativeness when used in discrete occasions.

132

You Asked Me This Question / Re: Wrong sentence construction?

« on: May 30, 2012, 03:01:33 AM »

I have visited the link you recommended to me, and my confusion has escalated instead of being lessened. The link explains clearly that stative verbs never work in progressive forms and that massive trouble begins when this rule is being violated, citing phrases such as ''having a car'', ''knowing him'' etc. as common glaring grammatical errors. If this is the case, then BBC's phrase ''was wearing'' is arguably inaccurate inasmuch as it attempts to use a continuous tense to refer to the subject's stative attribute. I would consequently propose ''the assailant, who wore military uniform, blew himself...'' to be the unassailable version of the originally controvertible sentence ''the assailant, who was reportedly wearing army uniform, blew himself...''

133

You Asked Me This Question / Wrong sentence construction?

« on: May 21, 2012, 08:59:49 PM »

I have just come across a disputable sentence--at least for me-- on the web site of one the reputable world news agencies. The sentence reading '' the assailant, who was reportedly wearing army uniform, blew himself up...'' is part of the BBC's story about today's suicide attack that has occured in Sana'a, Yemen, on Yemeni soldiers practising for a military parade. The contentious section of the sentence is 'was wearing army uniform', as it suggests that the attacker was in the act of putting on the uniform at the same time as he did the attack--which might be possible though. My query is, can one use a progressive tense--as BBC have done-- to refer to the happening that isn't progressive?

134

Tech Support / Mobile device

« on: May 21, 2012, 04:36:57 PM »

I have found that the quizzes available on this web site can not be solved using a mobile phone, or rather, using my phone. With such a limited access, especially to such a valuable material, I find that I am sort of denied an opportunity to better my abysmal English. I will, therefore, be more than thankful if the questions are made accessible to my device.
Thanks!

135

You Asked Me This Question / Re: People killed in accident

« on: May 20, 2012, 01:44:46 PM »

Thank you Sir for such a satisfying answer.