quote:Originally posted by rramlimnn:quote:Originally posted by beternU:
Once more the Mother Tongue has been the victim of journalistic homicide. This time the offender is one Doug Ferguson, an Associated Press sports writer(?). Mr. Ferguson, in the Times daily of 6/18/08, describing matters attendant to the recent U.S. Open golf Tournament victory by the ailing (knee surgery pain) Tiger Woods, observes the following:
"After going 91 holes to win at Torrey Pines, someone brought up Ben Hogan's victory in the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion, which came 16 months after a near-fatal car accident."
And just WHO was the "someone" who brought up the Hogan incident? Well, unless it was Tiger Woods, which is very unlikely, the someone who recounted that matter was NOT someone who went 91 holes at Torrey Pines in the most recent U.S. Open.
Mr. Ferguson, a professional writer, should know better how to compose a sentence using participles, but his error is no more or no less flagrant than similar errors by other allegedly "professional" writers. The flaw is absolutely rampant and that is a shame, since it is easily avoided by anyone with a rudimentary sense of logical sentence composition.
And, no, it is not the fault of the Times Daily that the semi-literate Ferguson person perpetrated this absurdity. But if you follow the TD, you will from time to time find precisely this same kind of ineptitude originating from the keyboards of some of its alleged writers.
Some on forums such as this will take me or others to task for pointing out such things, which is yet another reason to lament the sloppy state into which English usage has fallen. If an abuse like THIS is not noteworthy or regrettable, then one wonders what is!
Betternu
You answered your own question in the first paragraph.
“The matters were described by the ailing Tiger Woods”.
I didn’t understand what the incomplete sentence “observes the following” had to do with it.
Listen up, Vincent, you have been sipping too much of that absinthe, and it clouds your comprehension. Read VERY carefully what I posted and you will see that (1) there was no "incomplete sentence" and that (2)Tiger Woods was most decidedly NOT the originator of the statement at issue. Try again:
"Mr. Ferguson, in the Times daily of 6/18/08, describing matters attendant to the recent U.S. Open golf Tournament victory by the ailing (knee surgery pain) Tiger Woods, observes the following: [NOTE---IT WAS FERGUSON, NOT TIGER WOODS, WHO WHO MADE THE OBSERVATION]
"After going 91 holes to win at Torrey Pines, someone brought up Ben Hogan's victory in the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion, which came 16 months after a near-fatal car accident." [THE "SOMEONE" IS NOT IDENTIFIED HERE OR ELSEWHERE.]
Stick to Dick and Jane books or learn to read adult-quality sentences for their actual meaning!