Ultan's grammar quip

James Wynn · 13 May 2011, 14:23 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 09:23:23 -0500
Subject: (urth) Ultan's grammar quip
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References: <BANLkTinXOJPL2nvi2nghbrEFsTXY3qFi3g at mail.gmail.com>
	<4DCD1A4B.2080002 at verizon.net>
Message-ID: <4DCD3EDB.90608 at gmail.com>

For the same reason, I always thought the problem was with "us 
apprentices". But this is really a style issue rather than a grammatical 
one. Perhaps it was a pet-peeve of style guide writers when Wolfe went 
to college. The problem is that it uses two direct objects (which could 
be argued to be a grammatical error, I suppose). Thus, it is cumbersome 
and confusing for the reason David gave. So, it is for clarity's sake, 
rather than ignorance, that people tend to replace the "us" with "we" 
which is technically incorrect. One should avoid the pattern entirely. 
If "us" needs to be qualified and the speaker needs to clarify his 
membership to "us", there are lots of ways to speak and write the 
thought more clearly.

On 5/13/2011 6:47 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> I assume it's "Master Palaemon teaches us apprentices, mostly."
>
> I think Ultan means the word "mostly" is misplaced, making it sound 
> like Palaemon teaches "apprentices" as a subject, thus, "but not 
> grammar."
>
>
>
> On 5/13/2011 5:15 AM, Jason H wrote:
>> Shadow Grammar Puzzle:
>>
>> When Ultan meets Severian, he asks him whose apprentice he is; 
>> Severian replies that Master Gurloes sent him and that Master 
>> Palaemon teaches the apprentices; Ultan replies "But not grammar".
>>
>> The implication of his little joke is that Severian made a 
>> grammatical error at some point since they met. What's the error?
>>
>> (I *think* I know, but I'm only 75% sure. So I'm curious what other 
>> people think.)
>>
>>
>> -Jason
>>
>
>
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