Ultan's grammar quip

James Wynn · 13 May 2011, 19:11 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 14:11:28 -0500
Subject: (urth) Ultan's grammar quip
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On 5/13/2011 1:33 PM, Jason H wrote:
> I agree that Severian's grammatical error occurs in " Master Palaemon 
> teaches us apprentices, mostly", but I have a different take. There's 
> nothing inherently wrong with the "us apprentices", grammatically or 
> stylistically. People often misuse "us" vs. "we" in this setting (as 
> James says), so our suspicions here are raised, but Severian's use is 
> correct. So why does Ultan imply that he didn't learn grammar?
> I think that the problem is the placement of "mostly" (although for a 
> different reason from what David says). It needs to be adjacent to the 
> word it modifies. The correct statement is "Master Palaemon mostly 
> teaches us apprentices." That is, the main thing that Palaemon does is 
> teach: he "mostly teaches". In contrast, "teaches us apprentices, 
> mostly" really means that he teaches different kinds of people, and 
> most of them are apprentices (but e.g. there might be some journeymen 
> that he also teaches). I don't think this is what Severian means.

I don't think that is what Sev is saying. He is saying "Although Gurloes 
sent me, my training is PRIMARILY received by Palaemon...but not 
entirely. I consider myself Palaemon's apprentice, if I had to choose 
one." It is true that "mostly" is ambiguous here. So it the use of "us 
apprentices". The placement of "mostly" is ambiguous and so is it's 
usage in the first place.


J.
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