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  1. #21
    mykwyner is offline Key Member
    • Member Info
      • Member Type:
      • English Teacher
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      • English
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      • United States
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      • United States
    Join Date
    May 2005
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    Default Re: is or are "a few"

    The point I was trying to make in my subtle attempt at humor is that every essay I read decrying prescriptiveness is always written in the precise and exacting style that prescriptivists hold dear. Pinker did not use any dangling modifiers or split infinitives in his flawless prose. In fact, his essay is little more than an ad hominem attack on prescriptivists. (Not that they don't deserve it)

    The reality is that all six billion of us on this planet are speaking languages that had been evolving for at least half a million years before the first pedant tried to codify it, and will continue to evolve completely on their own regardless of what any of us say or do.

    Mike

  2. #22
    riverkid is offline Banned
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    Default Re: is or are "a few"

    Precisely, Mike.

    Guess I was too thick to see the humor. Ya gotta drive it in with a bat.

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