[Grammar] Nancy Pelosi's English mistake

[jiamajia]

"There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some," she told San Francisco's KCBS radio. "And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded. "


House Speaker Pelosi calls on Islamic center opponents to be investigated - NYPOST.com


My question is: how often native speakers hear or say this kind of English.

Is that acceptable in spoken English to say:

I want to know how did she manage to be re-elected time and time again, rather than I want to know how she managed to be re-elected time and time again.
​

 

[emsr2d2]

"There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some," she told San Francisco's KCBS radio. "And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded. "


House Speaker Pelosi calls on Islamic center opponents to be investigated - NYPOST.com


My question is: how often native speakers hear or say this kind of English.

Is that acceptable in spoken English to say:

I want to know how did she manage to be re-elected time and time again, rather than I want to know how she managed to be re-elected time and time again.
​

It may be more a case of the written version not doing reported speech properly. She may have said 'And I join those who have called for looking into [the question] "How is this opposition to the mosque being funded?" '

If that's what she meant, then the error is in the written reporting of it.

With your final question, the grammatically correct version is "I want to know how she managed to be re-elected time and time again".

 

[jiamajia]

It may be more a case of the written version not doing reported speech properly. She may have said 'And I join those who have called for looking into [the question] "How is this opposition to the mosque being funded?" '

If that's what she meant, then the error is in the written reporting of it.

With your final question, the grammatically correct version is "I want to know how she managed to be re-elected time and time again".

Thank you. I don't think there is any problem undertanding it. What I am curious about is how people react to such an error, which is minor in my opinion. Do they usually accept it as informal English?

 

[SoothingDave]

Thank you. I don't think there is any problem undertanding it. What I am curious about is how people react to such an error, which is minor in my opinion. Do they usually accept it as informal English?

Not a teacher.

It's not really an error, as explained above. If it were an error, it would be so slight as to not cause any big reaction.

(Being a Congressperson, it's amazing she has enough brains to construct a coherent sentence at all.)

 

[BobK]

Thank you. I don't think there is any problem undertanding it. What I am curious about is how people react to such an error, which is minor in my opinion. Do they usually accept it as informal English?

I imagine very few people even notice it. You can't hear punctuation, so in speech I don't see the point in saying this is wrong: /aɪwɔntǝnǝʊhaʊdʃi:getɜ:ʤɔb/. If you want to write it down correctly it would be 'I want to know: "How did she get her job?"'

b

 

[MrPedantic]

1. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded.

The error here lies not in the question "how...funded", but in the underlined part:

2. I call for looking into X :cross:
3. I call for X to be looked into :tick:
4. I call for the question of X to be looked into :tick:
5. I call for someone to look into X :tick:

etc.

MrP

 

[BobK]

1. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded.

The error here lies not in the question "how...funded", but in the underlined part:

...

I expect she was about to say 'I join those who have called for an investigation into how...', but, being a politician, she shied away from the Latinate word in favour of a more folksy one! Then she compounded the error by not inverting. She needs to ensure that her brain is fully engaged before setting her mouth in motion ;-); but she's not the only one.

b

 

[konungursvia]

I agree with the OP that it sounds rather illiterate as quoted. I believe she`s a New-Yorker, and they have their own quirks there. Example: 2 verbs: `The problem is, is that there`s a blown fuse.`

 

[Raymott]

Example: 2 verbs: `The problem is, is that there`s a blown fuse.`

Or even worse: The reason is, is because the heater was faulty.

 

[ndexter]

It may be more a case of the written version not doing reported speech properly. She may have said 'And I join those who have called for looking into [the question] "How is this opposition to the mosque being funded?" '

If that's what she meant, then the error is in the written reporting of it.

With your final question, the grammatically correct version is "I want to know how she managed to be re-elected time and time again".

Is that correct sentence?
And I join those who have called for looking into "How is this opposition to the mosque being funded?"
I don't think so.

 

[emsr2d2]

Is that correct sentence?
And I join those who have called for looking into "How is this opposition to the mosque being funded?"
I don't think so.

No, her sentence isn't grammatically correct but as always, with reported speech in the newspapers, however grammatically incorrect the quote is, they have to report it verbatim. So if she said "...who have called for looking into..." then that's what they have to write. The orginal query comes down to a case for punctuation to explain why it was typed as "how is this" instead of "how this...is".