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| bio | website | caxton1485.wordpress.com |
|---|---|---|
| location | United Kingdom | |
| age | 71 | |
| visits | member for | 1 year, 9 months |
| seen | yesterday | |
| stats | profile views | 6,056 |
I have spent most of my career in government service, much of it abroad. I have a degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Oxford and the Diploma in English Language Studies from the UK's Open University, and am qualified as a teacher of English to foreign learners. I have studied several other languages including French, German, Latin, Arabic and Old and Middle English.
My blog, Caxton, is mostly, but not entirely, about the English language.
Elsewhere on the web I have attempted to write in the constrained style of the 'Ouvroir de littérature potentielle' (OULIPO) in Variations on an Incident in Paris and in Variations on Jane Austen. I have also created a full set of 256 Syllogisms by figure and mood and showing which are valid and which are not.
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Sep 24 |
answered | “Each X” vs. “each of the Xs” |
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Sep 24 |
comment |
How come “John is friends with Jane”? 'Aren't you mates with Ed any more?' is a possible, if not highly likely, sentence in BrEng. |
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Sep 24 |
comment |
How come “John is friends with Jane”? Yes, that’s probably right. I was thinking of ‘partners with’ in the business sense: 'We’ve formed this consortium, so we’ll be partners with our former competitors on this new project.’ Other possibles are ‘collaborators with’, ‘allies with’, ‘bedfellows with’. ‘Mates with’ may not have shown inGrams because it is predominantly colloquial. |
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Sep 24 |
answered | How come “John is friends with Jane”? |
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Sep 24 |
answered | “In that case” vs “in this case” |
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Sep 24 |
answered | Noun for “person with intermediate skill” |
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Sep 24 |
answered | Is “hooray” generally considered to be onomatopoeic? |
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Sep 24 |
revised |
“haven't” as negation of possession deleted 4 characters in body |
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Sep 24 |
answered | “haven't” as negation of possession |
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Sep 23 |
comment |
Using verb tenses correctly Do you see 'which contained . . .' as an integrated relative clause or as a supplementary relative clause? In other words, would it be enclosed in commas? |
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Sep 23 |
comment |
Using verb tenses correctly If you substitute ’which contained’ for ‘containing’, you create a relative clause. That won’t do, because you then suggest that either the floor itself is looking down, or that it caused the looking down. Only ‘containing’ will make sense in the context. |
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Sep 23 |
answered | Using verb tenses correctly |
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Sep 23 |
answered | Using an unrelated “too” before an infinitive |
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Sep 23 |
answered | “Auspicious” vs “auspices” |
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Sep 23 |
answered | Whats in a title? |
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Sep 23 |
comment |
Difference between “thesis” and “dissertation” 'Thesis' has meanings that 'dissertation' doesn't have. A proposition, for one. |
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Sep 23 |
answered | Origin of “spick and span” |
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Sep 23 |
revised |
Correct usage of “to coin a phrase” added 4 characters in body |
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Sep 23 |
comment |
Correct usage of “to coin a phrase” I try to avoid the word ‘incorrect’ when discussing language. I suppose a native speaker could precede a genuine quotation with the phrase without being misunderstood, as in, ‘To coin a phrase, “Nothing venture, nothing gain.”’ But I think it would be more usual to hear: ‘As the saying goes, “Nothing venture, nothing gain.”’ |
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Sep 23 |
answered | “Make/do/take/run/keep/give a laugh” — which one makes sense? |
