back


Delete / Löschen
Athel Cornish-Bowden
28.01.2012 - 15:33

Unclear reference

On 2012-01-28 09:52:38 +0000, James Hogg said:

Walter P. Zähl wrote:
The following made me stumble when I first read it, and I still can't make
up my mind if it's extmely elegant, sloppy, or just wrong.
From Simon Winder's /Germania/, about dynasties:
"..., a clearly sickly boy whose regent hopes will die soon ..."

I understand what is meant (the regent hopes the boy will die), but
shouldn't it be phrased something like "a boy who his regent hopes will die
soon"?

As I said, elegant or wrong?

Certainly not elegant. As it is written, it could be interpreted as
meaning that the sickly boy's hopes of becoming regent will die soon..

That's certainly the only meaning I could ascribe to it. If it means
something else then it is _very_ badly written; if it means that then
it is just poorly writtedn.


--
athel


Athel Cornish-Bowden
28.01.2012 - 15:38
On 2012-01-28 13:55:43 +0000, Adrian Bailey said:

"Walter P. Zähl" <spamsink8b@zaehl.de> wrote in message
news:2012728737349442389.712860spamsink8b-zaehl.de@news.individual.net...
bert

<bert.hutchings@btinternet.com> wrote:
On Saturday, January 28, 2012 8:08:03 AM UTC, Walter P. Zähl wrote:
The following made me stumble when I first read it, and I still can't make
up my mind if it's extmely elegant, sloppy, or just wrong.
From Simon Winder's /Germania/, about dynasties:
"..., a clearly sickly boy whose regent hopes will die soon ..."

I understand what is meant ...

No, you misunderstood. "Hopes" is a noun, and
"regent" here is an adjective, as in the familiar
(to UK readers) phrase "Prince Regent", the prince
who is actually ruling, applied to the future King
George IV when as Crown Prince he actually ruled
on behalf of his incapacitated father. So the boy's
"regent hopes" are his hopes of becoming the ruler.

I don't think so - but perhaps I cut away too much. Here's the full quote
in context.

It's about "a staggering array of rulers" in "any given month in Germany's
history", among others
"a clearly sickly boy whose regent hopes will die soon in the - as it
proves mistaken - belief that he will grab the throne; [other examples]"

Is there any chance that you'll give us the whole sentence?

Perhaps we should make it a rule of a.u.e that people with questions
don't make their own decisions about how much information is enough
information.

If only! My experience is that one-time vistors with questions _never_
give enough information. I've given up trying to convince navi of the
idea of context (not that [s]he is a one-time vistor).



--
athel


Athel Cornish-Bowden
28.01.2012 - 15:39
On 2012-01-28 12:19:32 +0000, Steve Hayes said:

On 28 Jan 2012 08:08:03 GMT, Walter P. Zähl <spamsink8b@zaehl.de> wrote:

The following made me stumble when I first read it, and I still can't make
up my mind if it's extmely elegant, sloppy, or just wrong.
From Simon Winder's /Germania/, about dynasties:
"..., a clearly sickly boy whose regent hopes will die soon ..."

I understand what is meant (the regent hopes the boy will die), but
shouldn't it be phrased something like "a boy who his regent hopes will die
soon"?

Sounds clear enough to me.

Maybe, but you are probably wise not to specify what it clearly means.


--
athel



Jerry Friedman
28.01.2012 - 15:42
On Jan 28, 5:230am, "John Dean" <john-d...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
Walter P. Zähl wrote:
> bert <bert.hutchi...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>> On Saturday, January 28, 2012 8:08:03 AM UTC, Walter P. Zähl wrote:
>>> The following made me stumble when I first read it, and I still
>>> can't make up my mind if it's extmely elegant, sloppy, or just
>>> wrong.
>>> From Simon Winder's /Germania/, about dynasties:
>>> "..., a clearly sickly boy whose regent hopes will die soon ..."

>>> I understand what is meant ...

>> No, you misunderstood. 0"Hopes" is a noun, and
>> "regent" here is an adjective, as in the familiar
>> (to UK readers) phrase "Prince Regent", the prince
>> who is actually ruling, applied to the future King
>> George IV when as Crown Prince he actually ruled
>> on behalf of his incapacitated father. 0So the boy's
>> "regent hopes" are his hopes of becoming the ruler.

> I don't think so - but perhaps I cut away too much. Here's the full
> quote in context.

> It's about "a staggering array of rulers" in "any given month in
> Germany's history", among others
> "a clearly sickly boy whose regent hopes will die soon in the - as it
> proves mistaken - belief that he will grab the throne; [other
> examples]"

> So it is the regent reigning in the boy's place who hopes, not the
> "regent hopes" of the boy.

> Perhaps it's just a simple mistake, and the author left out a "he",
> as in "whose regent hopes HE will die"?

> /Walter

Ah, the joys of giving sufficient context for the reader to see what's go=
ing
on. Clearly you're right - the regent is hoping the boy will die. It's an
appalling piece of writing, though I don't believe it actually contravene=
s
any grammatical rules, and needs some serious reworking.

I agree with "appalling", but for me it contravenes a grammatical
rule. As people have suggested, it has to be either "whose regent
hopes he will die soon" or "who his regent hopes will die soon".

Both verbs in the subordinate clause, "hopes" and "will die", need a
subject in the subordinate clause, and the only one available is
"regent". You may be taking "whose", or "boy" outside the clause, as
the subject of "will die", but neither of those works for me.

--
Jerry Friedman

Iain Archer
28.01.2012 - 16:01
Iain Archer wrote on Sat, 28 Jan 2012
John Dean wrote on Sat, 28 Jan 2012
Ah, the joys of giving sufficient context for the reader to see what's going
on. Clearly you're right - the regent is hoping the boy will die. It's an
appalling piece of writing, though I don't believe it actually contravenes
any grammatical rules, and needs some serious reworking.

I don't think even that. I think it's the boy who dies before
realising his hope of gaining the throne; whether as regent or
whatever, I'm not sure; nor of why the 'grabbing'.

Sorry, John. I recant, and now agree with you. The folly of giving too
much weight to apparent well-formedness.
--
Iain Archer


Peter Brooks
28.01.2012 - 16:27
On Jan 28, 5:010pm, Iain Archer <m...@privacy.net> wrote:


Sorry, John. 0I recant, and now agree with you. 0The folly of giving =
too
much weight to apparent well-formedness.

Isn't 'form' better than 'apparent well-formedness'?



Andrew B
28.01.2012 - 17:49
On 28/01/2012 14:06, Iain Archer wrote:

The full passage can be seen here.
<http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gnFYmT6koKEC&pg=PA112&dq="whose+regen
t+hopes">. The preceding sentence overdoes compression too.

I can sympathise with Walter for not quoting the full sentence...

"A slice through any given month in Germany's history could turn up a
staggering array of rulers: a discredited soldier humiliated in an
incompetently handled battle in his youth, still carrying on his gloomy,
undermined reign forty years later; a genuinely pious archbishop
obsessed with designing his own monumental tomb; a clearly sickly boy
whose regent hopes will die soon in the - as it proves mistaken - belief
that he will grab the throne; a half-demented miser, obsessed with
alchemy, leaving whole room of correspondence unopened for years; and so
on."

"John Dean"
28.01.2012 - 17:57
Peter Brooks wrote:
On Jan 28, 5:01 pm, Iain Archer <m...@privacy.net> wrote:


Sorry, John. I recant, and now agree with you. The folly of giving
too much weight to apparent well-formedness.

Isn't 'form' better than 'apparent well-formedness'?

I happen to like "apparent well-formedness". It may not win any prizes in
the annual Plain English Awards but I shall find occasion to use it, here
and elsewhere.
--
John Dean
Oxford



Steve Hayes
28.01.2012 - 19:02
On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:39:42 +0100, Athel Cornish-Bowden
<acornish@ifr88.cnrs-mrs.fr> wrote:

On 2012-01-28 12:19:32 +0000, Steve Hayes said:

On 28 Jan 2012 08:08:03 GMT, Walter P. Zähl <spamsink8b@zaehl.de> wrote:

The following made me stumble when I first read it, and I still can't make
up my mind if it's extmely elegant, sloppy, or just wrong.
From Simon Winder's /Germania/, about dynasties:
"..., a clearly sickly boy whose regent hopes will die soon ..."

I understand what is meant (the regent hopes the boy will die), but
shouldn't it be phrased something like "a boy who his regent hopes will die
soon"?

Sounds clear enough to me.

Maybe, but you are probably wise not to specify what it clearly means.

But I will...

There is a boy.
He is sickly.
He has a regent.
His regent hopes he will die.
Soon.

More context would help, of course, but one can infer some of it, such as that
the boy is probably a prince who has inherited the realm after the death of
his father, and the regent is a wicked uncle. It doesn't actually SAY that, of
course, mbut one can infer it.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

trio
28.01.2012 - 19:44
Andrew B <bulland@gmail.com> wrote:

On 28/01/2012 14:06, Iain Archer wrote:

> The full passage can be seen here.
> <http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gnFYmT6koKEC&pg=PA112&dq="whose+regen
> t+hopes">. The preceding sentence overdoes compression too.

I can sympathise with Walter for not quoting the full sentence...

"A slice through any given month in Germany's history could turn up a
staggering array of rulers: a discredited soldier humiliated in an
incompetently handled battle in his youth, still carrying on his gloomy,
undermined reign forty years later; a genuinely pious archbishop
obsessed with designing his own monumental tomb; a clearly sickly boy
whose regent hopes will die soon in the - as it proves mistaken - belief
that he will grab the throne; a half-demented miser, obsessed with
alchemy, leaving whole room of correspondence unopened for years; and so
on."

Thanks for that, because all of those Google editions are "No Preview"
here. Too recent of a book, I imagine.

--
Best -- Donna Richoux
An American living in the Netherlands

R H Draney
28.01.2012 - 22:12
Adrian Bailey filted:

Perhaps we should make it a rule of a.u.e that people with questions don't
make their own decisions about how much information is enough information.

The rule already exists, and it's not merely "a rule of a.u.e" but a law of
nature...all we can do is try to point it out to the people with questions....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

"John Varela"
28.01.2012 - 23:14
On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:25:38 UTC, James Hogg <Jas.Hogg@gOUTmail.com>
wrote:

bert wrote:
> On Saturday, January 28, 2012 8:08:03 AM UTC, Walter P. Zähl wrote:
>> The following made me stumble when I first read it, and I still can't make
>> up my mind if it's extmely elegant, sloppy, or just wrong.
>> From Simon Winder's /Germania/, about dynasties:
>> "..., a clearly sickly boy whose regent hopes will die soon ..."
>>
>> I understand what is meant ...
>
> No, you misunderstood. "Hopes" is a noun, and
> "regent" here is an adjective, as in the familiar
> (to UK readers) phrase "Prince Regent", the prince
> who is actually ruling, applied to the future King
> George IV when as Crown Prince he actually ruled
> on behalf of his incapacitated father. So the boy's
> "regent hopes" are his hopes of becoming the ruler.

No, the boy is already the ruler, but because he is young he has a
regent, and because he is sickly the regent hopes that the boy will die
soon, so that he (the regent) can grab the throne.

That's the way I read it, but we're both on the wrong side of the
ocean. The Brits seem to agree that in this sentence "regent" is an
adjective. The online M-W gives only the noun meanings, but the OED
lists two adjective meanings, of which this is first:

"b. Acting as or holding the position of regent of a country. Also:
ruling as sovereign (obs.). Usu. used postpositively."

This seems to be the definition the Brits are using even though the
OED says it is obsolete.

The sentence is ambiguous. The answer to which meaning was intended
may lie in the British or American origin of the author.

--
John Varela

Stan Brown
28.01.2012 - 23:23
On 28 Jan 2012 08:08:03 GMT, Walter P. Zähl wrote:

The following made me stumble when I first read it, and I still can't make
up my mind if it's extmely elegant, sloppy, or just wrong.
From Simon Winder's /Germania/, about dynasties:
"..., a clearly sickly boy whose regent hopes will die soon ..."

I understand what is meant (the regent hopes the boy will die), but
shouldn't it be phrased something like "a boy who his regent hopes will die
soon"?

I agree with you that it's wrong, but I would correct it "whose
regent hopes he will die soon".

"Clearly sickly" isn't wrong, but I think it's ugly. An -ly adverb
modifying an -ly adjective just seems uneuphonious to me.

--
"The difference between the /almost right/ word and the /right/ word
is ... the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning."
--Mark Twain
Stan Brown, Tompkins County, NY, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com

Snidely
28.01.2012 - 23:28
Curlytop <pvstownsend.zyx.abc@ntlworld.com> scribbled something like ...


In the fantasy novel "Camber the Heretic" by Katherine Kurtz, after
the old king Cinhil dies, the rightful king Alroy is a sickly young
boy, and the power is in the hands of a Regency Committee. The first
in line is the king's younger brother Javan, so if Alroy dies soon
(before reaching his majority) the Regents will have a few more years
in power while Javan is still a boy.

The typical case, but as pointed out the United Kingdom has its example of
a regent younger than the regnant.

(By the way, what is the currently accepted explanation for the distrubed
state of the Third Hanoveran's mind? I've lost track of the poisoned-by-
medicine vs bad-diet vs infectious-disease arguments. It's almost as bad
as the "Today's Special - The Cause of Mozart's Untimely Demise".)

/dps

Snidely
28.01.2012 - 23:31
Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> scribbled something like ...


[...] It doesn't
actually SAY that, of course, mbut one can infer it.


Sounds like a Greek Tragedy to me.

/dps "snark hunting accident"






Share/Bookmark

next