getting great input

[fflo]

Cat people are talking to me of cat things. This is good.

In a related (to the last sentence) matter, I am increasingly able, after a few years at Math Reviews, not only to tolerate but even to use, willy-nilly & with little wincing, demonstrative pronouns. That is to say, I am less compelled to make 'em adjectival by plopping directive nouns after 'em---though I still believe, fairly firmly, that that [habit] generally makes for better writing.

This [development], I realize, likely interests no one but me.

Comments

demo pronouns and such

[sprig5.livejournal.com]

I used to mark instances of use of demonstrative pronouns w/o directive nouns on my freshman students' papers all the time...without knowing what demonstrative pronouns or directive nouns were. I would constantly be writing: "What does 'that' refer to? Unclear." Or "What does 'it' refer to?" What would THAT be called, by the way? (That sort of use of 'it,' I mean.)

May or may not have a contract on a house this AM. Will find out today. Sellers "are inclined" to accept my offer, but that doesn't mean they;ve signed anything yet.

Re: demo pronouns and such

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Well, "it"'s a pronoun. A proper one, really---a word that substitutes for and refers back to a noun, which, when referred back to, is its antecedent. So the vague "it" is the problem of unclear (or unstated) antecedent. In really solid grammatical writing, there has to be an actual present, stated noun, not to far before & not ambiguously on the other side of other possible referents, that the pronoun refers to---or stands in for.

I think there's a bastardized quality to demonstratives when used as pronouns. They're not really designed for that linguistic purpose. It's an instinctive/built-in take I've had since I was fairly young & learned later to discuss in grammatical terms. The main shame of 'em, to me, is the missed opportunity to be clear, and possible even give a "spin" one is after.

Yeah, call me controlling---writing is controlling, of the audience's experience. Directive. Stuff one doesn't want to do as a matter of course in interpersonal relationships, but one does rather want to do when attempting to articulate ideas, or take a reader someplace with words.

The classic issue with pronouns, which I imagine you were explaining to the young'ns in some detail, is pronoun-antecedent agreement, in gender & number & case. If I hadn't taken Latin I wouldn't have learned about that [business] at all, formally, until tutoring students at the community college who were taking ridiculously detailed formal grammar quizzes from this bizarrely out-of-touch fella.

Keep me posted on the house.