More from the Journalism School of Language
More from the Journalism School of Language
(OP)
Normally I consider the Telegraph one of the more literate of the daily papers but I guess this this one is a rarity?
(http://ww w.telegrap h.co.uk/ne ws/main.jh tml?xml=/n ews/2008/0 2/16/wfoss ett116.xml)
This is an account of the death of Steve Fosset but should that be Bathyscape and not balloon and just how deep is the sea off Australia?Quote:
On his sixth attempt, in 2002, he became the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon - in one unsuccessful bid he plunged five miles into the sea off Australia.
(http://ww





RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
Trams run on rails. A tram can't swerve at all.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
I take it to be the situation where hiws balloon failed and he had to land in the sea. Apparently he was about 26,000 feet up when the failure occurred.
Mike McCann
McCann Engineering
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
Thanks msquared48.
I was going to propose a rewrite thus:
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
Thanks msquared48.
I was going to propose a rewrite thus:
"crashed into the sea five miles of the Australian coast".
But the ambiguity stands.
Usually i criticise journalists for not remembering their five honest serving men (until far too late in the story) but in this case the editor should have blue/redlines part of the sentence:
"On his sixth attempt, in 2002, he became the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon - in one unsuccessful bid he plunged
five milesinto the sea off Australia."It doesn't actually add anything to the account, as written.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
in one unsuccessful bid he plunged five miles, landing in the sea off Australia.
It's unlikely that he plunged five miles into the sea.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
"The other two paintings taken from the E.G. Buehrle Collection - by Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas - remain missing, police said. "
Should be easy to find these two well known art thieves. O believe their graves are marked.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
(height of the fall)
(2) he plunged five miles into the sea off Australia
(depth into the sea)
I have no problem with the text. My initial interpretation was (1) and that was the authors intent. I can see how sombody who dives more than they fly might interpret it differently (2), and I guess that is unfortunate, but I still don't have a problem with it.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
"Don't let worries kill you, let the church help."
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
"A suicide bomber has killed at least one person...."
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
http://blo
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
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RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
I don't know what to say when you've got it written in front of you and still get it wrong.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
http://mo
The sensationalist headline proclaims that a problem in a nuclear power plant caused the power outage, while the text indicates that the nucs shut down in response to it.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
http://w
The article was about wind farms (a good read) and I was struck by the correction at the end. The spelling mistake is theirs; I used cut and paste.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
A.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
During the Foot and Mouth Outbreak, copy containing such news as "MAFF slaughters thousands of cattle." would get corrected by spell checker to:
"Mafia slaughters thousands of cattle."
MAFF (Ministry of Food and Fisheries) is now DEFRA, the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. (This department is already nicknamed the Destruction of English Farming Regulatory Agency.)
Naturally, since Big Bill is/was a close buddy of Tony Blair, other reasons for the change were offered by the government for the changes.
I'm sorry, for those of you that will Google, I did it for you and admit an error. It is actually:
MAFF - Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/bse/glossary.html
Regretably, I could not trace an actual article that would substantiate the alleged spell checker incident.
Incidentally, spell checker wants to change MAFF to Naff, Raff, Gaff or Taff.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
"Experienced handlers were working with Rocky, a 7ft 6in, 50-stone bear, when the animal suddenly bit Stephan Miller, 39, at the Predators in Action park owned by his cousin Randy Miller."
I read it and thought, "the Bear's cousin owns the park?"
and shouldn't they say "0wned by Stephan's cousin"?
They are probably right but it did make me think.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
Handlers were working with Maria, a biggol' mama bear, when she suddenly bit Stephan, 39, at the park owned by his cousin.
Hg
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RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
On each occasion, I've replied with "That's why I can always clearly see what you're saying."
apparently it's not funny... he just nods knowingly, smiles, and keeps talking.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
By the way, as Zeusfaber pointed out, the Guardian are noted for their spelling mistakes so it is presumably with tongue firmly in cheek that Clive James criticises Big Bill:
h
HgTx:
Your example works better with just one word change:
"Handlers were working with Maria, a biggol' mama bear, when she suddenly bit Stephan, 39, at the park owned by
hisStephan's cousin.JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
(my bold).
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
You know the press makes no errors.
Perhaps we have finally developed the tesseract as a tool of incarceration.
old field guy
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
There's a lot of room in a 3840 ft^4 hypercube, if you use it properly.
Cheers
Greg Locock
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RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
If so, do you take the Valley news and did you spot this msitake?
(they must have engineers in New Hampshire, surely?)
http://
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
'there has been one common denominator, Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF'
Well, perhaps two?
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
http:
Well, it had me going for a minute; I was wondering why the Chinese would take away the Englishman from his Northamptonshire home who blew himself up manufacturing biodiesel.
However, the man (under the circumstances a potential candidate for the Darwin awards), was manufacturing his biofuel from used vegetable oil he had obtained from his local Chinese Takeaway Restaurant.
Note that I have capitalised "Takeaway" which would, I think, have spared me the confusion.
Should we qualify The Register as a "journal"? or not and excuse them.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
Hg
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RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
http://ww
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
- Steve
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7713824.stm
It isn't the grammar or the spelling that excites his attention, this time it is the math in the opening paragraph.
To save following the link, here it is:
Oh dear, and we thought good old Auntie's standards were bad enough already.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
htt
Now, if this were some character in a 1950's comic with this expression encapsulated in a speech balloon, then we'd probably think no more of it but as an example of modern journalism?
Try imagining what the journalists of your favourite newspaper would have said.
Of course, had this been a handmade shoe by Richard Reid rather than Greenes of Northampton, it might have been a different story especially if he had remembered to light the fuse (fuze? sorry, I go with fuse in both cases, what is with the zee?)
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
Hg
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RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
What's more, the 4x4 in question was clearly a Landrover!!
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
Photographer says Mugabe's wife beat him
...pretty bold of her. I wouldn't have thought Mugabe would let her do that to him.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
http:/
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
This could actually be correct. The cell could be 6 feet wide by 10 feet deep and 8 feet high. It does seem like a rather odd way to describe the size of the cell though.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
"Leaders of the Lebanese community say Abdul Darwiche had made serious efforts to steer clear of crime when he died."
Seeing that he died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds, I think he should have started his 'serious efforts' before he died.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
WASHINGTON -- New jobless claims drop more than expected to 646,000 while continuing claims set a new record, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Wait. Jobless claims dropping is a good thing, right? Or is it the other way around? Is this a neutral statement? Bad? Good?
______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
How big was his wife and what was her name?
Yeah, it's OK, but journalese and something grates in that phrasing.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
"His wife, Pam, and othe family members" implies "Pam" is in parenthesis - i.e. "wife (who is called Pam)".
"His wife Pam, and othe family members" is meaningless.
M
--
Dr Michael F Platten
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
There is nothing grammatically wrong with being surrounded by x, y, and z. You might first read it as being surrounded by x, but there is no way to continue to parse the sentence without seeing y and z (or z, if y is an appositive) as conjoined with x, in which case the surrounding is not done by x alone. This kind of partial misparsing, not that anyone cares, is known as "garden-pathing", because you are led up the grammatical garden path with an incorrect parse.
So "who's Pam?" is a grammatically valid if context-ignorant question. "How big is his wife?" doesn't fit the grammar of the sentence.
Hg
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RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
Au contraire, with the spelling corrected, the meaning is obvious to me, even without the extra, comma. :)
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
That isn't to say it is wrong or otherwise questionable but I can't think it is aesthetically pleasing.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
If we all agreed, we would be Communists. - Me
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
....surrounded by his wife Pam and other family members, said Howard Bragman, his publicist.
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
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RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
Now that could mean a child who is a killer or some one who killed children.
Children as killers, even in a civilised society isn't that unknown (e.g. James Bulger killed by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson) but especially when recruited into some rebel army it is more commonplace.
Thus, in the context of the times, I suspect that our first reading may be influenced by our expectations.
Had this been the 50's, for example, I suspect we'd have no trouble interpreting that to mean someone who killed children.
Today it is possible to infer the alternative reading that the person executed was a child murderer and the shock is the thought that a state would execute a child.
Again, it may or may not be grammatically correct but I begin to suspect that the choice of wording is deliberate enough to make you read further.
I mean, to what extent do we really care that some country such as Yemen executes murderers? But the use of "child" draws the attention doubly because we expect perhaps some outcry against the Yemen for killing children, even if criminal.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
"Terry going nowhere - Ancelotti"
http://n
--
Dr Michael F Platten
RE: More from the Journalism School of Language
..."former female inmates..."
No longer female, or no longer inmates?
Regards,
Mike