Re: OT: Who said it?

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

> Harry Binswanger wrote:
> >  the split infinitive issue is one to which I've more or less succumbed.
> If by that you mean that you do, on occasion, split infinitives, my whole
> point was that it is often acceptable, and sometimes absolutely necessary,
> to do so.
> > "It's an issue to which I've, in conformity with modern practice to which
> > I've, in my dotage, on which others on the list have commented, attained
> > become accustomed succumbed."
> That's the way you might well say it in Latin or German. Except--what is
> the subject of attained? You've got (excluding the initial "It's an
> issue") three nominatives (I, I, others) but four finite verbs: have
> commented, have attained, have become accustomed, have succumbed. Clarify
> that, and I may be tempted to put it into Latin, just for the heck of it.
The idea was "the practice to which I've attained." I'm not sure it makes
sense. Here's one I've used in a logic course:
I found myself saying, when Lee asked me to join him for what would turn
out in retrospect to have made from the standpoint of one unfamiliar,
except on a level that
even a third-grader with his familiarity of the desert might attain, an
instructive trip, `"Sure."
While we are at it (and talk about "off-topic"!), here's a favorite example
of the need for punctuation:
John where the teacher had had had had had had had had had had the
teacher's approval.

Punctuated:
John, where the teacher had had "had had," had had "had"; "had had" had the
teacher's approval.


Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx