William Sommerwerck
2/20/2014 1:58:00 PM
"John Wiser" wrote in message news:XymNu.1455$H26.892@fx19.iad...
"JohnGavin" <dagdern@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thursday, February 20, 2014 2:56:00 AM UTC-5, John Wiser wrote:
> "Matthew B. Tepper" <oy?@earthlink.net> wrote>
> > "William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgeezer@comcast.net>
> >> "Matthew B. Tepper" wrote
> >> "William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> >
> >>>> Finally... A RegeR work I liked.
> >>> The Telemann Variations are tremendous.
> >> I just listened to the Bolet version. What a surprise.
> > A fine CD! The Brahms are pretty good too.
> The Brahms's ARE / the Brahms IS
> Language police will now stand down
> until the next complaint is received.
>> The Brahms "are" is correct, is it not? (as it refers to variations, a
>> plural).
> "The Brahms" is singular, Mr. Gavin. If he had written "the Brahms
> Variations"
> the plural might, just might, have been admissible. With the elision, it is
> not.
Uh-oh. Like JGW, I consider myself "wiser" than others -- at least with regard
to language. I am perennially annoyed by the way Brits and Aussies persist in
treating names of groups as if they were plural nouns. We hear such
grammar-busting statements (especially on Mythbusters, which is written by
Aussies) as "the group are going to test whether you can jump from 200' onto a
concrete surface and live".
Unfortunately for those who insist on such a construction, group is a singular
noun. One can have one group, or many groups. Almost 40 years ago, when I was
visiting Trevor Lees (a controversial audio designer of that time), his
mother -- an English teacher! -- agreed with me -- but persisted in being
ungrammatical in her speech.
A related problem is that we tend to treat the noun closest to the verb as the
subject of the sentence, and say things like "A pride of lions are going to
attack the natives." No, the subject of the sentence is pride, not lions.
Possessives also cause confusion. My own rule (which is /not/ official) is to
listen to the way the possessive is /pronounced/, then spell/punctuate
accordingly. With respect to the composer, hardly anyone adds an 's to his
name when forming the possessive. (Brahms's is too tongue-twisting, so we
subtly stretch the ess sound.) We add just an apostrophe: "Brahms' First
Symphony was sometimes referred to as Beethoven's Tenth."
With regard to the original objection... To decide on correct grammatical
construction, we have to decide what part of speech a word is. In this case,
Brahms is an adjective, Brahms' is a possessive. Therefore...
"I really enjoy Brahms' First Symphony." (possessive)
"The Brahms First Symphony is a favorite of mine." (adjective)
English is not a 100%-consistent language. I consider what I've said
"reasonable", and will not get into any arguments. Think about what I've said,
and decide for yourself.