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Catch the grammatical error

TheOldMole Jun 19 2010 08:35 AM

NY Times - There is not much of a precedent, but the Mets do not find Yankee Stadium hospitable. Their first game here last season ended with a dropped pop-up that symbolized both teams’ fortunes. The Mets were cursed, the Yankees charmed. The Mets would be delighted if their 4-0 victory Friday night was as prophetic. In extending their winning streak to eight games, the surging Mets stayed as sharp against one of baseball’s best teams as they did against two of their worst.

Edgy DC Jun 19 2010 08:48 AM Re: Catch the grammatical error

The whole thing is grammatically awkward, but it seeems to me the first phrase is highly problematic, as "There" should probably be a pronoun stand in for "the Mets," but it's not. It also reads like a paragraph written by Lt. Cdr. Data, in how the author seems to have self-conciously avoided using contractions.

TheOldMole Jun 19 2010 08:52 AM Re: Catch the grammatical error

It's stylistically awkward, but there's only one actual grammatical error.

TheOldMole Jun 19 2010 08:55 AM Re: Catch the grammatical error

"There is" in the first sentence is a syntactic expletive -- performs a syntactic role in the sentence but adds nothing to meaning.

Ceetar Jun 19 2010 08:56 AM Re: Catch the grammatical error

I suck at grammar, but this.. the surging Mets stayed as sharp against one of baseball’s best teams It implies that the Mets were sharp against themselves. That can't be correct.

Edgy DC Jun 19 2010 08:57 AM Re: Catch the grammatical error

The last phrase: "their worst" should be "its worst." But really, I'd send the whole paragraph back. It's a nightmare.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 19 2010 08:59 AM Re: Catch the grammatical error

Yeah, the first clause doesn't seem to connect to the second in that first sentence. A precedent for what, exactly? The Mets not finding the PlunderDome hospitable, or for opportunities for them to find it hospitable... or something else entirely? Plus, the pronoun "their" in the last sentence is screwed up in at least one way-- it either doesn't agree with its antecedent in numeration (if it's meant to refer to "baseball," as context suggests) or it's unclear what its antecedent is. It is a weekend; it's not impossible that the Times has outsourced its beat reporting to poorly-programmed robots, right?

TheOldMole Jun 19 2010 09:01 AM Re: Catch the grammatical error

Edgy has it -- noun-pronoun agreement -- and yeah, the whole paragraph is a nightmare.

G-Fafif Jun 19 2010 11:45 AM Re: Catch the grammatical error

Also, the Times does not use the stylistically correct "MFYS III" to refer to the building in question.