[HPFGU-OTChatter] WANTED: Grammar Experts

[Coble, Katherine]

Cindy begs the MLA folk:

> The error is in the phrase "her to create."   As the article 
> explained:
> 
> "The word 'her' . . . was improperly referring to 'Toni 
> Morrison's' . . . . Many grammar manuals insist that a pronoun such 
> as 'her' should refer only to a noun, not, as in the case of the 
> possessive 'Toni Morrison's,' an adjective." 
> 
> Similarly, the following sentence violates the same rule of grammar:
> 
> "Professor Keegan's success has given him some satisfaction."
> 
> It should be:
> 
> "Professor Keegan's success has given the professor some 
> satisfaction."
> 
> Uh, is there any way we can go about getting that particular rule of 
> grammar changed or something?   I'm not a fan of it, myself.
> 
Mycropht says:

I kind of like this rule of grammar, if only because it keeps people from
parsing together ugly sentences, like
in the test question.

Pronouns are really an awkward part of English.  They've mutated down to us
from Norman French and we've
polluted them so much that it's hard to get them to make sense.

[yes, I realize that this is an oversimplification, but there you go.]

Mycropht
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