RE: [RMX:NL] Re: Subtly bad sentence construction

Subject: RE: [RMX:NL] Re: Subtly bad sentence construction
From: Dan Goldstein <DGoldstein -at- nuot -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2015 13:41:40 +0000

For further elucidation of "where it is," see the Dustin Lynch song, "Where it's at."

For example, in the sentence, "As good as it gets, no, that ain't where it is," each "it" has its own antecedent.

-----Original Message-----
From: Slager Timothy J
Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2015 8:28 AM
To: Richard Hamilton; TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: [RMX:NL] Re: Subtly bad sentence construction

Diagrammed or not, that sentence doesn't make much sense. A couple of commas might help. What's the antecedent to "it"?
I liked that song as a kid, but apparently didn't pay much attention to the lyrics.
Excellent point your teacher made: ungrammatical sentences cannot be diagrammed.
tims


-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Hamilton
Sent: Monday, June 01, 2015 3:47 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: [RMX:NL] Re: Subtly bad sentence construction

When I was a sophomore in high school, my English teacher, in an attempt to be cool, tried to diagram the following line from Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane:

Your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his Yeah, but in your head, baby, I'm afraid you don't know where it is.

About halfway through, he got stuck (somewhere around "but in your head, baby, ..."). Highly entertaining, and, as far as I can recall (it's been a few years; that song was current when this happened:-), that was the end of sentence diagramming in his class.

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References:
Re: Subtly bad sentence construction: From: Richard Hamilton
RE: [RMX:NL] Re: Subtly bad sentence construction: From: Slager Timothy J

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