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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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In my weekend reading I noticed that the writer (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) frequently used the word statement to mean facial expression.
His face was devoid of statement, but inside he was seething.
His face took on a surprised statement.
The writer uses USn spelling so I assume he comes from over that side of the Atlantic. I strongly suspect he has undergone some sort of psychobabble counselling. Has anyone else come across this use of the word or is this an idiosyncracy of the writer?
Bingley
Bingley
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old hand
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old hand
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My vote is for the idiosyncracy option. It sounds hideous to me. Or rather, the second usage sounds worse than the first. This is of course no more than my humble opinion. It is nice to see posting you here again, Bingley. I hope you are well. the only thing I typed here were the three sets of square brackets
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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sjm, I completely agree with you. Whilst I accept that one's facial expression does make a statement, the use of that word in this context, especially, as you so rightly say, in the second cae, is anathema to me. I sincerely hope that, a) it is an idiosyncracy of that writer, and b) that it doesn't catch on! I hope that your virtual abandonment of typewriting doesn't mean that your posts will all be dragon on!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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His face took on a surprised statement.
Nice metaphor!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Nice metaphor!
Yeah, if used once. Apparently this guy used it repeatedly.
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old hand
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To me, this smacks of machine translation. Are you sure this was a native-English speaking author?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yeah, could be a machine translation, but it could also be some cute affectation adopted purposely by the writer as some sort of personal style...whatever the reason, it doesn't work for me, it's awkward and forced and I don't like it. I'd use expression in either case. That's my statement and I'm sticking to it!
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, he seemed to be a native speaker, despite a rather infelicitous style of writing. His use of statement was the only thing that struck me as wrong rather than just clumsy.
Bingley
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Why not just share with us the name of the author? There's no need to protect the guilty.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yeah. Let us see the whole thang! I don't see anything wrong with what you've shown us so far so I'm voting not-guilty (or at least not-proven) unless you can come up with something more.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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His face was devoid of author, but inside he was guilty.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the expression "face took on a surprised statement" gets two(2) unique google hits; somebody else must be reading this guys stuff.
-joe friday
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old hand
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old hand
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Yes, more often than not, nowadays, mistakes are pushed as creative innovations..
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, more often than not, nowadays, mistakes are pushed as creative innovations.. Like when I try to write poetry; I just hope and pray that people will be fooled into thinking I've edged off into some new, deeply-meaningful territory--when in reality I just plain am not very good!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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mistakes are pushed as creative innovations.
Some jazz musicians are masters at this art form.
Sometimes I'll take a picture and realize at the time that I've screwed up, but it might be interesting. I'll try it on purpose for a few shots and, when I get the prints back, find out that the first shot, when it was still a mistake, was the best.
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old hand
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old hand
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the first shot, when it was still a mistake, was the bestThe art is in repeating the same mistake
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the first shot, when it was still a mistake, was the best The art is in repeating the same mistake
And doing it as well as, if not better than, the first time.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the first shot, when it was still a mistake, was the best The art is in repeating the same mistake I should think he meant the serendipitous (and I now know where that word came from, thanks to Anu's book) kind of mistake, such as penicillin and Teflon. For more on Teflon: http://www.whitetrout.net/chuck/Teflon/teflon.htm
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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If art lies in repeating the same mistake, then I most certainly am an artist
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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If art lies in repeating the same mistake
Well, that and making it look like it wasn't a mistake.
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old hand
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old hand
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If art lies in repeating the same mistake, then I most certainly am an artist Alas, we must wait for the future to tell, but
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