|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508 |
Was reading an article about autism (in Time), when this sentence grabbed me: But then autism research took a badly wrong turn. "Badly wrong?" Is it just me or is this particular usage exceedingly strange? - not to mention flat-out (even badly?) wrong. Can something also be goodly wrong? I bow to superior word wizards  : What say you-all? What's really scary is that the more I read it the less wrong it seems.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508
addict
|
|
OP
addict
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508 |
descriptive hyperboleCould be, Max; thank you. Just didn't seem to fit the tenor of the article. But that was one of the reasons I raised the question here - could be the phrase is used acceptably all the time but I've lived too sheltered a life to have come across it until now  .
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Are not some "bad turns" badder (sic) than others?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Something "going badly wrong" is somehow more acceptable to me than "a badly wrong turn." In the latter case, it seems that "badly-wrong" should be hyphenated. Better yet it should be obliterated. It is certainly stylistically awful and reads like a translation from another language (perhaps Japanese or some other non-European language) as carried out by a computer.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477 |
descriptive hyperbole
Could be, Max; thank you
I agree with Max about the "degrees of" wrong thing. I didn't really like the "took a badly wrong turn" either, nancyk. Then I considered "took a horribly wrong turn" which sounded ok at first, but it still seems a little off kilter. If I was editing this document, I would have changed it to something like "took a turn which went horribly wrong" (definitely couldn't use "badly wrong" in that context).
Taking my corporate comms hat off, and going back to Operations now!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
>But then autism research took a badly wrong turn.
I agree, it looks awful. But I think it is wrong for another reason altogether. I'll try to explain it but I am seriously bad with the proper grammatical terms so be forgiving please. Here goes.
Isn't "wrong turn" one concept, one, ugh I don't know if noun-phrase is the right term but that's what I'll call it. It is the same type of thing as an "upper hand" or "upper body" - these are “one” thing.
In the sentence they are qualifying only the word "wrong" thus disregarding the actual noun-phrase.
It still wouldn’t be pretty but saying the research took a bad wrong turn seems better to me.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
I think badly wrong sounds terribly wrong...but, then, I use terribly wrong all the time but would never consider using badly wrong even though, I suppose, both are grammatically okay. So is this just a case of sound semantics? Or is it just that there's nothing absolutely wrong about it? The Only WO'N!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
I hope there's an editor on the unemployment line. Taking a badly wrong turn is akin to being very pregnant. Wrong is wrong, there's no comparative.
I understand what the writer is trying to say, but this is just plain bad writing.
TEd
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,915
Posts229,892
Members9,197
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
365
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
