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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273 |
Maybe because "people" is a collective noun, like "team"? I'm sure either El padre prescriptivo, or Der preschriptiwischt Punschter will be along soon to explain the full horror of the preamble.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
the grammar police are obviously hustling over to our declaimers, all previously depicted as ESLers (especially Grog), to pointedly inform them that they must insert a verb; to wit, we ARE the people.
HTH,
ron obvious
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247 |
Can someone explain this cartoon to me, please--that is, the why of the second word balloon?
Others have suggested that there is something in the phrase "We, the people" which is grammatically incorrect, Jackie, but that is not what the cartoonist has in mind. His touch is far lighter than that.
What brings the guard out is the rebellious expression "We, the people". They have been dispatched to suppress the expression of freedom, not the expression itself.
It is the play between the shallowness of the cave-dwellers and the principle of free expression which creates the humor here.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Bollocks. It's exactly as tsuwm said. Go away.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Bollocks
I'm with Rock Island, here. It's the missing comma. And I should know. I went to a Computer Science Club Halloween party once as a missing comma.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 10
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 10 |
"Wordminstrel" is still another of the sock puppets (or alternate handles) of an individual who has been banned by management from this board -- and others -- for flagrant abuse.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Faldage
please, please, pleeeeease describe your costume.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
The phrase "the people of the United States" is an appositive which, in your better constitutions, is set off within commas.
El padre prescriptivo
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