"Many years ago I showed a silverware pattern I admired to a friend" has another clear meaning
Let's say my hobby is colleting silverware. I participate in an annual show in which I display my collection, especially some sets having interesting patterns. Looking back, I recall one such show in which I had entered a pattern which I myself had not considered unique
The reason I did so that was that earlier during a visit to my home by a dear friend also interested in my hobby, I had showed it to him, telling him that in spite of its plain pattern I nevertheless admired it for some of its other qualities; whereupon he remarked, "But you're wrong about that, it has one of the most interesting patterns I have ever seen"
Over the next few days as I ruminated upon his comment, I began to agree, and so I determined to enter it in the very next show
I will readily agree with the prescriptivist who will immediately object, "To have that exact meaning you would have had to say, "...I had admired..."
Many pre-'s are like that, they find a fault and they drag you through the mud. Still, I woud wager that if the pertinent sentence had been spoken by one silverware collector to another, the wrong meaning might well have been inferred
The phenom I describe is very common and is responsible for misunderstandings arising in Internet boards such as this one, causing much friction and unnecessary squabbling; eg, another tempest in a teapot. Such disputes are sometimes so virulent as to cause the most savage conflict
Nonetheless upon first reading, the unintended meaning was the one which first impressed itself upon me. I have encounterd hundreds if not tens of thousands of such cases, which meaning could becalled ambiguous in spite of the pre-'s immediate reaction
Am I alone
Note to Admin: I submitted this in Weekly Themes because it was pertinent to the foregoing thread. However, if you judge it out of place please feel free to move it elsewhere, eg, Misc--Thanks--dalehileman
Last edited by dalehileman; 12/18/06 04:01 PM.
OP
