just amongst us pedants - Wordsmith.org

speaking of redlining, how would you mark this:

"The distinctions we draw between past, present, and future are discriminations among illusions."
- Gene Wolfe, An Evil Guest (paraphrasing Einstein)

I'd prefer between to among, but that wouldn't stop me from selling a house to the perp.

>I'd prefer between to among

in both instances?

edit: BTW, the perp is shown in white, back in the top post.
(and Einstein is actually quoted as, "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.", so perhaps Wolfe is guilty of a bit of hypercorrection)

I prefer between.

I also struggle with the Oxford comma, just because I was edumacated not to use it, though it often feels more right.

Originally Posted By: tsuwm

speaking of redlining, how would you mark this:

"The distinctions we draw between past, present, and future are discriminations among illusions."
- Gene Wolfe, An Evil Guest (paraphrasing Einstein)

My problem with this sentence is in the word "illusions". If you are not to distinguish between past, future and present then neither can you use the plural illusions. In tsu's later post where he quotes Einstien the reference to illusion is singular, which is correct IMO.

PS. What do you mean by "redlining"? A browse on the net gave me some references to mortage, law, and loans.

Avy, the two citations break down like this:
The distinctions.. are discriminations among illusions.
and
the distinction.. is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

they both agree in number.
_____________

to redline: A compound of red + line, recalling the frequent use of red pen or pencil to mark corrections on documents

I prefer the original. 'Stubbornly persistent' personifies the description for me likening the science of time to a person.

Originally Posted By: tsuwm

Avy, the two citations break down like this:
The distinctions.. are discriminations among illusions.
and
the distinction.. is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

they both agree in number.
_____________

to redline: A compound of red + line, recalling the frequent use of red pen or pencil to mark corrections on documents

Ah, but, redlining also has a mechanical application. It can refer to a piece of equipment being operated above the limits of safety, as for example, too many rpm or too little oil pressure in an automobile engine or too much air pressure in a steam boiler on a early riverboat or train engine.

gotta love context.

;� )

Originally Posted By: Avyy

PS. What do you mean by "redlining"? A browse on the net gave me some references to mortage, law, and loans.

Avyy, as your search showed, it also means identifying neighborhoods where one doesn't want undesirables moving in [/not a political post, just 'splainin!!]

>PS. What do you mean by "redlining"?

that's all well and good, you guys, but it's not what *I* meant by redlining. : )
-ron o.

Originally Posted By: tsuwm

>I'd prefer between to among

in both instances?

edit: BTW, the perp is shown in white, back in the top post.
(and Einstein is actually quoted as, "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.", so perhaps Wolfe is guilty of a bit of hypercorrection)

The two statements have different meanings. Einstein opines that the difference is an illusion and Wolfe that the concepts being compared are the illusions. This is more than hypercorrection. (I never learned to parse so I automatically look at the meaning not the grammar.)

I was thinking tsu was asking if you can have a between with three items...

from my mac dictionary:

Quote:

ORIGIN Old English betwēonum, from be [by] + a Germanic word related to two .
USAGE 1 Between is used in speaking of only two things, people, etc.: : we must choose between two equally unattractive alternatives. Among is used for collective and undefined relations of usually three or more: : agreement on landscaping was reached among all the neighbors. But where there are more than two parties involved, between may be used to express one-to-one relationships of pairs within the group or the sense 'shared by': : there is close friendship between the members of the club;: diplomatic relations between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. 2 : Between you and I,: between you and he, etc., are incorrect; between should be followed only by the objective case: : between you and me,: between you and him, etc. See also usage at personal pronoun.

<sigh>

going back to the beginning, "The distinctions we draw between past, present, and future are [as] discriminations among illusions."

what caught my eye (and what I was alluding to with 'hypercorrection') is that Wolfe *switched from using between to using among in the midst of a simile. I guess that since no one seems to have picked up on that it has to be considered an effective figure.

(and I wondered *why he recast Einstein's original - it's almost a throw-away line in the book: link)

Originally Posted By: tsuwm

<sigh>
"The distinctions we draw between past, present, and future are [as] discriminations among illusions."

Ahhhh! I took the sentence to be a copular and "are" to be a linking verb. I did not even think there was an ellipsis there. With the "as" in the sentence it makes sense. With "are" as a copular verb, it does not. With the verb as linking, I see contradiction in that sentence. Does any body else?
So then does the simile make "are" an intransitive complete verb?

Edit: On second (one too many) thoughts even with "as" there is contradiction in the sentence. If the writer is using the plural illusions then he himself is making that distinction which he then tells the reader not to make. If you are not to make a distinction in my opinion you should stick to the singluar illusion.

Okay enough! Now I'll just let this go.

Qu'est-ce-que c'est?

Qu'est-ce-que c'est?

It's also called a serial comma. When you have lists of words, if you use a comma before the and in front of the last item in the list. So, X, Y, and Z uses the Oxford comma, but X, Y and Z does not.

The killer comma.

Merci, zhmz.

Branny: got milk?

Originally Posted By: Jackie

Qu'est-ce-que c'est?

That's an awful lot of letters for three lousy syllables. Sure the French haven't been taking spelling lessons from the Brits? Or maybe it's the other way around!

Originally Posted By: Jackie

Qu'est-ce-que c'est?

I stand to be corrected, but are there not one too many
hyphens in the phrase???

You stand correct. It's qu'est-ce que c'est. One hyphen and two Folies Berg�re commas.

Ah, oui. Merci. J'ai oubli� trop.

If the writer is using the plural illusions then he himself is making that distinction which he then tells the reader not to make. I don't understand it that way: you can very well make distinctions even among illusions. We do it every day

, and he does not say that the distinction is an illusion.