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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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After a long run
Robert
553 Posts
(Offline)
1
2016/11/07 - 6:20pm

Old habits won't die easy- I have to take issue with Grant's topic name, "After a long run, we will close this discussion forum."

A long run?  Which one?  Are there some other  ones more obviously at issue than this very one?   That's  what  A means, right?  -one among many.

Grant and Martha, you're one pair of linguist aces- tremendous works you've been doing to educate and entertain us public.   I Iook forward to listening to your new shows.  I'll go to your Facebook  site now.

Robert
553 Posts
(Offline)
2
2016/11/19 - 1:56am

Funny how you say or hear something in passing, and not long after, run into materials that appear to be direct   talkback  to you.

Here's a case of philosopher caught by fellow philosopher switching articles :   Noam Chomsky discussed how intellectuals used to blame the Soviets for being the one-sided cause of the Cold War;  then later, under pressures from more liberal waves of thinking,  modified that view.

As example, Chomsky cited John Galbraith switching , between 1967 and 1971,  the article  The  to  A, in this passage by Galbraith:

the revolutionary and national aspirations of the Soviets ... were    the / an   undoubted historical source [of the cold war]

The change to   An  apparently was made to accommodate the new thinking that includes more complex causes of the Cold War, including belligerency by the US.

It may seem whatever retentive.   But it is a good thing that these guys were that meticulous and that sharp-eyed.  The reading public should want no less of the current crops of thinkers.  Though that could be too much to ask.

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