Wendell Cochran wrote: > > Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 03:52:42 +0100 > Carel Fellinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> : > > > > > > and here is really no interest in ridiculing anyone and less someone > > > > > who would formulate constructively his criticism and suggestions ... > > >> i really really don't want you to construe this as any kind of xenophobia, > >> but this phrase above just doesn't work in english. i have no idea what you > >> meant to convey by this. > > > I admit, I'm no english man, but the sentence you fail to parse seem > > clear as can be to my foreign eyes:) Or were you just kidding? > > > To me it says, that we on this list have no interest in ridiculing > > anyone, and especially not someone that formulates his criticism and > > suggestions in a constructive way. > > As an editor I spend my life trying to understand what a writer is > trying to say. (That includes writers whose first language is not > English.) > > Despite decades of practice, the lines marked >>>> defeated me. They > still > do.
I fear that I am forced to concur. As a native English speaker (NOT American speaker ;-) I can see the sense of the translation, but when reading the original have no clue what it is about. The phrase 'and here is...' can not be given the object 'nothing,' nor can it be given the object 'no interest'. Although certain idioms include such phraseology as 'and here isn't the Prime Minister of England,' such usage is not correct and is ambiguous and confusing. The correct phrasing of this clause is '...and there is no interest here...' although the 'and' is purely there because it was in the original. I don't think it is legal to begin a paragraph with 'and.' The use of the future tense indefinite 'and would formulate' is also somewhat skewed from the probable intention of the phrase; it implies that we are talking about someone who would even consider doing so, which I don't think is the intent of the writer. The position of 'constructively,' although avoiding the split infinitive of 'to constructively formulate,' is nonetheless somewhat awkward, and probably breaks some rule somewhere. It fits the rhythm of the language far more pleasingly to move this word to the end of the sentence. So, to sum up, a correct phrasing might be: [You should be more optimistic.] There is no interest here in ridiculing anyone, even less someone who formulates his criticisms and suggestions constructively. Here endeth the lesson. ;-) Tom
