June 16, 2004

An armed society is a polite grammatical society

This PartiallyClips cartoon illustrates a calm, civilized approach to grammatical argumentation, avoiding the fervor that sometimes accompanies discussions of usage. In an earlier post on preposition stranding, I suggested that a great deal of subsequent grief might have been spared, if only Ben Jonson had survived long enough to bring an analogous form of persuasion to bear on John Dryden.

[link emailed by Michael Albaugh].

[Other Language Log links to PartiallyClips, which seems to be our unofficial Official Cartoon: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here].

 

Posted by Mark Liberman at June 16, 2004 12:50 PM