Posted on 03/26/2012 8:24:24 PM PDT by festusbanjo
SANFORD — Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin was suspended from school in October in an incident in which he was found in possession of women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that a schools security staffer described as a “burglary tool,” The Miami Herald has learned. Trayvon, who claimed that an unnamed friend had given him the jewelry, was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald....
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
The fact of the matter is that if you must use "more" in order to properly modify the comparative descriptor and the "-er" would be awkward, then it is perfectly good grammar to use the term "more" to modify the word itself. As I said, "more clear" is perfectly good grammar if the word "clear" is used to describe being "precise" because the word "preciser" is not even an accepted word.
Certainly you can't use the words "opaquer" or "transparenter" and you are grammatically required to use More or Less to modify those terms.
In regard to your premise, when you use the word "clear" to describe absolute invisibility, then you cannot modify it at all. But when used to describe relative preciseness, it obviously can be modified to make your point a little more clear than it would otherwise be without it.
Brevity. Clear enough? lol
Grounded and missing for 3 days. Hella parenting there. As long as the SSI and AFDC and Welfare checks keep coming.
If brevity were the driving force behind grammar, then we would adopt the Oriental practice of eliminating indefinite articles.
If you are getting paid by the word, then "more clear" is obviously a better choice than "clearer". In fact you would probably pull out your thesaurus and then go the route of saying that it is "much more precise". And if you are getting paid by the letter, you would say "significantly more precise".
Well thanks. I’ll remember it next time. Good God, you full of yourself conceited grammar Nazi snob clowns are a pathetic joke. Keep up the good work though....
And the point of language, and grammar, is to clearly communicate. A principle of Transactional Analysis is, "What I heard is what you said." This means, of course, that no matter what you think you actually said, what I thought you said is what was communicated. That is why a correct use of the language is important.
I enjoyed the excange.
I basically write for a living. I am somewhat of a fanatic when it comes to grammar and writing. That being said some grammar rules are cast in cement, while others are cast in quicksand. I run my letters and briefs through a spell checker and grammar checker and often I find myself in violent disagreement with my computer about its idea of correct grammar. For instance, my computer does not recognize the correct form of usage for "advice and advise" and always recommends the wrong one. I don't know how to teach it. It seems to be an unteachable student.
I enjoyed the excange.
I'm also a fanatic about spelling. But we'll let that one pass. ;-)
Just because you have never seen a word doesn’t mean it is not a word. :-)
Somewhere along the line I activated an extension or plugin which tried to anticipate what I was typing and it completed words for me, often erroniusly. As a result I have disabled everything I could find including my spell checker. Now, it no longer excanges words on me. :-)
Yes, but we saw it and we graded him down for it. :-) We are everywhere and we are always watching.
That's pretty hard to refudiate.
You must be a wizard at Scrabble.
I see you are a Palin fan as well as a student of language. :-)
I totally agree
Another funny T.C.B.E.M.H.S.!!!!!!! see post 65.
It is meant in good fun and in the hope of being helpful. After all, we are all anonymous so there is no reason to be insulted or POed. No one knows who Bobby.223 is.
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