10 books if I'm lucky project

[lola_granola]

Two nights ago I finished That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News, which I have not (yet) read. I would give it four asterisks under OS's handy dandy rating system. I got to caring about the main character, who learns a lesson, but not in a Hammer of Morality way. I trust that the depictions

Comments

More kvetching

[ext_198772]

In defense of Proulx, this might be the result of her editor's interference... editors generally make terrible linguists, and while they may know style and stylistics, they tend to know little about grammar.

At the rate this novel seems to go, why not encode different variations of the pronounced /t/, like the flap like "I'm goin da go." (I'm not certain if this sound is a flap or an actual [d], but it certainly isn't a [t] or nothing.) There's obviously a flap after "got" (gotta), but since we lack a letter for the flap, what's an author to do?

Then there are environments where "to" must be pronounced with the [t], like "we're all set to go." I'm sure the syntactic structure has something to do with this requirement, but from what you say, I doubt Proulx or her editor has that much linguistic sophistication.

-Andrew

Re: More kvetching

[lola_granola]

Hm. I wonder how prone to changing such things editors are. In defense of editors, I think you should say that they tend to know little about descriptive grammar, not grammar overall.

[ormondsacker]

Okay, that was delightful. Both of you. Win.

[lola_granola]

Wow, I can be delightful when I think I'm being bitchy? How lovely.

[ormondsacker]

I like it when people drop knowledge out of nowhere, is all.