Does English need a grammar wake up call?

On the other hand, this sentence would be more justifiably perceived as ambiguous:



The easiest way to brush your decrepit great grandfather's teeth is by sitting them comfortably on your lap.

Are you aware that there are people in this world that have a severe medical condition which causes them to be that way?

My mother for instance is one of those people. She is a truck driver that has bad knees and a bad back from driving the truck but you probably do not care about that case either. Oh well I am not one of those people I am 6'4" 245lbs and I exercise every day. I would love to see you say something like to my mother in front of me. Probably never happen though you are probably just an internet tough guy. I doubt very seriously you would say that to someones face.

Just my thought. What do you think. Oh I am sorry you probably do not have a brain. I on the other hand will be happy to buy you a plane ticket to come here and see if you have the nerve to say that to someone I know.

<The easiest way to brush your decrepit great grandfather's teeth is by sitting them comfortably on your lap.>

Not ambiguous. There's only one grandfather involved there.

Try this:

The easiest way to brush your decrepit great grandfathers' teeth is by sitting them comfortably on your lap.

<<Are you aware that there are people in this world that have a severe medical condition which causes them to be that way? >>

Yes, it's called prescriptivism, isn't it? ;-)))

MollyB

>>Not ambiguous. There's only one grandfather involved there<<

He/she meant that a lot of old people have false teeth, therefore they can literally be taken out to be cleaned.

<<"Bouncing down the street and rolling into the gutter, John's eyes spotted the ball."

"Wondering irresolutely what to do next, the clock struck 10.">>

I think misplaced modifiers will always pop up at a certain frequency in colloquial speech, but these two examples sound so blatant and contrived that I really find them unnatural.

<<I really find them unnatural. >>

Prescriptivist attempts at attacking real English, in fact.

Me and Jane went to the store. BAD GRAMMAR ALERT!
She is better than me. BAD GRAMMAR ALERT!

I wish I was there. BAD GRAMMAR ALERT!
Who did you see? BAD GRAMMAR ALERT!

<Me and Jane went to the store. BAD GRAMMAR ALERT!
She is better than me. BAD GRAMMAR ALERT!

I wish I was there. BAD GRAMMAR ALERT!
Who did you see? BAD GRAMMAR ALERT! >

In whose variety of English are those bad grammar?

In whose variety of English are those bad grammar?

In standard variety, the one you should use in an essay.

"Whom" has largely disappeared from English, and I would much prefer that people who don't understand the distinction drop the word altogether, rather than try to guess which one is correct. One hundred "Who did you see?" are better than one "Whom is coming?"

As for "She is better than me", "me" is the object of the comparative "than", and therefore the objective pronoun is appropriate. The idea that it can be expanded to "She is better than I am", therefore "I" is appropriate, is ridiculous. According to that logic, "I talked to she" is correct, since it can be expanded to "I talked to she that answered the phone".

<"Whom" has largely disappeared from English, >

Not exactly. It is mostly found in formal contexts, but it could be on the wane even there.

<<As for "She is better than me", "me" is the object of the comparative "than", and therefore the objective pronoun is appropriate. The idea that it can be expanded to "She is better than I am", therefore "I" is appropriate, is ridiculous. According to that logic, "I talked to she" is correct, since it can be expanded to "I talked to she that answered the phone". >>

I think this is the other way around.
I think it started out as "She is better than I am [better]" -> "She is better than I" -> "She is better than me"

"me" as object makes no logical sense in this phrase as it is not the object of any verb (takes no action) nor is oblique in sense.

We say "The woman is better than the man"--both 'The woman' and 'the man' are nominative. We know this by extension: "The woman is better than the man had hoped for."

<<"I talked to she that answered the phone". >>

This is also incorrect.
Correctly, it should be "I talked to her that answered the phone."

We know this by extension "The woman is better than the man had hoped for."

That's a fallacy.