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A {{tag|preposition}}. Once you’ve put one at the end of a sentence, it’s a habit you’ll never tire of. | {{a|pe|}}A {{tag|preposition}}. Once you’ve put one at the end of a sentence, it’s a habit you’ll never tire of. | ||
Anywhere else in a sentence, it is indicative of tortured writing. See: I just did it there. I said “it is indicative of tortured writing” when I could have said “it indicates tortured writing”. This is a kind of [[nominalisation]] (though strictly speaking it is [[adjectivisation]]) in that it guts a perfectly good {{tag|verb}} (“to indicate”) replaces it with a more boring [[verb]] (“[[to be]]”), turns it into an {{tag|adjective}} (relating to the subject of the sentence “[[to be]]”). | Anywhere else in a sentence, it is indicative of tortured writing. See: I just did it there. I said “it is indicative of tortured writing” when I could have said “it indicates tortured writing”. This is a kind of [[nominalisation]] (though strictly speaking it is [[adjectivisation]]) in that it guts a perfectly good {{tag|verb}} (“to indicate”) replaces it with a more boring [[verb]] (“[[to be]]”), turns it into an {{tag|adjective}} (relating to the subject of the sentence “[[to be]]”). | ||
Revision as of 11:52, 6 July 2020
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Towards more picturesque speech™
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A preposition. Once you’ve put one at the end of a sentence, it’s a habit you’ll never tire of.
Anywhere else in a sentence, it is indicative of tortured writing. See: I just did it there. I said “it is indicative of tortured writing” when I could have said “it indicates tortured writing”. This is a kind of nominalisation (though strictly speaking it is adjectivisation) in that it guts a perfectly good verb (“to indicate”) replaces it with a more boring verb (“to be”), turns it into an adjective (relating to the subject of the sentence “to be”).
Other mendacious uses of “of”: look out for the character string “...ion of”. This is a dead giveaway for a passive nominalisation. For example, "In the event of a determination of an Event of Default by the Non-affected Party..." — makes you weep, doesn’t it — can be less tiresomely (and ambiguously) rendered as “if the Non-affected Party determines there has been an Event of Default”
Plain English Anatomy™ Noun | Verb | Adjective | Adverb | Preposition | Conjunction | Latin | Germany | Flannel | Legal triplicate | Nominalisation | Murder your darlings