Thanks again. 2007/3/3, splay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > To answer your question directly, I am quite a lot more literal-minded > than many, it seems. So, for me, "such as" is not neutral, and I am > left slightly wondering what it is about these scholars that makes > them similar to the other unnamed scholars you seem to have in mind.
That's exactly what I wanted to know. I felt I should have expressed that in a different way, but my own mother tongue influenced my decision. Czech is not English and certain phrases, though quite similar in structure, may well turn out to be incompatible. I'm so stupid! Why, changing the sentence to "The first glimpses of the hypothesis appeared in the works of Robert Bleichsteiner, Karl Bouda, E. J. Furnée, René Lafon, Edward Sapir, Robert Shafer, Morris Swadesh, Olivier Guy Tailleur, Vladimir N. Toporov, Alfredo Trombetti and other scholars." should have been the first option to cross my mind! :-) > <snip> > > > > > etc.) first put the ideas on a > > > > firmer ground. > > > > > I think you want "on a firmer footing." That's a cliche, and > > > ordinarily to be avoided as such, but used sparingly they don't > > > detract, in my humble opinion. "On firmer ground" (no "a") would be > > > OK, too. > > > > I see. Are there any better phrases I could use? > > Sure, dozens, but you're OK. "Better" is subjective, anyhow. Well, I agree "better" is subjective, of course, but I'd like to be acceptable to as many people as possible (although, I admit, "majority" doesn't necessarily have to mean "the best", does it?). > Ah. I took "ancient Aquitanian" to be the name of the language, sort > of, almost like "High German," Well, I would have written "Ancient Aquitanian" (with a capital "A") > so "ancient" couldn't span the > conjunction. This is what happens when a genius writes for idiots. How > about, "It has been suggested that the now-extinct Aquitanian and > maybe also Iberian languages...". I used "extinct" not knowing the > correct term in your field. Insert the right one. Well, "extinct" is very general and is often used in this sense in historical linguistics. By the way, the estimated time of extinction is (roughly) 1st-2nd century AD. Another thing: what about "so-called"? I feel it is not neutral in English, so I should probably replace it by something else...or simply delete it...? What do you think? In Czech, it is absolutely neutral, which confuses me a little. The other co-author, who isn't a native speaker of English either, inserted it in the article several times, but I doubt it is correct... Thanks a lot again! Best, Petr --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Correct my English" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/correct-my-english -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
