Giulio
Community Tutor
A complex English comparative structure During an interview on a Japanese TV program, while talking about the preference that should be given in teaching to a "native" variety of English (like British English, American, etc), rather than to a "local" variety (like "Japanese English"), Prof. Randolph Quirk (now Lord Quirk), a renowned British linguist, said: "The Japanese are perfectionists, they SHOULD NOT SETTLE for ANYTHING LESS than the BEST in language learning, ANY MORE than they manifestly SETTLE for ANYTHING LESS than the BEST in their performance of western music: your performance of western music challenges the whole...the rest of the world..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiVJN76Vgxg at minute 1.45 I think that, both grammatically and logically, the 2nd verb "SETTLE" in the sentence should be negative, "they manifestly DON'T SETTLE...". What do you think? Can Lord Quirk have mistaken? After all, he wasn't writing, everyone can inadvertently mistake when speaking.
Nov 29, 2016 3:23 PM
Answers · 15
2
Lord Quirk is right. You are wrong. Sorry.
November 29, 2016
2
The second 'settle' is correct, it is coming from the 'should' in the first line - remember English people don't like repeating themselves! The full phrase would read '...than they should manifestly settle for anything less ...' Hope this helps Bob
November 29, 2016
You're questioning what you call "a renowned British linguist?" Hmmmmmm.....
November 29, 2016
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