All This Scratchin' Is Makin' Me Itch
It's official. I'm now cuckoo nutty about sentences. After years of copy editing and obsessing about sentence structure, I passed into the realm of cuckoo nutty this morning when I read this first sentence of a Reuters story: "A loss in server connectivity that caused the New York Stock Exchange to halt trades in about 240 companies has been restored."
Now, normal people might read this and think, "Holy cow! I never realized how fragile are the financial processes on which our whole economy depends!"
Many others, especially in parts where I grew up, might read this and think, "Holy cow! I clicked the wrong link. I was looking for a TMZ story about Jon and Kate."
But I, cuckoo nuttier than all, think, "A loss has been restored? "
About June
June Casagrande was born in March and lives in a small house. She wrote a grammar/humor book called "Mortal Syntax" and, before that, one called "Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies." She sincerely hopes you buy a million copies of each.
Connections
Causes June Casagrande Supports
Planned Parenthood, ClimateCrisis.net, the Richard Dawkins Foundation, Pet Orphans of Southern California, KIVA
I guess great minds run in
I guess great minds run in the same gutter. That was the first think I noticed, as well. :)
eric
It's just like youth or
It's just like youth or hair.
'A loss in server connectivity
has been restored' seems reasonable. Depends on how you read it. Perhaps you need a break.
I definitely need a break
But still, I believe that the writer meant that "connectivity has been restored."
In "a loss of connectivity has been restored," "connectivity" is not the subject of the verb "to restore." It's part of a prepositional phrase that's modifying the true subject, "loss." So instead of saying "connectivity has been restored," he said "loss has been restored."
Imprecise at best, wrong at worst.
I vote no to "Connectivity"
June,
I would say "a network problem has been restored." People who use the word "connectivity" without really knowing systems look foolish.
Thank you for pointing this out and let me express my view.
: )
Thank you!
sorry
Oh, no, a problem is solved, not restored. Right? I need a break also.