Hi, Anton!  Recently you wrote in a message to All:

 AS>  I have read recently that "I have the honor to report
 AS>  that..." is incorrect and that one should say "I have
 AS>  the honor of reporting that...":

  >>  Official committee reports in English of the Canadian
  >>  House of Commons all contain the phrase "Your Committee
  >>  has the honour to present its Xth Report".  That should
  >>  of course be "the honour of presenting."



           In my experience, formal speeches often begin with phrases like:


                  I have the honour of reporting that [blah blah]
                  I have the honour of presenting [blah blah]

                                    or

                  It is my honour to report that [blah blah]
                  I am honoured to present [blah blah]


If the authors of these reports made an error by trying to put two grammatical
constructions together, I don't see it as particularly serious... but I wonder
who is so sure they're right (or wants us to think they are) that they find it
necessary to add "of course" to lend weight to their argument.

           WRT politics it behooves us to be on the alert for slanted writing,
and WRT this excerpt I notice that the author hasn't specified what his or her
objection is to the wording in the committee reports or why it "should" be xxx
rather than yyy.  Perhaps the wording is a departure from tradition & it looks
wrong to this individual because it's not what s/he is used to.



 AS>  But why?  It is the more difficult for me to understand
 AS>  because in my naytive Russian the infinitive version is
 AS>  only natural.


           In English, the gerund (or what you may call it) is interchangeable
with the infinitive in many cases.  "I like skiing" is correct... and so is "I
like to ski".  I am happy to say that unless you're making a formal speech you
don't necessarily have to copy what other people do although you may find it's
instructive to take note of patterns which seem to keep recurring in a variety
of situations.  I used one of these patterns when I wrote "I am happy to say".
And while I have reservations about what other people say when they feel it is
in their best interests to make one political party or another look foolish, I
have noticed wording such as "I/we have the [abstract noun] + [infinitive]" in
informal conversation... but I also see subtle differences in meaning.  Yes, I
have the courage to share my thoughts in the E_T echo when I see that somebody
out there wants to learn more about my native language.  No, I do not have the
courage to try extreme sports.  The adrenaline rush I get when somebody brings
up an interesting point is as much excitement as I'm comfortable with....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)