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

 AH>  If the authors of these reports made an error by trying
 AH>  to put two grammatical constructions together, I don't
 AH>  see it as particularly serious...

 AS>  I wonder why it is an error.


          I'm not completely convinced it is.  That's why I said "if"....  :-)



 AS>  A good old prescriptivist explanation would satisfy me,
 AS>  for prescriptivists consider language an embodiment of
 AS>  logical rules,


          IMHO language *is* an embodiment of logical rules, and the challenge
for today's grammarian/linguists is to figure out what native speakers do more
or less intuitively... why they do it that way... and how best to organize it.
In theory, they can thus identify patterns & make recommendations as to how we
can use the language more efficiently.  In practice, the system doesn't always
work as advertised after it has trickled down to the elementary level &/or the
university student from SomePlace Else may have to rely on USAian dictionaries
to identify the differences between e.g. UK & US conventions because the other
major players seem to ignore what folks from the wrong side of the tracks do &
what's been going on in the colonies & ex-colonies for over a century....  :-Q



 AS>  whereas descriptivist think rules are but crude
 AS>  formulations for fuzzy volatile tendencies in language.


          It's easy to think that if enough people make the same error it will
be accepted as standard English eventually.  But now that the vast majority of
dictionaries take the descriptive approach I have learned to appreciate it.  I
think you & I are both quite capable of deciding for ourselves what do when we
have enough of the right information... and there's more information available
to readers who understand what's going on.  If various spellings & definitions
are listed in a certain way or are accompanied by usage notes &/or flags which
enable you to do exactly that, I reckon you've outgrown Miss Stickler....  ;-)



 AS>  When aksked about the difference of "honor" from "right",
 AS>  "courage", "permission", and "privilege", he replied:


          You lost me there.  Who's "he"?



 >  Possibly because all those verbs are descriptive, stating
 >  ability or permission to report (picture theory of
 >  language, Wittgenstein's TLP), while "honor" is part of the
 >  sentence that is Speech Act per se ?


          Hmm.  What I was thinking was more along the lines that an honour or
privilege, in this context, is bestowed upon a person by virtue of having been
elected or appointed to do a specific job.  If this individual has the courage
&/or the intelligence &/or or the common sense &/or the presence of mind to do
what's best in a given situation I reckon such characteritics are innate.  :-)



 AH>  Yes, I have the courage to share my thoughts in the E_T
 AH>  echo when I see that somebody out there wants to learn
 AH>  more about my native language.

 AS>  And I thank you therefor.  Observe it cannot be "the
 AS>  courage of sharing", for courage is a prerequisite for
 AS>  the ability to share.


          I like your use of the word "prerequisite" there.  WRT the law it is
often said (in North America, at least) "You have the right to remain silent."
It could be argued that one person can encourage another or that people have a
right to xxx whether or not the government approves.  Either way I see this as
different from a situation in which it is considered Anton's duty to propose a
toast to the bride because he's her uncle or to speak on behalf of the members
of a club because nobody else volunteered to assume the role of president.  We
could say the president has the responsibility of acting as representative, of
deciding when to hold the next meeting, of organizing the meeting agenda, etc.
OTOH the bride & groom may decide to have a less formal wedding... the bride's
uncle may prefer to hide under a rock... or there may be no volunteers for the
position the club needs to fill.  I have the courage of my convictions in that
while other people helped me to realize teaching was my calling I was doing it
when I was in kindergarten, or so my mother told me a few decades later.  :-))




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