Discussion Groups / English Usage / October 2006

I am getting tired of increasingly hearing people claim that "correct
usage" is not the same as "acceptable usage".  For a language usage to
be "correct", they say, it must be recognized by many grammarians with
little to no objection from anyone.  This, I might call "standard

can anyone write when i can find a lot of information about this dialect ,
it can be books or web sites
thx for any help

There are some words
whether , example ,good , available , lot , convey ,clue ,source , as
,regardless ,of ,moderate
complete these blank with suitable words

(I'm not the person ,having alot of exercise papers to do and hope
others to help me with the works done ,
i just have done it , and want to make sure whether they are  correct
or not ,because there are no official answers to the papers ,which are

My book, The Yale Book of Quotations, has at last been published (by Yale
University Press).  The YBQ is the first major quotation book to emphasize
modern sources, including popular culture, sports, computers, and
politics, and the first quotation book of any sort to use ...

On this morning's _Meet the Press_ TV show, Senator Barack
Obama said "I anguished over that decision".
I felt quite certain that there is no verb "anguish" and
that the word he was reaching for and failed to find was

I find the presence of "have" in "Sometimes he would have come back"
quite strange.
I don't think it's necessary or even recommended. How about it?
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Interesting snippet from today's Guardian about. Personally, I can't
see anything wrong with saying " ...my brothers and I.." and indeed
prefer this to "..and me..".
Diary

I'm a Korean girl. Do you know Korea is the very nation focusing on
English learning?
In Korea, students must learn English at least for 12 years. Despite
the fact like this, most students who have learned English for more

Could someone please explain for me what a "cartesian product" is,
using plain English?
Googling just seems to find sites written for people who can still
remember what they learned for their A-level in Maths.

The horror of the first week of the new term is over, and of meeting 10
new  classes, with, thank God, only half a dozen or so potential
psychopaths amongst the new cohort(tm) of students.
A girl from Brazil told me she'd studied "Marketing and Propaganda".

Is it possible to say so?
I know that on holiday is the best option. Besides, there is for holiday.
However, let me know what you think about "I went in such a beautiful
holiday".

From Wikipedia
In October 2006, the Melbourne Herald Sun reported that vegemite is
banned in the USA, with Customs officials going so far to even search
Australians for Vegemite when they enter the country. However, no

I've noticed a growing use in the British news media of  "single-handedly"
where I would use "single-handed", as in:
"Robin Knox-Johnston was the first to sail single-handedly
around the world."

Another question came up and I need your help with this. Here is the
sentence in question.
Norma didn't travel by herself. She brought about 100 companions along
with her. Norma was an ant, a queen ant who, with her subjects,