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Food Dictionary Needed!


Mark Slater

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And I just DETEST the use of double possesives; e.g., "She was a friend of Porcupine's." Thank you WaPo. Not.
I'm sorry if it irritates you, but this construction has been idiomatic in English for something like 700 years. We say "a friend of mine", not "a friend of me". The picture of Dorian Gray depicts Mr. Gray; a picture of Dorian Gray's may either belong to him or have been made by him, but probably doesn't depict him. Why should we want to jettison so useful a construction?
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I'm sorry if it irritates you, but this construction has been idiomatic in English for something like 700 years. We say "a friend of mine", not "a friend of me". The picture of Dorian Gray depicts Mr. Gray; a picture of Dorian Gray's may either belong to him or have been made by him, but probably doesn't depict him. Why should we want to jettison so useful a construction?
Yes, but that's not what I'm talking about. See my example.
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Your example was "a friend of Porcupine's", which is analagous to "a friend of hers", which is standard English and has been for a very, very long time. It's also analagous to "a picture of Dorian Gray's".
Ya know, your examples have been brought out to make the opposite point. Yes, mine and hers don't make any sense in my argument. But look at my original example. "She is a friend of Porcupine." Is there ANY ambiguity here? Or, "She is Porcupine's friend." Any ambiguity here? I think not. The word "of" is key in all these examples. "This is one of Dorian Gray's pictures" is NOT distinct. A picture OF Dorian Gray or a picture that he has in his possession? Further, one can narrow things down by saying "Porcupine is a friend of mine." Or, more exact, "Porcupine is my friend." In these instances the 's is redundant and unnecessary. And, that is my point.
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Your example was "a friend of Porcupine's", which is analagous to "a friend of hers", which is standard English and has been for a very, very long time. It's also analagous to "a picture of Dorian Gray's".

I'm not taking sides on this one, but it does strike me as a bit picky when there are so many more blatant problems on this and all other public boards where many who post apparently slept through English class. I give you such as......

The squid was eaten quickly by my wife and I. (teeth clench)

Your eating the squid to quickly. (a toofer, as it were)

I like this place--there squid is very good. (arrgh)

There making squid tomorrow. (stop me before its to late....)

This, of course, barely begins to scratch the tip of the iceberg.

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it does strike me as a bit picky when there are so many more blatant problems on this and all other public boards where many who post apparently slept through English class.
I used to get one point off (out of five) on my daily 10th-grade English essays for each use of a demonstrative pronoun to start a sentence. Scarred for life.
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