4/3/09

Idioms, Metaphors, & Dangling Prepositions

This lovely biographical/fluff piece comes from the Scotsman.com (which is, unsurprisingly, a Scottish news organisation). [Queen's English sic]

Benedetti makes her critics face the music

Ah, it works on so many levels! Literally, idiomatically, and...well, two, actually.

SHE is almost as renowned for her impeccable manners and composure as she is for her sublime musical talent.

This seems blatantly false, but it makes a nice enough lead-in, I suppose. Perhaps I'm wrong; do they have a Manners and Composure section in most UK papers? (It can't be worse than the Life section in the Austin American-Statesman.)

But now, after years of biting her tongue, Nicola Benedetti...


Figure 1: Nicola Benedetti
(Careful, you'll get eye shadow on that thing!)

...has finally hit back at the critics who have caused her heartache.


It is generally not recommended that you date your critics.

The acclaimed violinist has aimed her bow at over-zealous reviewers who make sweeping assertions about her...

Violinist...bow...oh, I get it! She's also a part-time (and, presumably, renowned) ship's captain!


Figure 2: A Bow

Puns are outstanding.

...and urged them to "chill out".

Since the idiom is set off with quotes, I am able to identify it as such! Without such punctuational assistance, I'd be left with the assumption that she'd like her critics (and erstwhile suitors?) to remain outdoors in what (I assume) is nasty, bitter, Scottish weather. Thanks, quotation marks!

[snip]

Benedetti admitted that she had been left hurt by some particularly vituperative criticism. "There were some articles that I got really upset about."

There are some parts of speech about which I get upset when ending sentences, but only mildly.

But wait! There's content:

[snip]

The violin virtuoso also gave her verdict on modern music.

Ah, I am curious what a 21-year old violin virtuoso thinks about modernism and other current trends. What say you, wunderkind?

"There are some artists that are really, really special, but I don't like most commercial rap and R&B… I'd rather not listen to that."

Hmm. She doesn't like Rochberg and Berio? Who knew?

(Redundant Link: The whole article is here.)

3 comments:

Gustav said...

Only two "really"s? I guess Ms. Benedetti has spoken -- although, I would have said that there are some artists that are really, really, really, super-duper, humdinger-awesome special....

Anonymous said...

If the preposition has an object, the sentence is grammatically complete. Also, the preposition-end-of-sentence rule is considered a very weak rule at that!

But more importantly – I found that these quotes were translated. Benedetti originally proclaimed, “You know wha' they say: See a broad to get that bodiac lay'er down an' smack 'em yack 'em.”

CM

Sator Arepo said...

CM-

I didn't say it was wrong, only mildly upsetting...

...Like direct octaves.

[ducks flying MS paper]