Subject: Re: a grammarian's funeral
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Sat Feb 09 2002 - 03:13:14 GMT
Oh dear me no, Cec. No, no. Not 'forsworn'.
When one gets rid of a lover, one dumps, dishes, ditches,
drops, discards, gives him the heave or the elbow, sends
him a Dear John letter... And so on. The choice is wide.
But one does not forswear him. One might forswear opium
or the Democratic Party, or flattery, or reading Salinger,
or any other bad habit, but I'm a little doubtful it's possible
to 'forswear' a human being at all - unless, of course, his presence
or ministrations have become so compelling as to constitute
an addiction which is beginning to threaten one's ethical,
physical, emotional or financial integrity. It implies a
giving up - with some reluctance. Hardly something you
can feel in regard to myself.
I'm afraid, such nuances are not to be grasped from grammar
or style guides. This is really much more a question of the
'feel' for language: one of those inborn traits not even the most
gifted teacher can inculcate in an unlikely pupil.
Some of us, quite simply, have it. Others, sadly, do not.
Scottie B.
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