And in my opinion, the choice could not be more clear; between one candidate, John McCain, who has experience and has been tested in war and tried in peace, and another candidate that has not. Between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put his country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate that has not. Between one candidate that's a talker and one candidate who's the leader America needs as our next president. [emphasis added]I've never noticed this before, but maybe it's more common than I realize. Still, with Lieberman's construction, he has four pairs of "that" and "who," and it really looks glaring. Maybe no worse than "Democrat Congress" -- I wonder when Lieberman will fall into that.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Lieberman's Grammar
The rules on this appear to be somewhat murky, but Lieberman really goes to town on this:
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3 comments:
Lieberman is grammatical till the last "who." Just as "which" and "that" are different with respect to non-humans ["that" restricts while "which," which follows a comma, does not], some people use "who" and "that" to distinguish non-restricting and restricting. [There is an old British movie, "The One That Got Away," about a German POW who escapes from Britain.] So it is "who" following John McCain for a non-restricting clause; it is "that" to restrict "a candidate." But the last "who" is inconsistent and perhaps gives Lieberman away.
I agree that the rule of "who" for non-restrictive and "that" for restrictive would make everything grammatical until the last sentence. However, "who" and "that" can be interchangeable -- "The man who used to sell us ice cream" -- in which case Lieberman is not grammatically wrong, just making a very consistent choice to refer to Obama as "that" and McCain as "who."
The New York Times has sanitized the quote:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/lieberman-obama-has-not-always-put-country-first/
“In my opinion, the choice could not be more clear: between one candidate, John McCain, who’s had experience, been tested in war and tried in peace, another candidate who has not,’’ Mr. Lieberman said. “Between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not. Between one candidate who’s a talker, and the other candidate who’s the leader America needs as our next president.”
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