Language Quiz

Here's a new quiz - though, as always, maybe there's nothing wrong.

On the NY Times's Opinion Index page on Oct 3 was this precis of an editorial (a good and timely one, by the way):

When Verizon Wireless censored political speech on one of its mobile services, alarm bells should ring on the need for laws on digital communications.

The previous quiz was:

At esurance.com if we can't give you the best deal we'll show you where you can.

This is a case of over-elision - leaving too much out.

In English, you can leave out anything that would be duplicated - but only that which would be duplicated. Stephen Colbert's new book title is a wonderful example of WTF deletion (so to speak): I Am America (And You Can Too!). Even though what's being left out is another form of "to be", it simply can't be omitted in this case. It really needs to be "and you can be too".

In this esurance ad, they've omitted the verb phrase which follows "can" - and by doing so, they've told you that it's a repeat of the verb phrase you already read: "give you the best deal". Unfortunately for them, that makes no sense.

The verb they wanted was "get" - they give, you get - and what they wanted to omit was just "the best deal" - though because "get" is obligatorily transitive, they still need to supply the object (though they can de-emphasize it by using a pronoun):

At esurance.com if we can't give you the best deal we'll show you where you can get it.

You just can't leave out what hasn't been introduced already. Otherwise, you're expecting your readers to read more than your words: you're expecting them to read your mind.

And look here for Previous Quizzes, 38 so far.