Board:   [DoveNet] Pro-Audio Discussion
Subject: Re: Linn LM-1 With A.M.S.
From:    calcmandan
Date:    Sat Sep 12, 2020 07:55

@VIA: DIGDIST
-=> Nightfox wrote to calcmandan <=-

 Ni>   Re: Re: Linn LM-1 With A.M.S.
 Ni>   By: calcmandan to Nightfox on Thu Sep 10 2020 06:42 am

 ca> While, Ga is right in saying it's redundant, our utilization of the
 ca> English language isn't perfect. As such, like Nightfox said, it's common
 ca> parlance to use
 ca> the word 'before' in this context. You could probably remove the
 ca> redundancy by removing the word 'ever.' If I were writing a paper to be
 ca> graded in a college class or a memofor work, it would read like this:

 ca> Has anyone used this drum machine?

 ca> My college comp professor would always beat the drum about removing excess
 ca> words
 ca> from sentences that don't carry extra meaning but are simply filler to
 ca> meet aword-count requirement.

 ca> This is a BBS echo and hardly an environment to be intensely nitpicky with
 ca> grammar. May as well criticize every thread if you're going to go there.

 Ni> Yep.  Also, in the above example, I don't think it really even sounds
 Ni> bad to have "ever" or "before" in there.  I think it's still
 Ni> grammatically correct to have "ever" (as in "Has anyone ever used this
 Ni> drum machine?").  I'm not sure if having "before" at the end is
 Ni> grammatically correct, but I still think the meaning is fairly clear.
 Ni> I don't think it's of much use to nitpick over that.

You hit on a meaningful point regarding clarity. If an extra word alters a
sentence's meaning in a way that leads to confusion over context, then it
should
be removed. But, if the word's presence does nothing to change the meaning, but
reinforces the weight of redundant word in the phrase, then the word can stay
or
be removed. I guess it just makes the sentence a bit wordy.

Your version of the phrase 'has anyone ever used this drum machine'
lends a tinge of urgency without altering the meaning. 'Has anyone used this
drum machine?' drops theword, implies the same exact meaning, but drops the
urgency. Both appear to be grammatically correct in my view.

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