Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Of Awkward Syntax

The following paragraph would have to take the cake as the most syntactically confusing paragraph I read today.

“I’m not saying he’s dishonest, but in terms of judgment, in terms of being able to answer a question forthrightly, it has two different parts to this. The judgment and the truthfulness and just being able to answer very candidly a simple question about when did you know him, how did you know him, is there still — has there been an association continued since ’02 or ’05, I know I’ve read a couple different stories. I think it’s relevant.”

Qtd by Maureen Dowd.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't say I can parse this....

Anonymous said...

"I think it's relevant"
Right. And so is syntax!

Anonymous said...

"to answer a question forthrightly"
...
say what?

Sra said...

This is why verbal language rarely makes a good written quote. I can see what he's getting at, though.

Anonymous said...

Verbal ability doesn't always translate to competence. It sure is tough to get the subjects and verbs to agree in here, though.