Language Repair Woman.

[sister_luck]

I'm in marking hell again where I'll spend the rest of the weekend.

Again, I find myself in the face of odd linguistic choices and I'd like your input on them. Sometimes these are genuine grammar issues, but most often it's about the subtleties of usage.

The following sentences all somehow rub me the wrong way and in some cases I know where the mistake is, but haven't got a clue how to fix them.



Is this an alternative construction to "frightened of dying"?
Mary is frightened to die now.

Can a person be sinful or is it that a person is guilty of sinful acts? Is there an adjective that would describe this person?

Then there's the use of the reflexive pronoun with confess but as that's in the source text I'll accept it as old-fashioned language.

How would you fix he thinks terrible about himself? I've offered he thinks badly of himself, but is there any way to keep terrible?

Does he needs her forgiveness to have a cause to live on make any sense to you? I've got major problems with live on in the sense of keep living. Does "to have a reason to stay alive" make more sense?

I don't like she makes him clear that... - it sounds terribly German. Is she makes it clear to him that... a better-sounding replacement?

How would you put she searches the fault by herself in idiomatic English?

And lastly, something religious: Are "she repents of her sins" and "she repents her sins" both good English?

Thanks and bonus points for finding out which play my students had to discuss!

Comments

[forgiveninasong.livejournal.com]

In order:

*Mary is now frightened of dying, or, Mary is now frightened of death. Depends on the rest of the sentance to make it correct.

*A person can be sinful, yes. But they are also guilty of sinful acts. But for the adjective, it's sinful.

*'he thinks terrible about himself' doesn't really mkae sense. You wouldn't really use terrible like that. 'He thinks badly of himself' is fine, yes. I don't have any way to keep terrible, though. Unless.."he thinks terribly of himself".

*'her forgiveness is a reason to live for', I'd say.

*'she makes it clear to him that', yes, that's correct.

*yes, both of these constructions make sense.

:)

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I like it that I was mostly right.

[distractogirl.livejournal.com]

How about "He feels terrible about himself"?

The others, I think your replacements are fine! I can't think what the play is - are you going to tell us!?

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

That's a good alternative, thank you!

See below for the play!

[distractogirl.livejournal.com]

That's ok.

Ah, see I've never seen, or read, the Crucible, so I really had no chance! It's one of those things that I keep meaning to see/read and I've never managed to get around to it!

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

I didn't really expect anyone to guess it... well, I had the sneaking susupicion that the person who did guess it, would come up with it, but then drama is her area of expertise...

The film was quite interesting with lots of familiar faces. While watching with my class I had one brief slashy thought and felt really rather shocked at myself...

[distractogirl.livejournal.com]

I shall have to watch the film next time I get the chance then!

[gillo]

Is this an alternative construction to "frightened of dying"?
Mary is frightened to die now.

I don't think I would use an infinitive after "frightened" in this context, though I couldn't say why - "frightened to jump" works perfectly well.

Can a person be

sinful

or is it that a person is guilty of sinful acts? Is there an adjective that would describe this person?

I'd say a person can be sinful in a fairly archaic piece. Or an excessively religious piece.

How would you fix he thinks terrible about himself? I've offered he thinks badly of himself, but is there any way to keep terrible?

"He sees himself as a terrible person"? You can't use an adjective as an adverb, which is what it seems your student is trying to do.

Actually, this may also be a varieties of English issue - "He thinks badly of himself" rings very American to me.

Does he needs her forgiveness to have a cause to live on make any sense to you? I've got major problems with live on in the sense of keep living. Does "to have a reason to stay alive" make more sense?

I don't have a problem with "to live on", but "reason" makes sense where "cause" doesn't.

I don't like she makes him clear that... - it sounds terribly German. Is she makes it clear to him that... a better-sounding replacement?

Definitely. "makes him clear that" is not an English construction.

How would you put she searches the fault by herself in idiomatic English?

Hmm. Tricky because it could have more than one shade of meaning. Do you mean "She searches for the fault in herself", or "She seeks the fault on her own initiative" or "she looks for the fault without help from others"?

And lastly, something religious: Are "she repents of her sins" and "she repents her sins" both good English?

I'd accept both, though the second sounds slightly better to me.

Is it

The Crucible

?

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much and congratulations! You are right, it is The Crucible.

I think the fault example is so tricky a) because of the wrong preposition and b) because the student actually means blame.

Gah, that's the hardest part - spotting the mistakes is okay, but finding out what the student actually wanted to say and then 'fixing' the sentence without completely re-writing it, that's the time-consuming part.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

Mary is frightened to die now.
Depending on context, I think I'd use 'afraid' rather than 'frightened'. Frightened is an immediate state, whereas afraid is an ongoing state.
"Mary is afraid of dying" implies that she worries about it a lot.
"Mary is frightened of dying" means that she's sitting there trembling and crying right this minute.
"Mary is frightened to die" impies that somebody is standing there saying "Come on, Mary, die! You'll enjoy it!" and she's saying "No, I'm scared, I don't want to!"

A sinful person is one who has committed sinful acts (a sinner) or is likely to do so in the future.

'To live on' is fine as an idiom meaning "to continue to live after [other people have died][some horrible situation has occurred]"

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I must confess I didn't really think about the different shades of meaning that the Mary sentence could have. Very interesting!

Yeah, but phrasal verbs are tricky and mean - in a different context "to live on" if followed by, let's say, "the rent generated by the seven houses he owned" or "the residuals of the hit television series she wrote" or "the fat of the land", gets an entirely different meaning... That's sometimes a bit confusing.