Grammar Geek
I encountered this phrase today and it bothered me. Such a trivial thing but it strikes me as wrong:
“The paperwork needs raising.”
One of the first thoughts I had was that it is Anthropomorphic – the paperwork has no needs. In the alternate phrase, “The paperwork needs to be raised”, the need is attributed to a [...]
Thursday June 18th, 2009 in Linguistics | 3 Comments »