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The Collins example is not the same thing; you're fixing your gaze, not fixing the object itself. Again, the grammar just isn't the same.

by marky1991 2y ago

SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
I have seen this construction before; I'm sorry if you have not. But that does not make it "broken".
- marky1991 2y ago
  "I have seen this construction before" is not a very high bar for communicating well.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
    "I have not seen this construction before, therefor it must be wrong" Is a way to raise barriers to your own learning.
    - marky1991 2y ago
      What do you expect me to "learn" in this context? I'm a native English speaker, there's nothing to learn here as far as I can see. No one has reported it to be a common phrase in any known dialect and the strongest defense for it is an entry in a community provided dictionary and some people misreading it as other phrases. I have never said anything was "wrong", I said it was poor communication. Wrong is not a useful concept in language. But the whole point of language is to communicate with others and this sentence is clearly confusing to many people.
      - marssaxman 2y ago
        I wonder whether you have ever encountered poetry before.
      - SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
        > What do you expect me to "learn" in this context? I have now downgraded my expectations, learning is indeed optional. > But the whole point of language is to communicate with others and this sentence is clearly confusing to many people. Or - hear me out - maybe you're not in the target audience of this piece in "The Critic: Britain's Most Civilised Magazine". Not everything is written for everyone, and it's useless to complain about that. But you should at least be able to identify that it is a particular literate British tone, and know if that's your thing or not. If it is, then dig into the idioms. If it isn't then don't read it.
        marky1991 2y ago
        "I have now downgraded my expectations, learning is indeed optional." So I ask you a question and you then don't answer it but instead just reply with sarcasm? I don't think this is a polite way to have a conversation, so I'm out.
        SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
        > I don't think this is a polite way to have a conversation, so I'm out. Indeed, everything that I feel needs saying is already in this thread somewhere, including the 2nd para of that comment. Sometimes it's said more than once. There's no more. You taking meaning from it is in now up to you; as I am not paid to teach, there are strict limits to the effort that I will put into it, especially when unwillingness is demonstrated and lived experience dismissed.

The Collins example is not the same thing; you're fixing your gaze, not fixing the object itself. Again, the grammar just isn't the same.

SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago

I have seen this construction before; I'm sorry if you have not. But that does not make it "broken".

marky1991 2y ago
"I have seen this construction before" is not a very high bar for communicating well.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
  "I have not seen this construction before, therefor it must be wrong" Is a way to raise barriers to your own learning.
  - marky1991 2y ago
    What do you expect me to "learn" in this context? I'm a native English speaker, there's nothing to learn here as far as I can see. No one has reported it to be a common phrase in any known dialect and the strongest defense for it is an entry in a community provided dictionary and some people misreading it as other phrases. I have never said anything was "wrong", I said it was poor communication. Wrong is not a useful concept in language. But the whole point of language is to communicate with others and this sentence is clearly confusing to many people.
    - marssaxman 2y ago
      I wonder whether you have ever encountered poetry before.
    - SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
      > What do you expect me to "learn" in this context? I have now downgraded my expectations, learning is indeed optional. > But the whole point of language is to communicate with others and this sentence is clearly confusing to many people. Or - hear me out - maybe you're not in the target audience of this piece in "The Critic: Britain's Most Civilised Magazine". Not everything is written for everyone, and it's useless to complain about that. But you should at least be able to identify that it is a particular literate British tone, and know if that's your thing or not. If it is, then dig into the idioms. If it isn't then don't read it.
      - marky1991 2y ago
        "I have now downgraded my expectations, learning is indeed optional." So I ask you a question and you then don't answer it but instead just reply with sarcasm? I don't think this is a polite way to have a conversation, so I'm out.
        SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
        > I don't think this is a polite way to have a conversation, so I'm out. Indeed, everything that I feel needs saying is already in this thread somewhere, including the 2nd para of that comment. Sometimes it's said more than once. There's no more. You taking meaning from it is in now up to you; as I am not paid to teach, there are strict limits to the effort that I will put into it, especially when unwillingness is demonstrated and lived experience dismissed.