Title : A strange but intriguing grammatical error in a Supreme Court opinion.
link : A strange but intriguing grammatical error in a Supreme Court opinion.
A strange but intriguing grammatical error in a Supreme Court opinion.
From yesterday's unanimous opinion, Twitter v. Taamneh, written by Justice Thomas:The plaintiffs (who are respondents) contend that they have stated a claim for relief under §2333(d)(2). They were allegedly injured by a terrorist attack carried out by ISIS. But plaintiffs are not suing ISIS. Instead, they have brought suit against three of the largest social-media companies in the world—Facebook, Twitter (who is petitioner), and Google (which owns YouTube)—for allegedly aiding and abetting ISIS.
You'd think the proximity of "Twitter (who...)" to "Google (which...)" would set off somebody's grammar alarm. They're both corporations and — though it's sometimes said jocosely or not that "corporations are people" — they're not human beings and they don't get "who."
It's an outright error, but I'm interested in why something worked on by so many industrious writers and editors would fail to catch it. I came up with 2 ideas:
1. The previous sentence begins "The plaintiffs (who are respondents)...." These parties are human beings, so "who" is the correct word. Then you might imagine, when you get to the next sentence, that "Twitter (who is petitioner)" looks nicely parallel. They're the parties to the case before the Court — the petitioner and the respondents — so you might be lulled into feeling good about seeing "who" in both parentheticals. But then what about "Google (which...)"? You'd think that would tip you off. Did they notice and think but Google is not a petitioner? That would be odd!
2. Maybe Twitter — unlike Google — really does feel like a person. It's entirely owned by Elon Musk, so you might think "Twitter" is just another name for the human being known as Elon Musk, thus making "who" the correct word.
It's still an error, of course!
The plaintiffs (who are respondents) contend that they have stated a claim for relief under §2333(d)(2). They were allegedly injured by a terrorist attack carried out by ISIS. But plaintiffs are not suing ISIS. Instead, they have brought suit against three of the largest social-media companies in the world—Facebook, Twitter (who is petitioner), and Google (which owns YouTube)—for allegedly aiding and abetting ISIS.
You'd think the proximity of "Twitter (who...)" to "Google (which...)" would set off somebody's grammar alarm. They're both corporations and — though it's sometimes said jocosely or not that "corporations are people" — they're not human beings and they don't get "who."
It's an outright error, but I'm interested in why something worked on by so many industrious writers and editors would fail to catch it. I came up with 2 ideas:
1. The previous sentence begins "The plaintiffs (who are respondents)...." These parties are human beings, so "who" is the correct word. Then you might imagine, when you get to the next sentence, that "Twitter (who is petitioner)" looks nicely parallel. They're the parties to the case before the Court — the petitioner and the respondents — so you might be lulled into feeling good about seeing "who" in both parentheticals. But then what about "Google (which...)"? You'd think that would tip you off. Did they notice and think but Google is not a petitioner? That would be odd!
2. Maybe Twitter — unlike Google — really does feel like a person. It's entirely owned by Elon Musk, so you might think "Twitter" is just another name for the human being known as Elon Musk, thus making "who" the correct word.
It's still an error, of course!
Thus articles A strange but intriguing grammatical error in a Supreme Court opinion.
You now read the article A strange but intriguing grammatical error in a Supreme Court opinion. with the link address https://welcometoamerican.blogspot.com/2023/05/a-strange-but-intriguing-grammatical.html
0 Response to "A strange but intriguing grammatical error in a Supreme Court opinion."
Post a Comment