Path: ...!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!2.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail
From: Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net>
Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: To waffle, =?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=98to?= waver, to vacillate, to
 equivocate, to =?utf-8?Q?dither=E2=80=99?=
Date: Thu, 02 May 2024 06:45:36 +0100
Lines: 30
Message-ID: <87msp8kbr3.fsf@parhasard.net>
References: <874jbqlz6d.fsf@parhasard.net>
 <889c5dbf100f389994b0045c982b3eb2@www.novabbs.com>
 <v0dtql$32vn5$1@dont-email.me> <v0me1o$18rb8$1@dont-email.me>
 <dde345b58f5759830f2537ea1bd61367@www.novabbs.com>
 <v0qruj$2fvnq$1@dont-email.me>
 <a506b3df33f63e57031871da9da24d0b@www.novabbs.com>
 <v0u302$3aqh6$1@dont-email.me>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: individual.net uWCw0Sf+OVkbENuMaEiOCw/BRTzirOJDxV5DqnjBYS1tdS6LEI
Cancel-Lock: sha1:uH1GCO36mdZBuWc/T94FRXz0750= sha1:UGbE76M/bD122lMFglzajas4hsI= sha256:uBBfjcIGlBVSdwYcUifyfAs6GA7aREv18zwh2NwaO8A=
User-Agent: Gnus/5.101 (Gnus v5.10.10) XEmacs/21.5-b35 (Linux-aarch64)
Bytes: 2386


 Ar an chéad lá de mí Bealtaine, scríobh Antonio Marques: 

 > >>>> Never mind that in the bit that Steve quoted to flippantly inquire on
 > >>>> what 'that' meant, it was quite explicitly said 'dither'.
 > >>> 
 > >>> The "it" there isn't idiomatic 
 > > 
 > >> The sentence sounded wrong to me, but even now I'm not sure why.
 > >> As to 'it', maybe it's not idiomatic, but is it ungrammatical? I don't
 > >> quite see it.
 > > 
 > > "It" refers to "dither",
 > 
 > No, it's an impersonal passive, and I've just found out that for the last
 > 30/40 years I may have been using a construct that english doesn't have.

English does have an impersonal passive, and and what you wrote is grammatical,
but again, not idiomatic. No one would have noticed or commented except that
the sentence was posted to alt.usage.english. For me this formulating it so:

  “Never mind that the bit, that Steve quoted to flippantly inquire on what
  ‘that’ meant, explicitly said ‘dither’”

reads a little more idiomatic. 

-- 
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)