A quick look at sentences, from the national dailies and other sources, needing correction/improvement.

1. In some areas such as payments and settlements, the facilities available in India are comparable to those anywhere. The Hindu, July 19, 2007.

Correction: comparable to those anywhere else.

In comparison a member of set A (A may contain only one member) is compared with a / some / all the members of set B. Mumbai is bigger than Delhi. / Mumbai is bigger than many cities in the west. / Mumbai is bigger than any other city in India. In these three sentences, Mumbai is in set A. The cities it is compared with are in set B. (where B has to be understood as containing some cities of the west; all the cities of India excluding Mumbai). In the third sentence Mumbai is being compared with this group of Indian cities. The members here are all the cities of India except Mumbai. So we have to say: Mumbai is bigger than any other city in India.  Without other (which helps exclude Mumbai from the Indian cities it is being compared with), we get the impossible sentence Mumbai is bigger than itself. In the sentence cited, without else, anywhere would include India also.

2. It is admitted by any school of thought that the objects of the world are divided into two kinds, sentient and non-sentient (Saptagiri, May 2007. p.6.).

Correction: all schools of thought

Suppose the sentence had been negative. It is not admitted by any school of thought…This is unexceptionable. But the sentence cited positive and affirmative. In such a context we can only have all.

Notice that with a future tense any is possible in positive sentences. Anybody will tell you… (=It doesn’t matter who. He will tell you…) Similarly Any school of thought will admit that…

Why this is so is a question that has to be examined at greater length. Not now. Meanwhile interested readers may send in their own solution to this problem.

3. The syllabus is taught through outdated methods and disinterested teachers…

Correction: by uninterested teachers

The primary meaning of disinterested is ‘impartial; not influenced by personal interests’. A banker is under an obligation to give disinterested advice. (New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998). But it must be admitted that all along disinterested also has been used in the sense ‘uninterested’—the sense in which the writer of the sentence quoted above has used it.

It may well be a cry in the wilderness now to insist on keeping disinterested and uninterested separate. But keeping them separate will preserve a useful distinction. We will have two distinct words for two distinct senses.

4. Quite a lot of people complain these to me.

Correction: complain about these…

Complain takes two prepositional objects. Complain about something to somebody. He complained about the irregular water supply to the Commissioner. It can also take a direct sentential object. He complained that the water supply had become very erratic. What it cannot take is a noun /pronoun direct object.

5. So many experts, so few audience. –DH, Nov. 5, 2007, p.12

Audience is a collective noun. An audience can be big or small; it cannot be few.  If you have to bring out a numerical idea, you will have to say something like: so few in the audience (in each room / /stall, etc.  (The writer is speaking about a science exhibition.)

If you are thinking of the overall lack of visitors (to the exhibition) you can say: So many experts; so few visitors.

5. Being published on Thursday in the British journal Nature, the study is being hailed as a vital gain in knowledge. The Hindu, June 7, 2007, p.22.

There are two occurrences of being here. The second one is justified and required. The welcome given to the article is not something yet to come but is going on.  It is being hailed as a vital gain in knowledge. But what about being published?

The progressive form (being) can indicate future but that is not the only way to indicate the future. The future can be expressed by the infinitive form also. Suppose you had: To be published on Thursday, the article is being hailed as a vital gain in knowledge. Doesn’t it read better?

One more point. The contrast between a future event and its present impact is brought out better by choosing two different verb forms. Using the same verb form, we introduce a little, unwanted, confusion.

The writer can be contacted at ksyadurajan@yahoo.com