The result aimed at in the case of a sustained, prolonged action is its object. His only object in life is to make as much money as possible. / The object of this exercise is to bring down prices.  Objective is a goal, a target. Indian football’s first objective should be to qualify to enter the World Cup.

The observation made above may be better appreciated in a sentence like Once an objective is identified, a plan or strategy may be developed to achieve the object. 2. Apropos the article Catch-22 T Subramanyam wants to know why it is called catch-22.

A catch is a hidden or unexpected difficulty or problem in a situation/proposal. which seems uncomplicated and acceptable. Take care. There’s a catch in his offer... Joseph Heller describes several such situations in his novel. The one numbered 22 has become quite famous. 

Heller’s novel was originally titled Catch-18. But before the novel could be published another book appeared with the title Mila 18. So Heller changed the title of his book to Catch-22.

Joseph Heller was not the first to present such a ‘catch’. He succeeded in giving such situations (they are situations which are sometimes described as ‘double bind’ situations) a name which has stuck. A common catch -22 situation is: No job without experience, No experience without a job, 3. S Geetha asks: If youth is plural why do people say: some youths?

Youth is both a collective noun referring to young persons in general (The youth today are captivated by the American way of life) and a countable noun which can be used to refer to one or more young persons. (Some youths were engaged in a drunken brawl).

4. Heera Nawaz   Which is the correct form: China affairs or Chinese affairs? The word China can be used by itself as an adjective with a noun: China silk, China tea, Chinatown. In each of these cases the first element has an adjectival function. But the group as a whole is treated as a noun. Chainaman (=a Chinese) is now felt to be offensive.  The preferred word now is: a Chinese.

The form Chinese is the first member of a number of words: Chinese lantern, Chinese cabbage, Chinese box (boxes one within the other; there is a similar Russian doll) Chinese puzzle . As between these two (China / Chinese) the second is more likely to be used as an adjective: Chinese diplomats/athletes/writers/goods, etc.
It can be seen that where the reference is to the country itself, the word is China (China tea); where the meaning is ‘of, characteristic of China’ the word is Chinese.

As for China affairs/Chinese affairs, the correct form is China affairs; that is, questions and problems relating to China as a country.  They are not Chinese affairs. The people of China are, as a whole, the Chinese; individuals are Chinese. I saw some Chinese shopping on Brigade Road recently. An individual is a Chinese.

4. Nambiar. Bi-monthly or fortnightly? Fortnightly clearly means ‘once in 15 days’. Some magazines are fortnightlies. Bimonthly can mean “once a fortnight’ or ‘once in 2 months’. So if you heard that some magazine is a bi-monthly, you wouldn’t know straightaway whether it appeared once in 15 days or once in two months.

5. KV Venkataramana.  A married man of the 1960’s and of 2008 is /are (?) very different persons.

There would be a problem here if the reference in the two phrases is to the same person. But that interpretation is ruled out.  What we have in the sentence is a comparison between two persons: one married in the 1960’s and another in 2008. So the required verb is are.

A correction

In the column dated July 17, 2008 it was mentioned that a reader had expressed astonishment at my misquoting Wordsworth. The reader’s point was not that I had written the man (which is in Wordsworth) but that I had written the father (which is not in Wordsworth). The mix-up is regretted. Anyway both the structures have been examined in the article.

The author can be contacted at ksyadurajan@yahoo.com