Re: Semantic antecedent

On May 27, 8:10 pm, Joe Fineman <j...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

On May 27, 5:48 pm, Ron Hardin <rhhar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Gloss for a Radio Japan audio clip :

``Reginald Ndesika, Radio Japan Swahili announcer, explains the
complicated but significant Japanese system of garbage separation
before throwing it away.''

http://www.nhk.or.jp/rjweekly/english/index.html

It might be imperfect editing (``separating garbage before throwing
it away'') or some non-native speaker effect.

Its effect though is surprising to me, as a mistake that's more
striking than you'd expect. I gave it a re-reading and a careful
parsing before coming to terms with it. I'd expect it to just slip
by.

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Native speakers need no rereading and parsing. Why won't you tell us
what your native language is?

The trouble, for me, is that the antecedent of "it" has to be an
attributive noun. That is not grammatical in my dialect. My first
parsing was the silly one that announcer had explained the system and
then thrown it away.

Mr Hardin's rewording would work for me, as would "garbage separation
before disposal".

If you'd heard it, you probably wouldn't have even noticed the anomaly.

.