Grammar (late hit; was West Penn Today - The back Line)

[Edward H. Lybarger]

The West Pen(n) is on Doerr Street in Manchester; the East Pen(n) is at
Graterford.  (And yes, it's "Western" and "Eastern," to be pure.)

"Penn" is not a noun ("pen" is) as the pompous usage suggests.  It is indeed
part of a proper name, which in its entirety forms the noun.  But "Company"
or "System" is what makes it a complete noun.  "West Penn" is a
grammatically correct abbreviation.  "The West Penn" is an abomination.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of Carl Zager
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 9:39 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: RE: Grammar (late hit; was West Penn Today - The back Line)


Since I have always maintained that grammar, spelling, and other mechanics
of constructing written and spoken language are but conventions describing
how things are rather than how things should be, I almost hesitate to
enter this fray. However, I have always been under the impression that
titles or names are nouns, no matter how many words, no matter what the
part of speech an element seems to represent.

In other words, "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," while
it contains an adverb, a preposition, a pronoun, verbs, and so on, is, in
itself, a noun. If the title is _The New York Times_, or in London, _The
Times_, the structures as a whole are nouns. "The West Penn Railway" is a
noun. So is "The West Penn" or even "West Penn."

Notice, I do not argue that one should not object to certain structures or
locutions for grammatical, mechanical, or stylistic reasons, only that we
should not dismiss "The West Penn" as adjectival. Once it becomes a title,
it becomes a noun.

Peace.


On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> Prevalent as it may be/have been, it is still presumptuous and obnoxious,
> not to mention elitist.  Perhaps the most compelling example supporting my
> complaint involved a multi-egoed real estate developer on the east coast
> whose spinmeisters wanted people to refer to him as "The Donald."  I rest
my
> case.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> [mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of Donald Galt
> Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 10:51 PM
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: Grammar (late hit; was West Penn Today - The back Line)
>
>
> On 10 Jul 00, at 14:45, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:
>
> >
> > The point, of course, is that "System" or "Railways" is a grammatically
> > correct noun, whereas "West Penn" is adjectival and as such cannot stand
> > alone.  To correctly use "the" with West Penn Railways, one must add the
> > word "Company."
>
> I take second place to nobody in my admiration for Ed's command of the
> language. However, dropping a noun, keeping an adjective and adding the
> definite article is an accepted feature in colloquial English. Consider
"The
> Met" or "The Fourth." It's been going on since long before West Penn
> Railways ever turned a wheel.
>
> "The West Penn" may well grate on the ears of purists for all I know, but
> that would be a peculiarity of local usage. Just as London's Metropolitan
> Electric Tramways were never called "the Met" but always "the M-E-T." Or
> as a New York City ticket agent's reference to Great Northern's Empire
> Builder as "The Empire" instead of "The Builder" was a terrible faux pas
in
> my ears.
>
> These West Penn travelogues are fascinating!
>
> D2
>

 Carl Zager						KB9RVB
 czager at bloomington.in.us         http://www.mccsc.edu/~czager