Josh Chafetz says:
NEW HAVEN IS FORECAST for 10-15 inches of snow tonight.
Is this a colloquial construction I’m unfamiliar with, or just backwards?
I have heard this construction used by the weather reporter on one of my local TV stations (though not with respect to snow, since we’re in the Sacramento valley). I think it’s an attempt to avoid repetition of the same sentence structure, with unfortunate consequences.
Hmmm, I thought it was an appropriate colloquial construction. A Google search for “is forecast for” does generate a fair number of hits.
Sounds okay to me.
It’s journalese: “Who, What, Where, When, How”, as I was taught the rudiments of Hackery many years ago. Here New Haven is a ‘Who” because it’s the people in New Haven who will care.
I’ve heard this too. Always with reference to weather, I think.
Josh,
It looks like most of the examples in the google search you mention are of the reverse form— a foot of snow is forecast for New Haven rather than the other way round. (At least, 19 of the first 20 hits are of this form, and I didn’t check further). The thing to come being forecast for the place it is coming, rather than the place being forecast for the thing.
Presumably this is what Mr. Healy is nitpicking about, although why I have no idea.
Presumably this is what Mr. Healy is nitpicking about
“Nitpick” is an irregular verb of course. “I attend to details, You focus on minutiae, He nitpicks.”
although why I have no idea.
It still amazes me when someone with a blog says this about a blog post by someone else. Especially someone who has just posted about how many gas stations there are in the US and what the largest shark is.
Nitpicking an accusation of in a comment thread for a post, the entire content of which is to question whether someone else’s post is grammactical. The other post is one sentence long and based on the premise that repeating a weather report is worthwile and/or interesting. This seems like the paradigm of the blogosphere to me. And I for one wouldn’t have it any other way.
<i. This seems like the paradigm of the blogosphere to me. And I for one wouldn’t have it any other way
Exactly. This is why blogs are truly a giant, global conversation. Have you ever listened to most conversation?
I’m sorry, did you say something?
I was still reading theat marvelous sentence above, which begins
“The thing to come being forecast for the place it is coming…”
No nothing bout English, but google gave me these:
Weather this week is forecast for normal temperatures
And a lot of rain.
But the forwards of CT beat the the Oxblog backwards with 5610 vs 38.
I’ve heard that journalese checklist too. I’ve often wondered why they only use five of Rudyard Kipling’s “serving men” and don’t care about the question “why”.
They do, at least that’s what they teach us budding Swedish journalists.
I can’t be the only person who chuckled on seeing “Chaftez” in that odd “forecast line.
And, no, I won’t claim that I always avoid awkward sentences and misspelled names in my own work.
Whoops, that’s fixed now.
I found the “New Haven is forecast” construction somewhat odd. I think of “forecast” as functioning pretty much identically to “predict,” syntactically speaking, and I can’t get my head around “New Haven is predicted for 15 inches of snow.”
Weather this week is forecast for normal temperatures
Now that’s even weirder.
Kieren,
Maybe you meant “regular” instead of “irregular”?
“Nitpick” is an irregular verb of course. “I attend to details, You focus on minutiae, He nitpicks.”
How do you conjugate “nitpicks”?
It still amazes me when someone with a blog says this about a blog post by someone else. Especially someone who has just posted about how many gas stations there are in the US and what the largest shark is.
There is a difference between criticism (which I didn’t intend) and genuine puzzlement (which I did). We each post about whatever tickles our fancy, to be sure, but if there is some point to this post that I am missing, and you don’t mind sharing it, I’d love to be let in on the game. If not, that’s fine too.
Maybe you meant “regular” instead of “irregular”?
No, I meant “irregular.”
but if there is some point to this post that I am missing, and you don’t mind sharing it, I’d love to be let in on the game.
I’m not trying to game anyone, Will. The point of the post was right there in the question it asked. I genuinely wanted to know whether some people regularly used the verb “to forecast” in the way Josh did in his post, or whether this was just — as it seemed to me at first reading — a mistake, with the subject and object of the sentence in the wrong place.
Okay. Thoughts on the answer? It looks like Josh’s use was intentional, and a smattering of google hits are in the same vein. Do you have some sense from these comments (or emails you’ve received, etc.) how widespread the use is?
Well, it seems like some TV weather forecasters use it. But if you ask me, I still think it’s backwards.
Jet/Kieran:
I think nitpick is a regular verb, but intransitive.
Will you settle for that?
Delete that comment, I hadn’t followed the link to Yes, Minister.
Maybe the idiom, “location forecast For weather”, is the brainchild of the same now-legendary headline writer who came up with “‘Newsworthy Comment’: Official”, which any literate person would rewrite as, “Official: ‘Newsworthy Comment’”.
Thanks Kevin.
But it was quite amusing to have the person who called me functionally illiterate argue this point with me.
Thanks for the lesson Dr. Healy :P
The past tense of “cast” is “cast.” Maybe “forecast” is being used in this case as some kind of preterite imprecative. Perhaps it is formed as an analogue of “forsworn” or “forgone.” Examples:
“I am forsworn for England, my liege.”
“We are forgone for provisions as of Wednesday next.”
“The weather is forecast for snow, my liege.”
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