IS IT PEDANTIC TO REMARK ON MINOR ERRORS in the use of language? I think the answer is that it depends. Error, after all, is the joy of pedants, whether the error be serious or trivial.
Recently, I noticed a standfirst in the Economist: “THE FRENCH PRESIDENT ISSUES A DARK AND PROPHETIC WARNING”. What the Economist meant was that the French president prophesied something dark. A warning cannot be known as prophetic until the future it prophesied has come to pass. Whether a warning was prophetic can only be known in retrospect.
Is this a small distinction without a difference? In this case, I think not: for the word “prophetic” here implies truth. A warning cannot be called prophetic unless what it warns of has come to pass. A man…
You're reading a preview of
The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2024