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It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

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Re: It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

#11

Post by trebor »

I wish I could take the guy who came up with the headline to task! We've had a headline homicide...

1) "it is pancakes" isn't a sentence (ambiguous in the extreme).

2) The words "[it is] pancakes" are incompatible because "are" is the plural equivalent of "is".

3) "in a can" is not a sentence (lack of a subject & verb).

4) "it's made" is "it is made" not the "it has made" it should be. (It's as "it has" is not an official contraction due to its obvious ambiguity.)

The unmurdered headline would be,−

  It's pancakes in a can, and it has made $15 million.

To CNN: Remember, it's my language you're abusing. Maybe you should care too? As a "big news agency" you should at least care enough to force your writers to learn basic English grammar!

Re: It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

#12

Post by gruseom »

trebor wrote: post #11

I wish I could take the guy who came up with the headline to task! We've had a headline homicide... 1) "it is pancakes" isn't a sentence (ambiguous in the extreme). 2) The words "[it is] pancakes" are incompatible because "are" is the plural equivalent of "is". 3) "in a can" is not a sentence (lack of a subject & verb). 4) "it's made" is "it is made" not the "it has made" it should be. (It's as "it has" is not an off…

That's a reductio ad absurdum, since (begging your pardon) your revised headline sounds bad and lacks punch. Meanwhile the original headline qua headline seems fine. Headlines are their own specialized context with their own rules, somewhat different from the main rules. You might even say they have a domain-specific grammar.

I'm upvoting your comment anyway because the concept of a subgrammar never occurred to me before and it's kind of neat. I'd be surprised if it weren't a well-known phenomenon among linguists though.

Re: It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

#13

Post by Retric »

trebor wrote: post #11

I wish I could take the guy who came up with the headline to task! We've had a headline homicide... 1) "it is pancakes" isn't a sentence (ambiguous in the extreme). 2) The words "[it is] pancakes" are incompatible because "are" is the plural equivalent of "is". 3) "in a can" is not a sentence (lack of a subject & verb). 4) "it's made" is "it is made" not the "it has made" it should be. (It's as "it has" is not an off…

While you might feel the need to post such things, I would request you do that on some other form. It's effectively the same thing as trolling.

Re: It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

#14

Post by jonursenbach »

axod wrote: post #8
JulianMorrison wrote: post #7

I wonder if they sell these in the UK?

Likely not. Just like we don't get/want spray cheese. All sounds a bit yuck to me. I get the powder stuff. You can buy it from Tesco. Comes in a bottle, which is about 1/4 full of powder. You can store in the cupboard for ages. When you want pancakes you just open the bottle, fill it up with fresh milk, shake for ages then start cooking. Really tasty as well.

I don't think anybody wants spray cheese...

Re: It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

#15

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

gruseom wrote: post #12
trebor wrote: post #11

I wish I could take the guy who came up with the headline to task! We've had a headline homicide... 1) "it is pancakes" isn't a sentence (ambiguous in the extreme). 2) The words "[it is] pancakes" are incompatible because "are" is the plural equivalent of "is". 3) "in a can" is not a sentence (lack of a subject & verb). 4) "it's made" is "it is made" not the "it has made" it should be. (It's as "it has" is not an off…

That's a reductio ad absurdum, since (begging your pardon) your revised headline sounds bad and lacks punch. Meanwhile the original headline qua headline seems fine. Headlines are their own specialized context with their own rules, somewhat different from the main rules. You might even say they have a domain-specific grammar. I'm upvoting your comment anyway because the concept of a subgrammar never occurred to me be…

Ain't that the truth!

Re: It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

#17

Post by liebot »

trebor wrote: post #11

I wish I could take the guy who came up with the headline to task! We've had a headline homicide... 1) "it is pancakes" isn't a sentence (ambiguous in the extreme). 2) The words "[it is] pancakes" are incompatible because "are" is the plural equivalent of "is". 3) "in a can" is not a sentence (lack of a subject & verb). 4) "it's made" is "it is made" not the "it has made" it should be. (It's as "it has" is not an off…

>The unmurdered headline would be,−

> It's pancakes in a can, and it has made $15 million.

How does this address #2: The words "[it is] pancakes" are incompatible because "are" is the plural equivalent of "is".

Re: It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

#18

Post by psygnisfive »

trebor wrote: post #11

I wish I could take the guy who came up with the headline to task! We've had a headline homicide... 1) "it is pancakes" isn't a sentence (ambiguous in the extreme). 2) The words "[it is] pancakes" are incompatible because "are" is the plural equivalent of "is". 3) "in a can" is not a sentence (lack of a subject & verb). 4) "it's made" is "it is made" not the "it has made" it should be. (It's as "it has" is not an off…

I like how you call yourself a grammar nazi, cite the old (and wrong) definition of a sentence as something with a subject and verb, but then say that "it is pancakes" is not a sentence. Why not? It's got a subject -- it -- and it's got a verb -- is.

Further, English has subject-verb agreement not subject-object agreement or verb-object agreement, hence "it is pancakes" is completely fine. Sure there maybe be some semantic anomalies, what with the singularity of the subject, the plurality of the object, and the copula which provides some sense of equivalence between them, but that's entirely a semantic issue and not a grammatical one.

Further further, setting off non-sentences by periods is common practice. You may not like it, but everyone else accepts it. You're just an idiot.

Further further further, "it's" is completely acceptable English, and isn't an official contraction only because there ARE no official contractions -- unlike French, with its (wholly impotent) French Academy, there is no authority on English, and thus no such thing as official English. The best we can do (as if we should care) is to reference the great authors of English literature (whoever they may be) and if you go by them, then you're most certainly wrong.

Further further further further, it's not your language, it's everyones, and I think the headline is fine; and they're not abusing it, they're using it in a completely standard fashion.

Re: It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

#19

Post by psygnisfive »

liebot wrote: post #17
trebor wrote: post #11

I wish I could take the guy who came up with the headline to task! We've had a headline homicide... 1) "it is pancakes" isn't a sentence (ambiguous in the extreme). 2) The words "[it is] pancakes" are incompatible because "are" is the plural equivalent of "is". 3) "in a can" is not a sentence (lack of a subject & verb). 4) "it's made" is "it is made" not the "it has made" it should be. (It's as "it has" is not an off…

>The unmurdered headline would be,− > It's pancakes in a can, and it has made $15 million. How does this address #2: The words "[it is] pancakes" are incompatible because "are" is the plural equivalent of "is".

OH IRONY

Re: It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

#20

Post by dotBen »

jonursenbach wrote: post #14
axod wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely not. Just like we don't get/want spray cheese. All sounds a bit yuck to me. I get the powder stuff. You can buy it from Tesco. Comes in a bottle, which is about 1/4 full of powder. You can store in the cupboard for ages. When you want pancakes you just open the bottle, fill it up with fresh milk, shake for ages then start cooking. Really tasty as well.

I don't think anybody wants spray cheese...

I would agree being a Brit living in USA. But they sell a ton of spray cheese here... ^_^
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