Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

look (see sentence)

English answer:

gaze

Added to glossary by Jenni Lukac (X)
Feb 8, 2013 21:11
11 yrs ago
English term

look (see sentence)

Non-PRO English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature
Sabrina followed their eye-to-eye conversation. What's a stud like you doing out with Mom on tow?, the teenager's look teased him under black, thick, mascara-lengthened lashes, while dealing Sabrina herself a scorning one.

Is the last sentence "safe" as it stands? Or should it be changed to "...while Sabrina herself was dealt..."?
Responses
4 +1 gaze
4 +3 grammaticlly incorrect
Change log

Feb 8, 2013 21:39: Yvonne Gallagher changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"

Feb 10, 2013 19:05: Jenni Lukac (X) Created KOG entry

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (3): Tony M, Carol Gullidge, Yvonne Gallagher

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Responses

+1
7 mins
Selected

gaze

She gave him a teasing look/gaze. She looked at him with a teasing expression in her eyes.

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Note added at 8 mins (2013-02-08 21:20:33 GMT)
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She gave Sabrina a scornful look (looked at her with a scornful expression).

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Note added at 21 mins (2013-02-08 21:32:53 GMT)
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A look teasing someone sounds like an odd construction to me. I'd suggest "...shot him a teasing look from under her thick, black, mascara-laden lashes.." And then I'd suggest a slight shift to avoid repeating - something like "reserving a scornful glance for Sabrina", "tossing a scornful glance at/towards Sabrina" or "and directed a scornful glance at Sabrina."
Note from asker:
Hi, Jenni. The translation into English is actually mine. Sorry for not being clear with what I am questioning. Is the link between "the teenager's look" and "while dealing Sabrina a scorning one" safe? Is there a lack of cohesion, i.e. the look can't deal a look?
Peer comment(s):

agree Carol Gullidge : and I guess the rest should perhaps be a separate question, otherwise it's impossible to grade
14 mins
Thanks, Carol. I think this is a copy editing question.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks for your great help, Jenni. The author has kept the two looks separate in her sentence , which is why I find that your suggestions of "tidying" the sentence up, as opposed to separating it into shorter ones, are more useful. (I have already had to split this into two sentences. Originally, it was supposed to follow the direct speech - "so and so" teased the teenager's look. And, in my defence :), the grammatical flaw of the subject confusing its path also exists in the original, which is why I flagged the case.) "
+3
19 mins
English term (edited): look

grammaticlly incorrect

In the strictest sense of things, your suggested sentence as it stands is simply grammatically incorrect — by all the 'normal' rules.

"the teenager's look teased him under black, thick, mascara-lengthened lashes, while dealing Sabrina herself a scorning one"

So 'look' is the subject of the verb 'teased', hence we understand that 'look' is also the subject of 'dealing' — yet 'look' doesn't really fit well as a subject for dealing (we expect a person — here, presumably, the teenager?) And then, 'scorning one' seems to refer back to 'look', which thus becomes both subject and object of the same verb.

Overall, it is inelegant and I'm not sure at all that it actually says what it is supposed to mean; you seem to be muddling up subject and object with two different verbs. I would also say that 'scornful' is probably more common as the adjective for a look that 'scorning'.

I suspect what you were trying to say was: "from under her thick, black, mascara-lengthened lashes, the teenager's look teased him, while scorning Sabrina" — I don't see any place for 'herself', unless it referred back to 'the teenager', which clearly isn't the case here. Having established the intended meaning, I would then of course advocate re-writing the sentence in order to make it read more smoothly and correspond more closely to the overall register.

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Note added at 55 mins (2013-02-08 22:07:30 GMT)
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"while... was dealt..." seems less than satisfactory to me for several reasons — it's really a matter of 'native-speaker feeling', but (very!) generally I find passive constructions often sit awkwardly in more literary texts, as indeed may the use of 'while' in this sense.

I think the whole thing really needs completely re-writing to make it sound more natural and idiomatic, something along the lines of:

"Through..., the teenager's look teased Tom, but was scornful towards Sabrina"

You need to use some device to keep 'look' as the subject of both parts of the sentence; of coure, there are plenty of other solutions, including the possiblity of splitting it into two sentences.

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Note added at 20 hrs (2013-02-09 17:44:33 GMT)
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Err... I must apologize for the glaring typo in my headword answer, which I've only just spotted! It should of course read "gramatically incorrect"

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Note added at 31 days (2013-03-11 21:47:57 GMT) Post-grading
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Tom: poor man, I just unconsciously plucked a name fro him from somewhere! Is there perhaps some subconscious link to a Tom and Sabrina somewhere in my cultural past?

I think I must somehow have registered 'Mom' and 'tow', and that planted the seed of a typo in my head...

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Note added at 31 days (2013-03-11 21:48:38 GMT) Post-grading
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However, I do rather feel that 'Tom the Toyboy' could be quite apposite ;-)
Note from asker:
Thanks Tony. You've confirmed my suspicion (and wasted my previous thank you note when you hid your answer :)) The Albanian sentence was not well written either - I added the name of Sabrina myself as "herself" suggested that it referred to the teenager in the original version too. So, would changing to "Sabrina was dealt a scornful look" make it any better?
Hi, Tony. I am going with Jenni's version of sentence on this one, but your analysis and suggestions have been just as immensely helpful, so you have my hearty thanks. Just one last thing: I am completely baffled by your mention of "Tom" in the sentence. How on earth did you figure out the guy's name? :)
Peer comment(s):

agree Carol Gullidge : although I feel this should really be 2 separate questions, otherwise, which part do you award the points to?//Glad u mentioned this was a new vsn as I thought I must have been going barmy!
2 mins
Thanks, Carol! ;-)
agree Yvonne Gallagher : a bit of a mess as it stands even to the order of adjectives ("thick, black", as you and Jenni spotted)
7 mins
Thanks, G2! Yes, indeed... ;-)
agree Veronika McLaren : Good analysis of the grammar involved
1 hr
Thanks, Veronika!
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