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NL888 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Each individual soldier discretion?
Should "each individual soldier discretion" be "each individual soldier's discretion"?
Context:
(One of the earliest and scratchiest recordings of the human voice
ever made is of Lord Tennyson himself reading this poem, and the
impression of hollow declaiming down a long, dark tunnel from the
depths of the past seems eerily appropriate.) From the high
command's point of view it would be madness to allow each
individual soldier discretion over whether or not to obey orders.
Nations whose infantrymen act on their own initiative rather than
following orders will tend to lose wars. From the nation's point of
view, this remains a good rule of thumb even if it sometimes leads
Context:
(One of the earliest and scratchiest recordings of the human voice
ever made is of Lord Tennyson himself reading this poem, and the
impression of hollow declaiming down a long, dark tunnel from the
depths of the past seems eerily appropriate.) From the high
command's point of view it would be madness to allow each
individual soldier discretion over whether or not to obey orders.
Nations whose infantrymen act on their own initiative rather than
following orders will tend to lose wars. From the nation's point of
view, this remains a good rule of thumb even if it sometimes leads
Top answer
"each individual soldier (to have) discretion' is talking about the soldiers' rights and expectation, not the nature of their discretion.
- "each individual soldier (to have) discretion' is talking about the soldiers' rights and expectation, not the nature of their discretion.
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11 Answers
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"each individual soldier (to have) discretion' is talking about the soldiers' rights and expectation, not the nature of their discretion.
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No, it's correct as it is. (It means "allow each individual soldier to have discretion".)
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If I remembered correctly, the word trial, which is always a noun or an adjective, has recently been often used as a verb in some authoritative media, e.g. Nature magazine..
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trial:
vb, trials, trialling or trialled
11. (tr) to test or make experimental use of (something): the idea has been trialled in several schools.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trialed
vb, trials, trialling or trialled
11. (tr) to test or make experimental use of (something): the idea has been trialled in several schools.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trialed
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CliveI don't think I've ever encountered 'trial' as a verb.This surprised me, but after some further investigation, it appears that the verb use is less well known in the US than in the UK. Perhaps Canada goes along with the US in this regard. This is a surprise to me because, in the UK, the verbing of nouns is usually perceived to be an American trend, and p
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