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SweetFreedom Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Two bayoneted corpses are the only survivors?

Two bayoneted corpses are the only survivors? Can corpses (dead bodies) be survivors?
Do you think whether the description is grammatically and logically correct?

Context:

The slaughter of civilians is appalling. I could go on for pages telling of cases of rape and brutality almost beyond belief. Two bayoneted corpses are the only survivors of seven street cleaners who were sitting in their headquarters when Japanese soldiers came in without warning or reason and killed five of their number and wounded the two that found their way to the hospital. [1]

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_O._Wilson
  

Top answer

They may have been survivors, and they may have been bayoneted, but corpses are not survivors.

— Philip

  • They may have been survivors, and they may have been bayoneted, but corpses are not survivors.
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6 Answers
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They may have been survivors, and they may have been bayoneted, but corpses are not survivors.
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So the writer had made a grammatical mistake?
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SweetFreedom So the writer had made a grammatical mistake?
I see it more as a lethal vocabulary mistake.
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But the author, Dr. Robert O. Wilson was an American. I don't think his English was so poor.
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His English is almost certainly not poor. This was a momentary conflation of ideas that went wrong.
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This reminds me of a headline I saw several years ago: Man struck by train rushed to two hospitals. Makes the flesh crawl!
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