Verb tense confusion.

Question

Hi everyone,I'm not a native English speaker and I'm working for an IT-related company. This week, I sent my weekly report to my boss and he sent me this corrected version of my report:"This week, I have partially created a new architecture which supports Linux kernel 3.0. Everything went goes well except that vmlinux.lds got has a syntax error which ceased that puts an end to the entire compilation process. Currently, I'm working on fixing this error behind which I suspect based on my suspection that the cross-compiler was can be the culprit. Next week, I will carry on this bug-hunting process."So I have some questions regarding the above report:  - Those things in the report are the events in the past, why did he changed my verb tense into simple present tense ? - I have looked up the word "cease" in the dictionary and it has the following explanation:  "to cease = to bring an activity or action to an end". Why did my boss replace "cease" with "to put an end to" ? Isn't it the same thing ? - I can't see why my relative clause "behind which I suspect ..." is wrong. Could someone point out my mistakes ?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

?c Giác I sent my weekly report to my boss

I don't know how you are going to deal with this, but your boss is an idiot. Every change he made is worse than what you wrote first.

This week, I created part of a new architecture which supports Linux kernel 3.0. Everything went well except that vmlinux.lds [got / had] a syntax error which stopped the entire compilation process. Currently, I'm working on fixing this error, which I suspect is being caused by the cross-compiler. Next week, I will continue to hunt for the bug(s ).

'cease' is intransitive. You can't cease something, so an error can't cease a process. Rather, something ceases. An error can stop a process, however.
There is no such word as 'suspection'.

CJ

Ốc Giác · Answer

Thank you, CalifJim. I really appreciate your help. However, I still have a point about which I'm really confused: Is the relative clause "behind which I suspect ...." wrong ? If yes then I would like to know why.

P/S: suspection is a noun (obsolete) (source: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/suspection).

CalifJim · Answer

?c GiácIs the relative clause "behind which I suspect ...." wrong ? If yes then I would like to know why.

I'm working on fixing this error behind which I suspect that the cross-compiler was the culprit.

Yes, it is wrong, in one sense of "wrong". Strictly speaking it is grammatically correct, but it is so awkward and unidiomatic that it cannot be accepted as good English. I assume you are saying that you suspect that the cross-compiler was the culprit behind the error. It is the subordinate clause (underlined) that is the strange thing about your sentence, and when it is split up with a construction like "behind which", it becomes even stranger. I believe this is because "behind" is not being used literally. In what you say there is nothing literally behind something else. When words are used figuratively, as you have used "behind", they do not lend themselves well to use in the more complex constructions like "behind which". They lead the reader to take the literal meaning first, and the idea of something being located literally behind an error strikes the reader as odd. The reader has to wait until the end of the sentence to understand that the meaning is figurative, and that even "culprit" is figurative. Perhaps all this figurative language just seems out of place in a weekly report whose contents are mostly matter-of-fact and technical in nature.

CJ

PS. Don't use obsolete words like "suspection" even if there was a time long ago when such words were used!

Ốc Giác · Answer

What a great explanation you gave me. I didn't pay attention to its figurative meaning when composing that sentence. Next time, I will avoid this kind of complex structure when writing a figurative sentence. Once again, thank you, CalifJim, for detailed explanation which clarifies a lot of things for me. Have a nice day.

Verb tense confusion.

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