Re: USAGE: 'born'

In a message dated 5/11/01 9:33:15 AM, pearson@HUMNET.UCLA.EDU writes:

<< I disagree.  I'm a native English speaker, and I wouldn't think twice
about the
author's use of "becoming" as a verb (in the sense of "changing").  The
possibility that it might be a pun would never have occurred to me in a
million
years. >>

    If this were true, it'd be such awful, awful writing that it wouldn't be
published anywhere.  Using the same word twice in a row with the same meaning
and having the first one be a sentence fragment?  And why on Earth would
Phoenix still be becoming something?  You know how old it is?  All that's
happening are that a bunch of people are moving to it, and if the poverty
level is rising, the old people are probably moving out.  And the point
remains that Phoenix is a very pretty city, and planned like a dream.  I want
whoever posted this to e-mail the author and ask, because this really does
seem ridiculous to me.

-David

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