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This has been bugging me for a while but throughout our company technical documents there's regular use of this type of sentence: The (user interface component) displays.

Displays being the important word. For example: 'The Color Picker displays.' or 'The popup window displays.'. Meaning that it appears.

Now this is fine grammatically (the sentence has a subject and a verb), but it feels wrong. Perhaps it's the ambiguity caused by 'display' also being a noun (more obviously seen in 'The window displays.').

Perhaps it's also that 'displays' tend to prefix a noun in this context. Such as 'The florist displays flowers'.

Is there a grammatical rule that having 'displays' at the end of a sentence is breaking? Or is just poor style? Or perhaps it's absolutely fine. Grateful for advice.

IanF
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    The technical term here is using "display" as an intransitive verb. This certainly happens (peacocks frequently display), but whether it is 'correct' may depend on how and where it is used. – Tim Lymington Apr 26 '18 at 18:03
  • This would annoy me, too. It’s hard to suppress the little voice that says "Displays what?!". Presumably it displays itself, but it’s not making the same effort as a peacock, so surely it’s just "appearing"? Or "opening"? – Pam Apr 26 '18 at 18:08
  • Similar: An error message should display or should 'be' displayed? – herisson Apr 26 '18 at 18:09
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    Perhaps the writers of documentation which uses this phrase are trying to avoid the passive voice because so many style guides and word processing packages object to it very strongly. In this case the passive voice ("the xxxx form is displayed") is entirely appropriate but falls foul of the passive voice vendetta. – BoldBen Apr 26 '18 at 18:14
  • Why, exactly, would it be a problem to use something like “The (component) appears” or “… is displayed”, please? – Robbie Goodwin Apr 29 '18 at 21:10
  • Thanks all for responses. I'm glad you share my suspicions! I do feel more comfortable with the alternatives, though in response to @RobbieGoodwin, the alternatives are not the problem but establishing whether using 'displays' is itself a problem. – IanF May 01 '18 at 11:02
  • Sorry I lack both knowledge and hours to explain this in complete detail and still for simplicity in your particular situation "appears” or “… is displayed” are not in question.

    For general reference please look at TimLymington's Comment, even to the extent of researching intransitive verbs.

    Your florist "displays flowers" is not unrelated to, but quite separate from what, how or why Tim's peacock does. There's no real reason the two shouldn't be interchangeable, bar custom and practice.

    “The (UIC) displays” is a third, again related but still separate use of the same verb.

    More…

     – Robbie Goodwin May 01 '18 at 18:31
  • The peacock displays… is complete in itself.

    The florist displays the flowers… is complete in itself, and very different.

    The (UIC) displays… is prolly an abbreviation for either “The (UIC) is displayed…” or “The (UIC) displays itself…”

    Using 'displays' that way will be a problem while it remains new and unfamiliar to most people, and cease when it’s established itself in common use.

     – Robbie Goodwin May 01 '18 at 18:32
  • You're right that TymLymington's answer does point the way. Looking at the definition of displays: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/display, seems to indicate that using it intransitively is only appropriate in the context of a breeding display (which my user interface components don't tend to...). – IanF May 03 '18 at 11:51

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