0

Spot the part of the given sentence containing an error.

The article that she wrote for the last week's Sunday Supplement fairly criticizes the abuse of mobile phones.

The answer provided to me is 'fairly criticizes', however, I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Although the statement talks about an article that was written in the past, I think the present tense 'criticizes' still works because the content of the article is relevant even when the statement was made. So I think there is no error in this sentence.

Am I correct?

Sasikuttan
  • 125
  • 2
    The duplicate question provided does not address your question; yours is not about backshifting. Your sentence uses the literary present, and it is correct: the article exists ever in the present. – Tinfoil Hat Dec 18 '22 at 21:40

1 Answers1

1

I'd say you're correct. The article is still here, right in this paper I'm holding in my hand, and continues to criticise. I wouldn't say "the speech she gave at the protest last week criticises [...]" is right, because the speech only took place at a given point in time, but an article is here to stay.

Divizna
  • 561
  • Hello, Divizna. Good second example to show that there is a grammatical choice, and that logic should inform the correct choice from the point of view of semantics. Sometimes (eg 'He didn't know that Phobos was/is Mars's larger moon') backshifting is just a style choice. // There have been quite a few incarnations of this question. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 18 '22 at 14:51