Saturday, February 11, 2012

Dangling Infinitive

The New York Time's lead paragraph in its contraceptive coverage features a dastardly sentence structure:
The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have rejected a compromise on birth control coverage that President Obama offered on Friday and said they would continue to fight the president’s plan to find a way for employees of Catholic hospitals, universities and service agencies to receive free contraceptive coverage in their health insurance plans, without direct involvement or financing from the institutions.
Did you spot it? I read the paragraph without any hesitation as "Bishops... said they would continue to fight the president's plan[. The President's plan finds a way] for employees of Catholic hospitals, universities and service agencies to receive free contraceptive coverage in their health insurance plans, without direct involvement or financing from the institutions..."

An alternate reading is that they will "continue to fight the president's plan [in the hopes of creating an alternative plan wich would create] "a way for employees of Catholic hospitals, universities and service agencies to receive free contraceptive coverage in their health insurance plans, without direct involvement or financing from the institutions."

Later down in the article, there appears to be more support for the latter reading. I'm breaking off the Bishop's logic, because it deserves some analysis in the context of the overall healthcare debate. See you on that post in a couple minutes.

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