We as Latinists are forever conscientious about grammar and syntax when we are doing our translations. In our particular field the misplacement of a pronoun, mistranslation of a verb's tense, or the misuse of a participle can (and has in my instance) turned the wonderful diction of a Ciceronian law speech into an incomprehensible mess that surely would not have bode well for his client. When I read this article shortly after Barack Obama's inauguration I laughed at how sometimes, we who might sometimes strive to be too literal, can also be petty. At the same time this also illustrates the symbolic nature that language takes on, and that at times the only way to truly understand the significance of a particular nuance in say Cicero is by as literal a translation as possible. Nevertheless you ought to find this interesting and humorous as I did.
Asa A. Cabbage
the link is http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/opinion/22pinker.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=john+roberts&st=nyt
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