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I've seen many questions migrated from ELU to ELL, but I don't recall ever seeing a question go the opposite way. I also admit I don't know if my question here should more properly be asked on ELL meta (maybe it should even be posted on both, but that seems a bit OTT).

The ELL question that bothers me is Is the construction “whose each” correct?. It was asked over 2 years ago, but the OP hasn't returned to ELL since posing the question. I've probably confused the issue even more by offering a bounty a few days ago, but we are where we are.

My current thinking is that from the learner's point of view, the cited usage should probably be considered "non-standard, unusual, dated, undesirable", but that the specific matter of whether it's grammatically acceptable today is largely irrelevant to the needs of learners.

My specific question here is really a two-parter:

1: Should that particular question be migrated?
2: If not, under what if any circumstances might ELL => ELU migration be recommended?

2 Answers 2

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I'm not a regular ELL user, so it's hard to speculate about the types of questions that would be worthy of migration in general.1

In this particular instance, if the OP had shown some research and asked a more meaningful question than "is this right?" then I would support migrating it. As it stands, though, if that question turned up here in its current form I would've voted to close it.

I think your bounty and the interesting depth of the answers shows that there is a good ELU question buried in there somewhere, if only someone could unearth it...

(ETA)... which it appears someone already did. Perhaps it's just the answers that should be migrated/copied to the ELU question, rather than the entire question being migrated.

1 I'm also in favor of having only one English site, precisely because the boundaries of what belongs where are hazy and problematic. But as you said, we are where we are.

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  • Actually, I think "the interesting depth of the answers" so far on the ELL question should probably be taken as evidence that it wouldn't have made much difference if the OP had shown evidence of significant prior research. It's not obvious he'd have been likely to find a definitive answer anywhere, which is the normal reason for citing that in a closevote.
    – FumbleFingers
    Apr 21, 2015 at 12:57
  • @FumbleFingers - Perhaps, but isn't the OP on ELU still obliged to show that they tried? The OP could have cited an ngram, or a grammar source... anything. Right now it's just a proofreading "is this correct" question, which doesn't belong. Perhaps I'm being overly pedantic since the question already exists and already has interesting answers. It just feels wrong to support migrating a question I would have close-voted had it appeared here in the first place.
    – Lynn
    Apr 21, 2015 at 13:48
  • @FumbleFingers (ctd) - Actually the question was re-worded and re-asked here. You yourself pointed out there: "if there is a reason for what I think is a progressive shift away from each in favour of every, that's more a matter for ELU than ELL". :) Perhaps it's just the answers that should be migrated/copied to the ELU question, rather than the entire question being migrated.
    – Lynn
    Apr 21, 2015 at 13:50
  • Oops! I'd totally forgotten about it being "replicated" on ELU later on the very same day it was originally posted. All credit to you for finding it - thanx for taking the trouble. I guess really that makes my meta question here redundant, I'm actually perfectly happy with both answers on the ELU version (I just object to the bald "it's not grammatical" on what's still the joint top answer on the ELL version). Anything beyond Jon Hanna's ELU answer is probably just general discussion on the difference between "dated" and "ungrammatical".
    – FumbleFingers
    Apr 21, 2015 at 20:35
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Sometime it happens, as it happened with this interesting question:

If , as John Lawler says, orthography is not part of language, how can these commas interfere with today's discussion about gun control?

So, if you abstractly compare the cited question with the above mentioned one, the answer #1 is no and the answer #2 is that if you want a question migrated here you want a great question such that above.

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