Prosecutors have charged a Metropolitan Police officer with murder after he shot rapper Chris Kaba in London last year.

  • reverendsteveii
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    10 months ago

    The headline is technically grammatically correct but ambiguous. “…shot and killed unarmed black man” would have been better. If you absolutely need to stick to word/character count, “shot unarmed black man dead” would be less ambiguous and more in keeping with how people actually use “shot dead”. I’ve watched a lot of westerns and I can think of quite a few where someone says “I shot him dead” but not one where someone says “I shot dead him”.

    • stillwater@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      The US and the UK have different figures of speech and idioms. People in the UK don’t usually sound like cowboys.

      • reverendsteveii
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        10 months ago

        I’d love to see an example of “I shot dead him”. I’m not trying to be defensive, I’d really enjoy seeing it. Dialects fascinate me.

        • stillwater@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Well, it’s an expression that only comes up in the third person, not the first person. You’d see “Tim shot dead Eric”. I think if they’d say anything like that in the UK, it would just be “I shot him”.

          • reverendsteveii
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            10 months ago

            I still only have ever heard “Tim shot Eric dead.” I’ve never seen it any other way except in this headlines.