IN the interests of grammatical accuracy, I must take issue with Tommy Graham's lawyer (September 16) in his interpretation of the words ''smart-arsed lawyer tricks'' as containing a derogatory reference to himself. As any schoolboy knows, the adjective ''smart-arsed'' describes or qualifies the noun ''tricks'' not ''lawyer''. If the phrase had been ''smart-arse of a lawyer's tricks'' or ''smart-arse lawyer's tricks'' he would have had a stronger case.
A person being described as ''smart-arsed'' makes no sense unless he or she happens to be wearing a particularly well-cut pair of trousers or skirt: whereas ''smart-arse'' of a person is suggestive of someone ''too clever by half'' who might think it necessary to write pointless and pedantic letters of grammatical correction to newspapers.
David Liddell,
95 Kilpatrick Gardens, Clarkston.
September 16.
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