call someone to order
navi
meeting?
For instance, can one say:
1-John was behaving badly at the schoolyard but his teacher called him
to order.
(basically "told him to behave")
Stephen
I wouldn't use it that way.
--
Stephen
Ballina, NSW
CDB
better with a crowd. "The teacher called the unruly class to order."
Marius Hancu
No, this is too formal, used only for parliamentary or judicial
environments, IMO:
"called him to order"
http://tinyurl.com/3b3nfpz
However, as CDB mentioned, it is used collectively, for "class."
Marius Hancu
Arcadian Rises
navi
Good question. I think this was what I was thinking:
He was behaving badly but the teacher put an end to it and then he
started behaving properly.
I used to be a good swimmer but then I started having problems with my
shoulder and could not swim any more.
Would you say that is incorrect?
Harrison Hill
That is alright. I don't find your original "John was behaving badly
at the schoolyard but his teacher called him to order", odd at all
except "at the schoolyard" should always be "in the schoolyard".
"But his teacher called him to order", means (as you suggest) "He
behaved badly but now he doesn't".
Don Phillipson
news:3331a1cb-d107-40c0...@34g2000pru.googlegroups.com...
Yes, this is an idiomatic usage.
The best-known source is the parliamentary reference guide
Roberts' Rules of Order. The phrase "call(ing) to order" is
widely used to mean commanding people to amend their
behavior in conformity with some (possibly tacit) binding
set of rules. In your example, the teacher tells John that
the schoolyard is governed by rules of behavior (even if no
one could list them exhaustibly) and he is obliged to
conform to those rules.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
Yes. The use of "called him to order" in the quotation is rather formal,
but not wrong.
OED on "order":
12.b. The prescribed or customary mode of proceeding in debates or
discussions, or in the conduct of deliberative or legislative
bodies, as law courts, public meetings, parliament, etc.; conformity
with this, as order of business, point of order, not in order,
etc.
See also out of order ...
12.c. out of order: in breach of the prescribed or customary mode of
proceeding of a deliberative or legislative body; (also in extended
use, now esp. of a person's behaviour) unacceptable, inappropriate,
uncalled for.
1988 J. Brady Stone of Heart (1990) 190 I'm a bit out of order
insisting on you going along.
2000 H. Simpson Hey Yeah Right (2001) 56 She was getting paid
to babysit, not to do stuff like that. That would have been right
out of order.
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
Arcadian Rises
That goes to the very meaning of "call someone to order". If the
meaning, as you suggested is "told him to behave" then "but"
introduces a non-sequitur, so the proper conjunction would be "and".
Roland Hutchinson
"But" seems perfectly fine to me. "John was behaving badly, but his
teacher intervened/called him to order/sent him to the principal's office/
threatened to call his parents." (And so he stopped his behavior.)
The "but" references the implication that John stopped behaving badly due
to the teacher's action.
Compare: "John was behaving badly and the teacher [did X], but he
continued to behave badly."
--
Roland Hutchinson
He calls himself "the Garden State's leading violist da gamba,"
... comparable to being ruler of an exceptionally small duchy.
--Newark (NJ) Star Ledger ( http://tinyurl.com/RolandIsNJ )
Arcadian Rises
>
> - Show quoted text -
OK, I've got it at last. But not before I deleted a long message
rebbuting your point.
Roland Hutchinson
Thank you for that courtesy!
Mike Lyle
I place my name on the order paper in support of those who've said
it's often used in a mildly jocular way. I can't quite remember the
exact quotation, but in Compton Mackenzie's amusing /Hunting the
Fairies/ a barking dog is "swiftly called to order with a clout on the
head".
(Gosh! Compton Mackenzie! How out of date I am to have read, and once
even owned, all of his Highland comedies! I hope he's been
rehabilitated.)
--
Mike
dondav...@gmail.com
Peter T. Daniels
> Yes. The use of "called him to order" in the quotation is rather formal,
> but not wrong.
>
> OED on "order":
>
> 12.b. The prescribed or customary mode of proceeding in debates or
> discussions, or in the conduct of deliberative or legislative
> bodies, as law courts, public meetings, parliament, etc.; conformity
> with this, as order of business, point of order, not in order,
> etc.
> See also out of order ...
>
> 12.c. out of order: in breach of the prescribed or customary mode of
> proceeding of a deliberative or legislative body; (also in extended
> use, now esp. of a person's behaviour) unacceptable, inappropriate,
> uncalled for.
>
> 1988 J. Brady Stone of Heart (1990) 190 I'm a bit out of order
> insisting on you going along.
>
> 2000 H. Simpson Hey Yeah Right (2001) 56 She was getting paid
> to babysit, not to do stuff like that. That would have been right
> out of order.
(Well, the second one is given away by the intensifier "right." What about
the seeming change of register from "stuff like that" to "right out of
order"?)
Mike L
even be more often used at the base of the pyramid. A while ago, a
rival window-cleaning firm dropped cards in my neighbourhood and told
people that our regulars weren't coming any more. When the regular
came next, I told him, and he was incensed, and said "That's well ouit
of order".
--
Mike.
Leslie Danks
the expression "well out of order" for years.
--
Les (BrE)
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a dime.
Dr Nick
and followed by "innit".