Symmetrical sentences

Lost and not knowing which way is correct?











Far from being headed for extinction, the hyphen cannot be replaced, without loss of nuance or change of meaning, as in the following situations – this being a part taken from (Mind Our English of February 22) Whither the hyphen?
It would be more symmetrical if it is rewritten as: Far from heading for extinction, the hyphen cannot be replaced, without loss of nuance or change of meaning, as in the following situations..

Likewise, the sentence reading, ‘Not because I was oblivious to the history of the English language but because I had taken the ongoing theft of words (or shall we be kind and say “borrowed” words) for granted!’ (in the article As honest as a thief on the same page) should be ‘Not because I was oblivious to the history of the English language but because I had taken the ongoing theft of words (or shall we be kind and say “borrowing of words”) for granted!’

May I now refer to one of the questions posed in this second article: Which of the following words in the table above came from Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil, Hindi or Malay? Is “following” therein really necessary?

I must say that both are well written articles which are very enlightening – in fact, so are all those by the author of the former frequently appearing in your column.

The above are comments made by me on two articles Whither the hyphen? and As honest as a thief appearing on The Star’s Mind Our English section of February 22, 2008.

Such comments were forwarded on February 23, 2008 to the Editor of Mind Our English, from whom I have yet to receive a response. However, since the writer of Whither the hyphen? has now become a regular columnist of Mind Our English as mentioned in the article The '-ing' word dated March 7, I do not expect any response to be forthcoming.

Comments from any readers/visitors are most welcome.