Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
About communication, please note the difference between:
Do you mind me asking a question? and
Do you mind my asking a question?
Another example:
They heard him singing in the shower. and
They heard his singing in the shower.
Usually, the meaning requires the possessive.
bc
P.S., The standards are not arbitrary -- they tend to ensure logically that the meaning intended is communicated. I suggest, to all, The Elements of Style.
"Buy it, study it, enjoy it. It's as timeless as a book can be
in our age of volubility."
-The New York Times
and only $5.95 (ca. 1990) and 92 pp.!
Jack Uretsky wrote:
See below.Adam was by constitution and proclivity a scientist; I was the same, and
we loved to call ourselves by that great name...Our first memorable
scientific discovery was the law that water and like fluids run downhill,
not up.
Mark Twain, <Extract from Eve's Autobiography>On Sun, 13 Feb 2000, Zach Wolff wrote:
> Kudos to Mark for showing some linguistics knowledge
> on this physics list.___________________________________snip_______________
> If native speakers of a
> lanuage understand an utterance it is correct.
> Language is about communication, not arbitrary
> standards.Oh, c'mon. Without "arbitrary standards" as
to the meaning of words, how could you communicate?
Your posting is utterly semigrlphigpichel.
Go back and consider humpty-dumpty's dictum.
The two quoted sentences are logically inconsistent.>