words grammar

Guy Deutscher studied mathematics and earned a Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of Cambridge

I read the book. it is superb.

Guy Deutscher wrote

in the begining there were

a- physical things words
b- actions words
c-pointing words

the rules were

a-belong together near
b-order copy reality
c-no repeat ( we are lazy)
d- me fist then pecking order< http://www.unfoldingoflanguage.com/

American scientist
/InterviewTypeDetail

Grammar-Beautiful: the realis - irrealis distinction

http://emeld.org/workshop/2004/dehaan-paper.html

see section 4

MOST MAGNIFICENT POST:



A case in point is that of the realis - irrealis distinction.

These are terms widely used by various scholars and in various grammars. The core of the distinction is a desire to distinguish between real events and unreal ones.

That is, events that are or have happened versus events that did not or have not happened but which are possible, probably, hypothetically likely, or could have happened.

As can be seen from the list (which is by no means extensive) is
that irrealis notions cover a wide range of categories
while realis is a relatively simple affair.

The problem is that the term irrealis is used in grammatical descriptions in such a way that normally only a subset of irrealis notions is covered by presumed irrealis morphemes (see Bybee 1998 for a good description of the problem).

The problem is not just limited to morphemes that are called irrealis;

other types of morphemes, such as subjunctive or optative morphemes are affected in the same way.
Palmer (2001) devotes large portions of his discussion to the problem of how to link subjunctive with irrealis, for instance.

The immediate consequence is that it is a priori impossible to compare irrealis morphemes from one language to the next.


YOU MUST READ THIS STUFF, MOST REVEALLING
Ann Þ

Grammar: a declarative irrealis mood content clause

languagelog 003150.html

if as a subordinator to introduce a declarative irrealis mood content clause, and that this is one of the grammatical possibilities with the matrix verb prefer.

...snip...
if introduces a finite clause in which the verb is in the special irrealis form if the verb has one.

The inflectional system of English is much less complex than it was a thousand years ago,
and today there is only one verb that has an irrealis form that is (in spelling and pronunciation) different from its preterite.
That verb is be. And even for be, there are only two contexts in which you can tell the irrealis from the preterite:
the first person singular (if I were you) and
the third person singular (if he were really smart).

In all other person/number combinations, were is the preterite form too,

but in these two the preterite would be was, so we can see whether the irrealis is being used.

***************

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001192.html

*****************

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrealis_moods

*********Excellent ref here

http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Subjunctive_mood

************

Also to X-Ref to conditional futur subjunctive potential virtual mood (valid in french and spanish)

"anarthrous occupational nominal premodifier", Mark Steyn guilty of plagiarism?

"anarthrous occupational nominal premodifier",


languagelog/archives/003147


Mark Steyn guilty of plagiarism?
I described the facts in an earlier post. It seems clear to me that in Steyn's 550-word discussion of Dan Brown's style, he took the terminology, most of the basic ideas, all of his three examples (in order), a couple of turns of phrase, and his punch line from one of Geoff Pullum's Language Log posts. He credits Pullum by name (though he gives no link or any other sort of source citation) for the term "anarthrous occupational nominal premodifier", but not for the rest of his borrowings. I promised to give my opinion later on, and this is a first installment.


Ann Þ

SEE ALso my previous post

Grammar - the present imperfect aspect in English!?

"in Black English you might find a phrase like 'he be going' which violates standard English grammar rules. The phrase does not mean, as some might assume, 'he is going' or 'he goes'. Rather, 'he be going' says something about the aspect of the verb that the standard variants do not; it means 'he goes all the time' which is basically the invention of the present imperfect aspect in English."


grammar

Grammar- the anarthrous occupational nominal premodifier

from Mark Steyn:


May 10, 2005

The Da Vinci Code: bad writing for Biblical illiterates



...snip..

The linguist Geoffrey Pullum -- or linguist Geoffrey Pullum, as novelist Dan Brown would say -- identifies this as the anarthrous occupational nominal premodifier, to which renowned novelist Dan Brown is unusually partial. In Deception Point, in what must count as a wild experiment in form for him, he holds off on the AONP until the second sentence:

"Death, in this forsaken place, could come in countless forms. Geologist Charles Brophy had endured the savage splendor of this terrain for years . . ."

Blog - How to comment- Rule to write a comment

from

http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2005/12/rattling_the_ha.html

Commenter 89 at December 22, 2005 06:35 AM wrote


Now, I can understand deleting comments or removing parts of it with an ellipsis (...), but if anything is added for legibility, it should be put in brackets [like this].


That is a good practice, I like it

Ann Þ

Caca de toro, taurus excreta, bull feces

see also
http://zescrap.blogspot.com/2005/02/how-to-be-insulting-with-class.html

And previous


http://zescrap.blogspot.com/2006/02/cases-in-which-subjunctive-mood-is.html

Quod eras dixit, reductio ad absurdum et taurus excreta cerebrum vincit. (Et ridentem dicere verum quid vetat?)

Cases in which the subjunctive mood is correct! you intransigent, four-flushing knave!

http://www.petebevin.com/archives/2005/06/29/cover_letters.html



as of 2005, there are still certain cases in which the subjunctive mood, rather than the indicative, are still the correct usage in the English language -- all subjective feelings, temper tantrums (tantra?), and Screaming Mimi's to the contrary.


Quod eras dixit, reductio ad absurdum et taurus excreta cerebrum vincit. (Et ridentem dicere verum quid vetat?)


Take that, you intransigent, four-flushing knave!

Writing Tips for the lazy by scalzi

http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004023.html

The best Valentine day offering

Le Q juste le Q, ( pour les autres: cul juste le cul )

q.

1. f. Vigésima letra del abecedario español, y decimoséptima del orden latino internacional, que representa el mismo fonema consonántico oclusivo, velar y sordo de la c ante a, o, u, o de la k ante cualquier vocal. Su nombre es cu.
ORTOGR. En español se usa principalmente ante la e o i, mediante interposición gráfica de una u, que generalmente no suena; p. ej., en quema, quite.

On the west coast of Africa.. the language is Yoruba.

I SAY: Another nail in the PC Magik Land. See:

http://bookerrising.blogspot.com/2005/10/just-tell-me-this-why.html

CaribPundit, a conservative blogger, writes: "Why, oh, why do new world blacks insist on learning Swahili as our African language? Look, I've got no beef with Swahili, per se.


It is just that Swahili, as the accepted language of New World blacks, is ahistorical.
.............
Our culture is traceable to the west coast of Africa.
............you'll discover that the language is Yoruba.

............... However, when we yearn to recapture the language of long dead ancestors.............

stop fooling ourselves about Swahili."