Cato's Grammar Grumble

Started by Cato, February 08, 2009, 05:00:18 PM

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Cato

#480
Maciek (in another topic) had a comment about English using "me" rather than "I" when people refer to themselves.

"Who did that?"  "Not me!"  (= "Me did that" literally, rather than the correct "Not I" which few people would say.)

"Who's there?"  "It's me."  Again, few would say: "It is I," especially in America, mainly because it sounds...British!   :o      :D

What this might mean, self-reference in the objective/accusative case, about the collective linguistic unconscious is highly debatable!

It might also mean something about self-reverence, the disease of our day!
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

sul G


karlhenning

Me likey ← heard in New York  0:) ;)

Cato

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on April 09, 2009, 04:11:51 AM
Me likey ← heard in New York  0:) ;)

That explains quite a bit!   8)

Local sports broadcaster yesterday was describing a baseball player "diving down" for a ground ball.

Exactly how one would "dive up" was not explained!   :o

At least boxing was not involved with the "diving down" comment!   $:)
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Jay F

Quote from: Cato on April 09, 2009, 04:45:16 AM
That explains quite a bit!   8)

Local sports broadcaster yesterday was describing a baseball player "diving down" for a ground ball.

Exactly how one would "dive up" was not explained!   :o

At least boxing was not involved with the "diving down" comment!   $:)

I've been hearing people talk about "doubling down" in the last year or two, though not in any sense having to do with a game of blackjack (21).

DavidRoss

Quote from: nicht schleppend on April 09, 2009, 06:52:21 AM
I've been hearing people talk about "doubling down" in the last year or two, though not in any sense having to do with a game of blackjack (21).
An excellent metaphor for increasing the stakes in an already doubtful situation, risking throwing good money after bad.  Applied frequently these days in reference to a political agenda that has our masters in government claiming they'll solve an economic crisis stemming from excessive bad debts by legislating massive increases in taxpayer indebtedness.  True that we're a nation of risk-takers; but successful risk-takers don't bet unless the odds of success and the risk/reward ratio look favorable.

I know!  We may be broke and in debt but let's double down by maxing out our credit cards to buy lottery tickets! 
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Jay F

Quote from: DavidRoss on April 09, 2009, 07:14:17 AM
An excellent metaphor for increasing the stakes in an already doubtful situation, risking throwing good money after bad.  Applied frequently these days in reference to a political agenda that has our masters in government claiming they'll solve an economic crisis stemming from excessive bad debts by legislating massive increases in taxpayer indebtedness.  True that we're a nation of risk-takers; but successful risk-takers don't bet unless the odds of success and the risk/reward ratio look favorable.

I know!  We may be broke and in debt but let's double down by maxing out our credit cards to buy lottery tickets! 
You just can't pass up an opportunity to turn things political, can you?

DavidRoss

Quote from: nicht schleppend on April 09, 2009, 09:23:12 AM
You just can't pass up an opportunity to turn things political, can you?
Good grief!  You just can't pass up an opportunity to take exception to my posts and try to pick a fight, can you?  You are the one whose post about "doubling down" invited explanation of its recent usage in a political context.  And I don't recall you taking such exception to others' posts with a political edge to them, including several previous posts on this very thread.  What's behind this persistent needling?  What did I ever do to you?  Were you here in the past under a different name, or are you one of those knee-jerk liberal partisan bigots who populate CMG and think that everyone who doesn't agree with every aspect of your world view must be a hateful Republican ideologue deserving censure?  Inquiring minds want to know.  ;)
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Jay F

#488
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 09, 2009, 09:43:24 AM
Good grief!  You just can't pass up an opportunity to take exception to my posts and try to pick a fight, can you?  You are the one whose post about "doubling down" invited explanation of its recent usage in a political context.  And I don't recall you taking such exception to others' posts with a political edge to them, including several previous posts on this very thread.  What's behind this persistent needling?  What did I ever do to you?  Were you here in the past under a different name, or are you one of those knee-jerk liberal partisan bigots who populate CMG and think that everyone who doesn't agree with every aspect of your world view must be a hateful Republican ideologue deserving censure?  Inquiring minds want to know.  ;)

Of course, every liberal must be "knee-jerk" and a "partisan bigot."

Jay F

Quote from: DavidRoss on April 09, 2009, 09:43:24 AM
Good grief!  You just can't pass up an opportunity to take exception to my posts and try to pick a fight, can you?  You are the one whose post about "doubling down" invited explanation of its recent usage in a political context.

Actually, I didn't need an explanation of "doubling down." I know what it means and, believe it or not, didn't wonder how it might be used in a sentence, political or otherwise.

karlhenning

In 10th grade we were taught that like — as in like a rat out of an aqueduct, not as in I like traffic lights, but only when they're green — is a preposition, not a conjunction, and that we should shun such constructions (as abound in the pop song literature) as like I knew you would.

Opinions?

Mark G. Simon

Quote from: DavidRoss on April 09, 2009, 09:43:24 AM
  Were you here in the past under a different name, or are you one of those knee-jerk liberal partisan bigots who populate CMG and think that everyone who doesn't agree with every aspect of your world view must be a hateful Republican ideologue deserving censure?  Inquiring minds want to know.  ;)

I don't know what CMG you're talking about, but the one I'm familiar with is populated chiefly by vassals of the loudmouths of the conservative media who haven't had a thought in years that wasn't vetted by Limbaugh first under penalty of having to make a public apology.  Who can explain such people?

DavidRoss

Quote from: nicht schleppend on April 09, 2009, 10:51:14 AM
Of course, every liberal must be "knee-jerk" and a "partisan bigot."
Hardly.  You're doing it again.  

Quote from: nicht schleppend on April 09, 2009, 10:57:19 AM
Actually, I didn't need an explanation of "doubling down." I know what it means and, believe it or not, didn't wonder how it might be used in a sentence, political or otherwise.
And again.

If you won't come clean about whatever has your knickers in a twist and makes you think I deserve your petty efforts to "put me in my place," then will you please get over it and stop behaving like a snotty brat spoiling for a fight?  Don't you realize that with each additional such post the picture you're presenting of yourself grows less and less flattering?  Enough, already.
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

DavidRoss

Quote from: Mark G. Simon on April 09, 2009, 11:20:25 AM
I don't know what CMG you're talking about, but the one I'm familiar with is populated chiefly by vassals of the loudmouths of the conservative media who haven't had a thought in years that wasn't vetted by Limbaugh first under penalty of having to make a public apology.  Who can explain such people?
Among the two or three conservatives who post there I've never seen any cite Limbaugh, and I cannot think of anyone who otherwise fits your description.  On the other hand, there are 4 or 5 frequent posters who fit the description I offered and several other avowed liberals who do not.
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Mark G. Simon

Quote from: DavidRoss on April 09, 2009, 11:54:55 AM
Among the two or three conservatives who post there I've never seen any cite Limbaugh, and I cannot think of anyone who otherwise fits your description.  On the other hand, there are 4 or 5 frequent posters who fit the description I offered and several other avowed liberals who do not.

You obviously never learned to count. The place breeds conservative lunies like shit breeds flies. And of course they don't cite Limbaugh. They just take whatever he says as The Truth and proceed from there.

bwv 1080

Quote from: DavidRoss on April 09, 2009, 11:54:55 AM
Among the two or three conservatives who post there I've never seen any cite Limbaugh, and I cannot think of anyone who otherwise fits your description.  On the other hand, there are 4 or 5 frequent posters who fit the description I offered and several other avowed liberals who do not.

You cannot see it David because conservatism is a mental illness.  It is so overwhelmingly incontrovertible that any decent person hold mainstream liberal values that understandably enlightened people get frustrated.  Rush mentioned it in the morning talking points memo we all get (which you must have missed somehow)

Mark G. Simon


Cato

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on April 09, 2009, 11:02:53 AM
In 10th grade we were taught that like — as in like a rat out of an aqueduct, not as in I like traffic lights, but only when they're green — is a preposition, not a conjunction, and that we should shun such constructions (as abound in the pop song literature) as like I knew you would.

Opinions?

One source says that purist 19th-century grammarians were wrangling over the question of whether "like" can be considered a preposition.  "Like" used "conjunctively" has been around for 600 years, with purists shaking their fists at something "firmly established."

Concerning conservatism being proof of mental illness: one would need to prove therefore that e.g. Milton Friedman, James Burnham, Albert Jay Nock, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, Cardinal Mindszenty, Rev. Richard Wurmbrand, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Russell Kirk, and a host of others, who opposed leftism/socialism/communism and believed that the individual should be left alone as much as possible from government interference, and that therefore government should be as small as possible to protect the individual's freedom and dignity, were all dysfunctional and delusional.

Such proof will be very difficult to find!  One also wonders how mentally unstable the authors of the Federalist Papers were, who would all be quite properly appalled by the grotesque Brobdingagian monolith known as the U.S. Government, now set to swallow more productivity of the individual than ever before.

As a Catholic school teacher, I can attest that I am not a member of the overtaxed rich: I am a member of the overtaxed lower-middle class.   :o
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

bwv 1080

Quote from: Cato on April 09, 2009, 04:24:16 PM


Concerning conservatism being proof of mental illness: one would need to prove therefore that e.g. Milton Friedman, James Burnham, Albert Jay Nock, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, Cardinal Mindszenty, Rev. Richard Wurmbrand, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Russell Kirk, and a host of others, who opposed leftism/socialism/communism and believed that the individual should be left alone as much as possible from government interference, and that therefore government should be as small as possible to protect the individual's freedom and dignity, were all dysfunctional and delusional.



conservative concepts of freedom, individual rights and limited government are simply ruses by the white patriarchal power structure to protect the status quo and continue its subjegation of the poor, women and people of color. 

Florestan

Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 09, 2009, 05:49:28 PM
conservative concepts of freedom, individual rights and limited government are simply ruses by the white patriarchal power structure to protect the status quo and continue its subjegation of the poor, women and people of color. 

I assume you're being ironic, just as in the other post. You can't be serious.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini