Subject:
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Re: Grammar vs Logic (was: Lugnet Guide a lot less convenienttoday)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 13 Mar 2001 11:52:30 GMT
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Viewed:
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473 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Jennifer Clark writes:
> Mark Sandlin wrote:
>
> > I always assumed it was a shortened sentence for "Write me a letter."
>
> Well that certainly makes more sense. I still think it sounds odd though - "write
> me", as if telling me to grab a sheet of paper upon which I must inscribe the word
> "me". Maybe's it's just me :-)
"Write" like a lot of other words has several meanings.
I've always understood those shorthandings (of which there
are soooo many in Dutch that I can't possibly follow any but
the most rudimentary conversations even after eight months)
have their origin in either a) context or b) the flow of
the language. If we had a version of 'me' that was analagous
to the German 'mir', maybe we could be more clear--it's sort
of like the 'you' being both singular and plural. There's
a hole in the English language, but all fluent practitioners
understand the gap. 'me' is in this case the indirect object
of 'write.' The direct object is assumed to be 'something
written.' If we add a preposition, then the meaning changes
("Write me down [on the list]" or "Write me up [on a charge].")
The English, by the way, say 'ring me.' (The Dutch, of course,
'bel me', and the Americans, 'call me.') By the same standard
applied to the mind-bending two-word request 'write me', that's
a very silly imperative--how do you make a person ring, with a
large hammer perhaps? Yet we still understand the economy of
words, and the implication that one rings a telephone.
best (and with no economy of words, apparently)
Lindsay
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