Fun Stuff > CHATTER
English is weird
JoeCovenant:
--- Quote from: HughYeman on 15 Jun 2018, 08:28 ---
--- Quote from: Pilchard123 on 14 Jun 2018, 09:44 ---I have an irrationality strong dislike for the misuse of reflexive pronouns. "I will send that to yourselves", "please call myself", and the like seem to crop up all over emails and phone calls. It really sets my teeth on edge.
--- End quote ---
That is one of my biggest peeves.
"Can you set up a meeting between Joe and myself?"
"NO! I can't!! Because ONLY YOU CAN SET UP A MEETING BETWEEN JOE AND YOURSELF!!!"
--- End quote ---
Naahhhh ANYONE can set up a meeting with me ! I'm cool about that! :)
HughYeman:
For me, the most fascinating aspect of the English language is the asymmetries, because they reveal gradients in the way we think. I recently noticed a fascinating asymmetry while writing my Faybles fanfic. You can see it in the "Official Fanfiction Thread", but the tl;dr version is this: the verb "to touch" is singular. We ascribe so much meaning to touch that it has become an all-encompassing metaphor for other sensory inputs. I suspect that touch is atavistic—that it's so thrilling because it's a sign of danger. Be that as it may, you can see the asymmetry for yourself by noting that there are no equivalent verbs for the other senses.
Tova:
Your post about asymmetries reminded me of something I heard once.
"Like the ski resort full of girls looking for husbands and husbands looking for girls, the situation isn't as symmetrical as it first seems."
HughYeman:
--- Quote from: Tova on 16 Jun 2018, 21:33 ---Your post about asymmetries reminded me of something I heard once.
"Like the ski resort full of girls looking for husbands and husbands looking for girls, the situation isn't as symmetrical as it first seems."
--- End quote ---
That is giving me a good chuckle.
Morituri:
Speaking of people speaking English with native fluency but an accent suited to some completely different language, you should visit Singapore. There are tens of thousands of native English speakers there ... sort of.
Singlish is just about as far as something can diverge, I think, without being called a different language. Unless you're Chinese, and then you can call Russian or French a dialect of Chinese apparently.
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