Comments(0) I’m pretty sure there has been a slight decrease in posting frequency (I know there’s definitely been a decrease in reading-other-blogs frequency). There are good reasons for this. First, it’s coming up on the end of the semester, so things get busier. Second, the 33rd BLS recently came to a close, while the 26th WCCFL is fast approaching, so time gets sucked up by them.
Comments(2) A great example of what me some others (okay, just one other) are calling the Japanese-style relative clause in English can be found in the script for Serenity. After watching a video showing River being given given a key phrase, which causes her to pass out (after having beaten up the male population of an entire bar), Mr. Universe remarks,
Mr. Universe: And, she falls asleep. Which, she would be sleepy.
Called “Japanese-style” because there is no necessary grammatical gap in the relative clause that could correspond to the modified head (which in this case is probably just the previous sentence). There is of course a semantic and/or pragmatic (i.e., discourse/text-cohesive) relation between the two clauses.
Comments(2) The passive construction (at least in English, Spanish, Japanese, and probably many other languages) promotes what is normally a direct object to the subject position, demoting the subject to an oblique position that may be omitted (not to be confused with some rhetorically similar moves). However, the poor subject, if it is semantically an intentional actor, is certainly still part of the sentential semantics. This can be demonstrated by adding a purpose clause:
Many believe their leader was killed simply to demonstrate the power of the opposition.
Now, consider the following paragraph, from a recent special from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, on 9 hidden gems.
Comments(0) In recent lexicographic work, I had occasion to think about the meaning of words related to tourism, including sightseeing. Now, to a fair number of people, I think, sightseeing is a noun (or verb) that appears only in the -ing form. That is, I want to sightsee or something like that would be bad. But I think for many (perhaps even a larger number of) people, sightsee is a perfectly fine O-V compound, akin to housekeep, globe-trot, hero-worship, and stage-manage, typewrite, hogtie, proofread, brainwash, vacuum clean, and top-dress. Of course, some of these are likely no longer thought of as having this particular structure (like perhaps proofread) and some are mostly obsolete or rather domain-specific (typewrite and top-dress).