Re: pro-anything

>===== Original Message From Constructed Languages List
<CONLANG@...> =====
>On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, FFlores wrote:
>
>I think what's going on here is pronoun = noun + var. attributive words.
>Thus "it" = "the large green ball"; but we can't say "the large green it".
>(Except in horror movies.)  The pronoun takes care of all the other words
>that originally modified the noun; the pronoun is thus already modified.
>I don't think you can say "la grande esa verde" in Spanish, for example.
>
>> Almost. You can't modify a pronoun with an adjective
>> (in English, at least), except in constructions like
>> "Angry and frustrated, he walked" which would be more
>> like short for "Feeling angry..." (i. e. adverbial, not
>> adjectival).
>
>I think those are nominative absolutes; which I believe were borrowed from
>Latin usage.  Absolute constructions don't modify anything, and so don't
>break the adj. + pron. rule.  Someone better versed in English (or Latin)
>grammar please correct me if I'm wrong!
>
You're wrong. :)  The definition of an absolute is that it does not modify any
other word in the sentence, e.g. "The Carthaginians having been vanquished,
the Romans sat down for a brewski."  That first phrase doesn't modify romans,
brewski, or sitting down (except inasmuch as it describes an attendant
circumstance of the sitting).

In "Angry and frustrated, he..." or "Feeling angry and frustrated, he..." the
initial phrase clearly modifies the pronoun "he," and it is therefore
adjectival, not adverbial, and not absolute.

Ed

--
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Ed Heil ..................... edheil@mailandnews.com
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     "Koy tse tl'an tse tum gen nekom payaw;
           ts'enra me hlay man yatam."
"The noble nation of Atlantis is greatest among men;
    And its reign shall extend unto eternity."
          (from a Linear P inscription.)
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