Something completely different (was Re: The man who removes a mountain...)

* Philippe Caquant said on 2004-08-10 22:22:02 +0200
> By the way, here is something completely different. I read today in
> Paris suburban train "Ne descendez pas sur les voies, sauf si le
> contr?leur vous le demande": Dont't get down onto the track, except in
> case an agent of the company asks you to do so. [..] It seems that the
> only possibilities of an adverb modifying a condition introduced by
> "si", at least in such a sentence, were :
> - m?me si (even if)
> - sauf si (except if)
> - surtout si (above all if)
>
> Isn't this surprising ? Is it the same in English ? And in other
> languages ? Why is it so ?
This phenomena is part of the big, ugly beast that is collocations,
which I've just spent a week writing an exam-paper on: two or more words
that are connected in strange ways that doesn't necessarily have
anything to do with what the words mean, like idioms for instance.

> How comes I have nothing more clever to do at this time of the day?
Have you tried eating something? :) Sounds like low blood-sugar level.

> (And who needs to be told not to get down onto the track ? Especially
> when the train moves at 50 mph).
People need to be told not to dry their pets in the microwave fer crying
out loud; never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.


t.