Re: (In)flammable (WAS: Early Conlang Archives)

John Cowan wrote:

> Dan Sulani wrote:
>
> > The situation is simplified in colloquial use:  as a metaphor for anger, one
> > uses "burn up" but not (to my knowledge, anyway)
> > "burn down".  As in:  That really burns me up!  (= that really makes me angry).
> > But not *That really burns me down.
>
> I think because "burn down" is usually applied to buildings, and people are
> not, metaphorically, buildings.
>
    True. But thinking about this further, it seems to me that the phrase "burn down"
is applied to more than just buildings.
I seem to recall being able to talk about burning down forests. I think the idea is
more that the burned object is immovable
and that "burn down" is short for  "burn down to the ground".  I think one can even
talk of burning down a large wooden
boat, if it was beached, but not if it was on the water. (Although, now that I think
about it, you _can_ say that the boat
[which was on the water] burned down to the water-line.)
    People are certainly not buildings, and generally not immobile (although my wife
might debate that when she thinks I
spend too much time in front of a computer screen! :-)  )

Dan Sulani

> --
> John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
>         You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
>         You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
>                 Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)
--
 likehsna  rtem  zuv  tikuhnuh  auag  inuvuz  vaka'a.

 A  word  is  an  awesome  thing.