Re: More about the chicken

On 7 Feb 2005, at 10.59 pm, Adrian Morgan (aka Flesh-eating Dragon)
wrote:

> I've done a bit of research, and found that:
>
> A number of Australians agree that "shall" is formal; typical comments
> included: "Shall is perfectly normal, if a little formal", and
> "'Shall' would mark you out as Having Read Way Too Much, but that said
> I use it too". Still, Tristan's claim that he has never heard the word
> used by someone who wasn't deliberately trying to sound British still
> strikes me as a trifle extreme.
Well, British can mean formal to me; that is, someone may have been
trying to sound formal, and I perceived it as British. But I'm
convinced it's not normal, and it'd take more than question-and-answer
to make me believe otherwise.

> However, I cannot find *anyone* - not even in Melbourne - who agrees
> with Tristan that "a chicken" sounds odd. Everyone else is unanimous
> that an article before "chicken" is perfectly grammatical in
> Australian English.
I didn't mean to claim that was true by anyone other than me, and for
me it's only true with an indefinite article, much the same as 'the
beef' is okay, but 'a beef' is odd.

> Dinner versus tea varies by family and by region.
I'd agree entirely with that one.

--
Tristan.

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