Re: OT: Good Books?

On Fri, 05 Mar 2004 14:47:51 -0500, Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>
wrote:

> Stay with descriptive rather than prescriptive writers.
Of course, I did not actually mean "descriptive", nor "prescriptive", but
I was trying to find a way to state "indicative" vs "subjunctive". Feh.
Even that doesn't cover my meaning exactly. Payne and Comrie will tell you
what language does, whereas some other writers will tell theories about
you why it does it. I think. Argh. I knew perfectly well what I meant when
I started, but I can't seem to adequately express myself.

Learn what your tools are, before you learn the special uses to which they
may be put. Or something like that.




Paul