Re: Article wierdness

--- Doug Dee <AmateurLinguist@...> wrote:

> If I recall my French correctly, the usual way to
> raise "Raise your hand," is
> "Levez la main" literally "Raise the hand," even
> though most of us have two
> hands, so that perhaps "Raise a hand" would seem
> more logical.
I guess that usually, when a Frenchman is told to
"lever la main", he raises the most usual one
(statistically, the right one).  Maybe the left-handed
people will raise their left hand, I have done no
particular study on that topic.  But to me the English
way sounds rather odd: raise "your" hand ? Why, of
course, I won't raise my neighbour's one...

One says: "Serrons-nous la main for "let's shake
hands"; do the English shake four hands ?

On the other hand, if I may speak so, there is an
expression "crachons dans nos mains !" ("let's spit in
our [both] hands", then rub them together, before
starting a hard job). I had a teacher who used to say
it in a more precise way: "crachons dans nos mains,
chacun dans les siennes !" (let's spit in our hands,
every one in his owns). This precision seems useful,
because some might understand it in a reciprocal
meaning.




=====
Philippe Caquant


Barbarus hic ego sum, quia non intellegor illis (Ovidius).

Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo (Horatius).

Interdum stultus opportune loquitur (Henry Fielding).

Scire leges non hoc est verba earum tenere, sed vim ac potestatem (Somebody).

Melius est ut scandalum oriatur, quam ut veritas relinquatur (Somebody else).

Ceterum censeo *vi* esse oblitterandum (Me).


		
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