Re: Verb specificity (Was: Re: Natural Order of Events)

Oh yes, of course, the verb-complement method. Japanese and to a lesser
extent Korean do the same, while Chinese uses the English way. Probably a
divide common to all language areas. But no, I wasn't taught it in French
class, because I never took a French class :p
I presume sentences like "He laughed that she was dressed funny" would come
out as "Il a dit en riant qu'elle etc."? How would you say "She was dressed
funny", or "she looks weird" etc.?

Eugene

2009/1/28 Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets <tsela.cg@...>

> 2009/1/28 Eugene Oh <un.doing@...>
>
> > 2009/1/28 Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets <tsela.cg@...>
> >
> > >
> > > That's really interesting. I know about classifiers in the context of
> > > counting, but didn't know that such things existed also in other
> > contexts.
> > > At the same time, English does ride or drive, depending on the vehicle,
> > > while French uses a single word "conduire" (which we actually don't use
> > > that
> > > much anyway).
> > > --
> > >
> >
> > That's interesting, I didn't know that. All the French textbooks teach
> > "conduire" as the verb to use. So what do you say for, say, "I'm driving
> to
> > work today"?
> >
> > Eugene
> >
>
> "Aujourd'hui je vais au travail en voiture": Today I'm going to work by
> car.
>
> We just "go" or "come" to places, and indicate the means with a complement
> of means: "en voiture": by car, "à pied": on foot, "en vélo": by bike, "en
> bus": by bus, etc...
>
> This is actually a common feature of French and a difference between French
> and English that we are taught at school in English classes: English often
> uses a verb to indicate the means, and a complement to indicate the goal,
> when French often does the opposite (it's not always true, but as a rule of
> thumb it works). It's especially true of motion sentences (English people
> drive, walk, ride, run, while French people simply go by car, on foot, by
> bike, or running: "en courant"), but it's also used for instance with
> changes of state ("The floor was mopped clean" would be "Le sol a été
> nettoyé à la serpillière") and more metaphorical motions ("I worked my way
> to the top" would be "J'ai atteint le sommet en travaillant").
>
> It's a very important difference between how French and English approach
> actions. Aren't people in French class taught it?
> --
> Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets.
>
> http://christophoronomicon.blogspot.com/
> http://www.christophoronomicon.nl/
>

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