Re: THEORY: more questions

On Wed, Nov 26, 2003 at 08:14:36PM +0000, Stephen Mulraney wrote:
> Costentin Cornomorus wrote:
> > It's totally transparent to me. As with any verb of
> > that sort (sing, tell, read, etr.)
>
> Ah, but there's the rub: it's not a verb of that sort to me.
> The verb 'write' takes a direct object alright, but one which
> refers to what's written.
Sure.  Just as the direct object of "sing" tells you what is sung,
that of "tell" tells you what is told (er....), that of "read" tells you
what is read, etc.

> but the rightpondian version definitely requires a
> 'to' to introduce the recipient.
So in your dialect, "write" cannot take an INDIRECT object?
So while "sing me a song" is unobjectionable, "write me a letter"
is incorrect?

Or is it only when the direct object is left off that it's odd?
"Sing" is in that category for me; while "write me" sounds perfectly
natural, "sing me" is way wrong, unless it's a request to hear the
third note of the scale.  And bare "give me", while not as wrong as
"sing me", has a strong non-native feel.

> My, I've moved up in the world: I used to contribute to the YAEPTs.
> Now I'm working on YAEDTs! Excellent....
D=dialect?

-Mark

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