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Re: YAGGT (was Re: Juvenile fooleries (was Re: Neanderthal and PIE (Long!)))

From:Eric Christopherson <rakko@...>
Date:Sunday, October 19, 2008, 5:58
Me? I meant in English.

On Oct 18, 2008, at 4:36 PM, Eugene Oh wrote:

> Do you mean in German or in English? Oh dear. Although Lars M's > explanation > was quite thorough -- thanks! > > On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 7:54 PM, Eric Christopherson > <rakko@...>wrote: > >> On Oct 17, 2008, at 3:56 AM, Lars Mathiesen wrote: >> >> 2008/10/16 Eugene Oh <un.doing@...> >>> >>>> Christophe's post contained the clause "battling gods was not >>>> considered >>>> unusual", which made me a little confused for a while: since >>>> when did it >>>> become standard fare for humans to challenge the preeminence of >>>> deities? >>>> Then it struck me, after approximately 5 milliseconds. >>>> >>> >> Indeed, the only way to interpret "battling gods was ..." would be >> as you >> did. If he had said "battling gods were ...", "battling" would be a >> participle rather than a gerund. >> >> >> It also reminded me >>>> of the other thread about participles. I gave it a brief >>>> thought, and >>>> don't >>>> think Latin, Greek or any of the Romance languages have such an >>>> ambiguity. >>>> Neither do Chinese, Japanese or Korean. Does German? Or is >>>> English is >>>> only >>>> language with such a muddle? >>>> >>> >>>

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Eugene Oh <un.doing@...>