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

"Your Mileage May Vary", old disclaimer from US automobile
advertisements which often tout fuel efficiency (a.k.a. "gas mileage",
because it's measured in miles per gallon).  What do you call that in
over in Metricia?



On 10/19/08, Eugene Oh <un.doing@...> wrote:
> YMMV?
> Eugene
>
> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 7:09 PM, Eric Christopherson
> <rakko@...>wrote:
>
>> Not in my lect, but YMMV.
>>
>>
>> On Oct 19, 2008, at 5:24 AM, Eugene Oh wrote:
>>
>>  Oh, I see now. But as I replied in another mail to Philip Newton, the
>>> sentence cn be interpreted as  "(the existence of) battling gods was not
>>> unusual), couldn't it?
>>> Eugene
>>>
>>> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 6:58 AM, Eric Christopherson <rakko@charter.net
>>> >wrote:
>>>
>>>  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@charter.net
>>>>>
>>>>>> 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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Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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