Re: USAGE: Survey

> (Kayne has this rather controversial theory that there are in
> fact only a very limited number of verbs in English, such as
> "do", "make", etc. which are all light verbs.  Anything else
> that looks like a verb is actually a noun which has been
> incorporated with a null light verb.
>>Furthermore, there is only one liquid -- water.  All others are
>>solutions of something in water.
I'm not familiar with Kayne's theory so I'm not sure whether the
preceding statement is a facetious response to him or a statement of
fact.  But just in case: there are other naturally occuring liquids
than water.  Alcohol comes to mind as well as petroleum, and the two
liquid elements bromine and mercury.


>>"The more the merrier."
>>"Like father like son."
>>What the H___ is the syntax of those?
IMO these are elliptical statements, but I can fill in only the
first one: "The more people that attend (or whatever), the merrier
we will be.

"As the father is/does/whatever, so does the son."  But the
2 "likes" throw me.  I suspect it's some folk rendering of the idea.

Charlie
http:wikifrath.net/user:caeruleancentaur