Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Damin

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Monday, February 14, 2005, 13:11
Quoting caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>:

> --- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Andreas Johansson <andjo@F...> wrote: > Quoting caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@Y...>: > > >> http://www.rickharrison.com/language/damin.html > >> > >> "...thuu is used for large sea-dwelling mammals such as dugongs and > >> turtles,..." > >> > >> I'd like to pick a nit. Surely the author knows that turtles are > >>not mammals. I can only see this as another example of believing ? > >>that the words "animal" and "mammal" are synonymous. > > >Possibly, it's meant to parse as " .. for {large sea-dwelling > >mammals such as dugongs} and [for] {turtles} ...". > > Andreas > > IMHO I doubt it. Why not, then, write just that?
Um? Because that's what they wrote; the issue is what parsing they intended.
> I don't know what > happens in other English-speaking countries, but I have heard > countless times in the USA an exchange such as the following: > > A: "The turtle is an animal." > B: "I thought turtles were reptiles."
That's not a usage I've run across, but then I don't live in the states. I was just pointing out it wasn't necessarily an error per se; I can easily imagine myself writing it with the intended parsing I gave. Now, hopefully one'd discover the ambiguity on checking, but some things always slip thru. Andreas