Re: Can realism be retro-fitted?

Philip Newton wrote:

>
> I wonder whether you're confusing two senses of "idiomatic" -- one
> meaning something like "using idioms or sequences of words which are
> not necessarily comprehensible just from the meaning of the
> constituent words", and one meaning something like "using sequences of
> words in the usual manner; using the common way of expressing a given
> concept".
>
> Someone saying that a certain proof was "a piece of cake" is idiomatic
> in sense 1; someone saying "I saw a dream" last night is unidiomatic
> in sense 2 (an idiomatic way would be "I dreamed" or "I had a dream").
>
> I took the "is non-idiomatic in places" to refer to sense 2.
>
Which is what I meant-- some phrasings, but in particular several mis-uses
of definite/indefinite articles. I am aware that that's a very difficult
area of Engl. for many L2 users (Conlang members, interestingly, not
included :-) ). But these, like typos in the ms., are things that get
corrected before appearing in book form.

Write 100 times on the blackboard:
"I will not poke a hornet's nest again."

Basta ya...cukup deh...timbani na.