Re: SURVEY: Idiomatic Expressions In Your ConLang Or ConCulture

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, "Ph.D." <phil@P...> wrote:

>"My father said there'd be trouble if I didn't mow the lawn, so
>I guess I better had."
>Here, "I better had" is what I would call an idiom. It doesn't
>make sense under the normal rules of English grammar, but
>every native English speaker knows what it means.
This is not an idiom to me (although I would have said "had
better."  It is merely an elliptical sentence, "so I guess I had
better mow the lawn."  It makes perfect sense to me.

>Another example is "I will try and attend the meeting." Here, "and"
>doesn't quite make sense. The expected word would be "to."  (To me,
>the use of "and" implies "I will try the meeting and I will attend
>the meeting.")
To me, this is just an example of poor English; there's nothing
idiomatic about it. "Try" and "attend" are not equivalent terms to
be joined by a co-ordinating conjunction. "Meeting" is not the
dirrect object of "try," but of "attend."  This should be rather a
finite verb "try" with a dependent infinitive.  The use of "try and"
in place of "try to" is unacceptable in the AHD to 79% of the Usage
Panel.  It is unacceptable to me as well, but the AHD never asked
for my opinion.

Charlie
http://wiki.frath.net/user:caeruleancentaur

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