Re: New Site: New Language: Tyl-Sjok
| From: | Tommie L Powell <tommiepowell@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, April 24, 2001, 18:47 |
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On Tue, 24 Apr 2001 Henrik Theiling wrote:
[SNIP]
> 4) good father have son REF.
> `It is good that the father has a son.'
[SNIP]
> Well, usually, many of these ambiguities don't occur: if `strong'
> instead of `good' was used, the interpretation as a full sub-clause
> would not be possible: *`It is strong that the father has a son?'.
Actually, such an interpretation would be possible.
I'll explain how:
In constructions of this type, the nown that functions as an
adjective isn't describing a property of any other noun in the
sentence: Instead, it is describing the speaker's mental state.
For example, "It is good that the father has a son" means that
the speaker approves of the fact that the father has a son.
And, just as "good" has a special mental-state meaning of
"approval" in that construction, "strong" can also be assigned
a special mental-state meaning in such a construction.
For example, if the mental-state meaning for "strong" is
"certainty", then "It is strong that the father has a son" means
that the speaker is certain that the father has a son.
--Tommie
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