Counters
From: | Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...> |
Date: | Thursday, January 15, 2004, 4:12 |
Paul Bennett wrote:
> Possibly not. "One paper" is largely unambiguous, but what about "one
> sand", or worse "one water"?
Well, "one sand" woudl just mean "one grain of sand", presumably. I
would imagine that words like "water" it would be impossible to avoid
using some kind of counter, *unless* there was a default unit of
measurement, like, say, _kate_ meant "137 mL of water" (that is, some
arbitrary, but probably culturally-relevant, amount, say, the amount
held by a certain common container), and so you'd have to use some
modifier meaning "indefinite amount" or "some" to express simply
"water", like, say, "I need some _kate_"
--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'. Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
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