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Re: [romconlang] -able

From:Tristan McLeay <conlang@...>
Date:Tuesday, April 15, 2008, 23:03
On 16/04/08 06:02:14, David J. Peterson wrote:
> > Mark: > << > That would be a perfectly valid generalization, but a meaningless one > IML, where the verb "to pave" implies "with asphalt". Laying down > concrete or bricks or what have you is not "paving". For instance, > paving the road to Hell with good intentions has always created in my > mind a vision of those intentions being poured into a machine and > coming out as a mystical variety of blacktop. > >> > > Huh. That's very curious. So if you had to use a verb when you > talked about "a road paved with bricks", or for the expression > "where the streets are paved with gold", what would you use? > > I should mention that I have your definition as a secondary > definition. For example, I remember when a friend of mine > and I went to visit my family in Mexico, and I was excited because > the roads were paved, and mentioned it. In that context, there's > no question regarding what the roads were paved with.
Indeed --- paving stones of some variety. Frequently annoying to ride, drive or walk over, so I have no idea why anyone would do that sort of a thing, except to stop people riding, driving or walking over. (We have "sealed roads" over here; I gather "pavement" in the US refers to the road surface, whereas in England it's the footpath; I have no idea what the English call sealed roads. Pavement's not a word I would generally use, although I've known of the English definition for a lot longer so it's closer to my default interpretation.) To me "yard" implies an enclosed (fenced-in) outside area of some description somewhere around the house; contrasted with "paddock" which is a fenced-in area on a farm other than a yard. A garden has things growing in it, but a lawn or an area with lots of trees and bushes and shrubs could just as happily be a garden as a veggie patch. Apparently I've also used "ground" to mean "floor" too frequently for at least some Americans' taste. -- Tristan.

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Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>