Re: Language universal?
| From: | Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, February 8, 2001, 19:53 |
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On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, John Cowan wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> > Er...except things like "puer" and "ager"?
>
> The vocative of "ager"? ROTFL!
>
> "O field!"
<wry g> Well, I did read this essay by Winston Churchill in which he
recounts being made to give the paradigm for "table" (tabula?) by some
headmaster (?) and objected to the vocative, upon which he got lectured
or whacked, I forget which.
> That reminds me of the grammarians (mentioned in _The Name of the Rose_)
> who were said to have debated for seven days and seven nights nonstop
> on the vocative of "ego" (I) and then finally resorted to swords....
<laugh>
YHL