Re: OFF-TOPIC: Non linguistics books by Chomsky

Joe wrote:

> John Cowan wrote:
>
>>> severe rashes in the under-fives
>>
>> "Under-fives"?  At first I thought this a synonym for "unmentionables",
>
That would have worked ok, for such a throwaway  remark, I think.

>> but now I'm not sure.
>
How much time elapsed between "at first" and "now"? Are we discussing
what you thought while reading that sentence, or what you've learned
about the phrase over a longer period of time? :)

> I assumed it was what it seemed.  That is, 'children under five years
> old'.

Zackly. That was the intention. But now that I look at it, it seems
faulty in some way. Certainly the  hyphen doesn't help. It's one of
those English English (*) phrases that I haven't quite learned to handle
properly yet. Should it have a 'the'? I don't know. Ach well.

(*) At least, that would explain why Joe understands it, I understand it
but can't reproduce it, and John isn't sure about it :).

s.
--
Stephen Mulraney    ataltane@ataltane.net   http://livejournal.com/~ataltane
I remember that I tried several times to use a slide rule, and that, several
times also,  I began modern maths textbooks, saying to myself that if I were
going slowly,  if I read all the lessons all in order,   doing the
exercises
and all, there was no reason why I should stall             -- Georges Perec

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