Re: English usuage question

Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> I recently found on a piece of electronic stuff the instruction "The power
> turns off by pressing the button". I thought this was an odd way of putting
> it, and said so. But a there-present girl, who like me isn't a L1 speaker of
> English, insisted it was a perfectly normal expression. I still it's
> somewhere on the line between weirdness and ergativity. So, what does the
> Native Speakers (tm) on the list think?
I agree with Eamon that this particular case is improbable, but there are
many other verbs that can behave this way in English.

The one that comes to mind is "This fish eats well with rice."


--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There
are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language
that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
        --_The Hobbit_

Reply