Re: English has 4 cases, not 3!
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, December 30, 2001, 9:16 |
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Quoting Roger Mills <romilly@...>:
> Padraic Brown wrote:
>
> >While I agree that -ward(s) is not a case ending (it's an
> >adverb); why can't you say "windowward of the davenport
> >was an old grammophone"? Pronoun -ward(s) would be an
> >interesting construction, and perhaps a bit odd sounding;
> >but I don't think inherently incorrect.
>
> In Evelyn Waugh's novel about the foreign correspondent in Africa
> (I forget the title offhand), the men in the field were required to
> use such constructions in their cables to the home office, to save
> on the word count. "Nairobiwards tomorrow" and many other amusing
> examples.
Is that because they were being paid by the word, or because
they wanted to save on printing costs? If the latter, you'd
think that "to Nairobi" would be the cheaper option.
(I wish I had more time and space to read. I've had Waugh's
_Decline and Fall_ on my bookshelf for about two years now,
but haven't even begun to have time to read it.)
=====================================================================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...> <http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier>
"...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637 Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers