Re: CHAT: silly names, prepositions

>
>
> CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
> >Now that makes me curious...does anybody else apply the syntactical rules
> >of their mother tongue to others they speak at an almost mother tongue
> >level? (I mean like, someone who is Canadian or American born but whose
> >first language is not English or French).
>
> Probably not as good an example of yours, but i'll often hear my father
> say things like "close the light",  which is something quite common that
> other Filipinos will do (my father is American born, and even though he
> spoke english growing up, and really only listening to my grandmother and
> father speak, he picked up their speech habits). My grandmother does the
> same also.
>
Curious...a similar expression in Cantonese "to turn on a light" translates
to "open the light" which is a source of hilarity for those who are speaking
English but thinking in another language

Imperative