Re: English syllable structure (was, for some reason: Re: Llirine: How to creat a language)

 Tristan Alexander McLeay <anstouh@...> writes:

> On Sat, 8 Dec 2001, Elliott Lash wrote:
>
> > Cheng Zhong Su <suchengzhong@...> writes:
> >
> > > Answer: Yes you are right for English, but in other
> > > languages, there are different ways to define noun
> > > phrase without 'the'. And in some times English can't
> > > define a word's meaning:'She went to bank.' what is
> > > the meaning of 'bank'?
> >
> >
> > Um....you can't say "She went to bank" you HAVE to say "She went to
> > a/the bank"
>
> No, `she went to bank' is completely valid, but `bank' is not a noun, it's
> a verb, means something like `make a transaction at a bank' in that sence,
> although it can also mean something else, cf. `you can bank on that'.
I would never read or hear the sentence as the first example: "She went to make
a transaction at a bank" and the second example is incomprehensible to
me..which makes it seem like it's either archaic or something I haven't learned
yet (and I'm an English L1 speaker..living in New York).

Elliott


> Tristan
>

Replies