Re: Future English
From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
Date: | Thursday, February 10, 2005, 14:42 |
From: Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
> Does any English dialect allow 'thats meaning' in the previous
> sentence for 'the meaning of that word'? I was searching for a
> distinction like German 'dessen Bedeutung' and 'seine Bedeutung'.
Not that I know of. English doesn't have very good materials available
for reference tracking beyond the inherited gender system in the pronouns.
I suppose the best we have is the rather clunky "the former" and "the
latter". Which of course doesn't mean that a future English couldn't
develop an obviation system :)
=========================================================================
Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637