Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

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