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Re: "do" captures agent+subject

From:Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
Date:Wednesday, March 17, 2004, 21:41
Hi!

Joe <joe@...> writes:
> Henrik Theiling wrote:
...
> >John Cowan <cowan@...> writes: > >
...
> >>I don't agree. "The Wicked Witch of the West melts" is a sentence whose > >>subject is the WWotW, but as an answer to "What does the WWotW do?" it > >>is not felicitous. "What does X do?" marks X as both subject and agent, > >>and if either is not true, it doesn't work. > > > >Really? Interesting! Then there is a difference between German > >and English: > > Die Hexe schmilzt. > > Was tut die Hexe? > > Schmelzen. > > > No, that's the same in English: > > The witch is melting > What's the witch doing? > Melting.
What? Then there is a difference either between 'the wicked witch of the west' and 'the witch' or between simple and continuous tenses. Or do we have to start YAEGT (G=grammar). I will not be able to participate! :-) **Henrik

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