Re: The difficulties of being weirder than English

--- Joe <joe@...> wrote:
> Garth Wallace wrote:
>
> > Peter Bleackley wrote:
> > Or it could be based on semantics: things that
> normally occur in pairs
> > (like hands) would be assumed to be dual while
> things that normally
> > occur singly (like heads) would be assumed to be
> singular, as long as
> > the context didn't demand the other
> interpretation. Hooray for ambiguity!
> >
> >
>
> Of course, the main difficulty comes when
> translating the phrase 'two
> heads are better than one'.
I wonder how it would feel to explain the doctor that
"the right part of my pair-of-arms aches".

(I said "arms" as an example).


=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Reply