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000009_icon-group-sender_Fri Aug 16 16:14:59 2002.msg
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Received: (from root@localhost)
by baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU (8.11.1/8.11.1) id g7GNEuY23062
for icon-group-addresses; Fri, 16 Aug 2002 16:14:56 -0700 (MST)
Message-Id: <200208162314.g7GNEuY23062@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU>
From: Christopher Browne <cbbrowne@acm.org>
X-Newsgroups: comp.lang.icon
Subject: Re: What about "Expressions?" (was Re: Icon Wish List)
Date: 16 Aug 2002 17:42:52 GMT
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To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
Status: RO
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Steve Wampler <swampler@noao.edu> wrote:
> Gene Kahn wrote:
>>
>> Speaking of speaking (or writing) grammatical English, which skill has
>> been implied in a recent post as a 'requisite' for programming, what
>> do readers with good English grammar think of this sentence:
>> grammatically correct or not? Be careful with your answer. Your
>> reputation as a programmer is on the line.
>>
>> The horse raced past the barn collapsed.
>
> I can't wait to see the answer! Regardless, it's certainly
> considered correct English for those of us of Pennsylvania
> Dutch descent...
While it's grammatically correct, it doesn't really make _sense_.
It's quite unusual for a horse to be deemed "racing" when it's
collapsed.
As a result of the "grammatical" meaning being semantically pretty
insensible, it is much easier for the eye to look for more logical
interpretations, such as:
"The horse raced past the barn and collapsed."
"The horse raced past the collapsed barn."
"The horse raced past the barn which collapsed."
Grammatically equivalent phrases to the original where the semantics
would make sense might include:
The horse hobbled past the barn collapsed.
The horse raced past the barn exhausted.
This is probably one of the places where a comma would be in order:
The horse raced past the barn, collapsed.
--
(reverse (concatenate 'string "moc.enworbbc@" "sirhc"))
http://www3.sympatico.ca/cbbrowne/
MS-Windows: Proof that P.T. Barnum was correct.