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000031_icon-group-sender_Mon Sep 16 12:59:15 2002.msg
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Return-Path: <icon-group-sender>
Received: (from root@localhost)
by baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU (8.11.1/8.11.1) id g8GJx8626728
for icon-group-addresses; Mon, 16 Sep 2002 12:59:08 -0700 (MST)
Message-Id: <200209161959.g8GJx8626728@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU>
From: jenjhiz@yahoo.com (Gene Kahn)
X-Newsgroups: comp.lang.icon
Subject: Re: What about "Expressions?" (was Re: Icon Wish List)
Date: 16 Sep 2002 11:55:48 -0700
X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
Status: RO
Christopher Browne:
> If the horse was very fast, you might get:
>
> The horse raced past, the barn collapsed.
I'd say that's a good reading!
No spam <complaint@nospam.org> wrote in message news:<3D846006.6F9ECD44@nospam.org>...
> Christopher Browne wrote:
> >
> > 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.
>
> If the horse was very fast, you might get:
>
> The horse raced past, the barn collapsed.