tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-609859879097798263.post438200618382613727..comments2023-11-02T01:29:29.601-07:00Comments on On both your houses: The Grammar KingOn both your houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00474215196050660881noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-609859879097798263.post-84562193273002660162013-11-26T11:24:44.123-08:002013-11-26T11:24:44.123-08:00Comment on somewhy: The rule you state is one of m...Comment on somewhy: The rule you state is one of my favorites. It's "Three young French girls," not "Young French three girls." And we learn it the way we learn all grammar rules -- intuitively. We have 95% of our grammar before we even enter pre-school.<br />Comment on Somewhy (2). I didn't say that proficiency in grammar use doesn't matter much. What I said was that learning grammar doesn't increase proficiency. We have two grammars: The one we got in school (useless) and the one we acquired and actually use.On both your houseshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00474215196050660881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-609859879097798263.post-33214224170488286392012-05-14T00:33:15.557-07:002012-05-14T00:33:15.557-07:00And not to be annoying, but I really think you und...And not to be annoying, but I really think you undervalue your expertise when you say it doesn't matter much.<br /><br />Taken to extreme for example, I'd offer this quote: "What you want to know is whether the translation got the meaning right, not if it used the same words. So DARPA hopes to create semantic evaluation metrics that measure the fidelity with which meaning was conveyed."<br /><br />Source (for me) is http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/why-computers-find-it-so-hard-to-understand-meaning-20120513-1ylaq.html#ixzz1upJv5Ed9<br /><br />- which no doubt is a regurgitation of something from your neck of the woods.<br /><br />Point being - language matters, perhaps more today than ever - given how 'connected' our lives seem. Sorry to carry on.somewhyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01426730117889215397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-609859879097798263.post-86162851805817602282012-05-12T15:08:58.665-07:002012-05-12T15:08:58.665-07:00No doubt you are fully aware of this, and speak of...No doubt you are fully aware of this, and speak of it often, but I did not know that there is an unwritten rule as to the order of appearance of adjectives until just the other day.<br /><br />We do not say “the round big rubber red beautiful ball”; we say “the beautiful big round red rubber ball”. We do this because of this unwritten rule: The order is opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose.<br /><br />I found this from an article in The Telegraph (UK), which led me in turn to The Economist Style Guide (a joy in itself), during one of my voyages of internet discovery.<br /><br />But I'm now uncomfortable with the expression 'unwritten rule’ as it seems to me such a rule actually has to be written down to be promulgated and hence appreciated.<br /><br />And secondly, this particular 'unwritten rule' seems to be adopted almost unconsciously from an early age? And here I thought I was an independent thinker...somewhyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01426730117889215397noreply@blogger.com