tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 23 09:25:26 1995
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Re: Bucket of tongues
- From: "A.Appleyard" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Bucket of tongues
- Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 16:58:19 GMT
- Priority: normal
"Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]> wrote (Subject: Re: Bucket of
tongues):-
> My point was that in, say, Hebrew, there really is no really natural way to
say "the amount" without saying "a cup full of sugar". I suppose you can say
"a filling of a cup of sugar", but that would sound a little archaic in
Hebrew. I mean that you don't really *need* a phrase for amount and not
container: you can get by without it. ~mark
You can get by with this ambiguity between container and contents: you can
get by with many ambiguities and other inconveniences both in linguistics and
elsewhere (e.g. Finnish has a noun plural, but yet in Finnish "with his wife"
and "with his wives" are identical: this is a stock inspiration of homour in
Finland); but some time someone will change the rules and eliminate the
inconvenience. E.g. a loaded troopship is one thing; the (amount of troops
that would fit in a troopship) without a troopship to transport them in, is
another thing, in the urgency of war.