tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jan 31 17:37:11 1998
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Re: Nature phenomenon
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Nature phenomenon
- Date: Sat, 31 Jan 1998 17:36:10 -0800
At 08:51 98-01-30 -0800, DloraH wrote:
}ja' ghunchu'wI':
}>ja' DloraH:
}>>...It could refer to cats and dogs, or buckets, but we all
}>>know what is really falling from the sky; do we need to spell it out every
}>>time?...
}>> This action of the water droplets falling is refered to by the verb SIS.
}>>We could specify what the subject is, but I think everyone over five years
}>>old knows what it is.
}>
}>DloraH thinks it's the drop of water that rains. That's two possibilities.
}
}I'm not the only one that thinks this. My unabridged webster dictionary says:
}
}rain:(n) 1.a. The moisture of the atmosphere condensed and falling in
}visible drops.
}b. a fall of such drops
}2. Fall, stream of something falling thickly in form of minute particles
}(v) 1.a. rain is falling
}b. to fall like rain; to fall in rapid drops
}3. To arrive in large numbers, in continuous succession
In the sentence "The sky rains down water," the subject is undoubtedly the sky.
In the sentence "Water rains down from the sky," the subject is undoubtedly
the water.
In the sentence "It rains," the length and vehemence of this thread
demonstrates that we aren't certain what, if anything is the subject.
Qov [email protected]
Beginners' Grammarian