tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 21 17:06:35 2004

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

• Index by Date
• Index by Thread
• Index by Author

to bed vs. to the bed

MorphemeAddict ([email protected])

• From: [email protected]
• Subject: to bed vs. to the bed
• Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 20:05:47 EDT

In a message dated 2004-05-21 2:32:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
[email protected] writes:

> In English, "I go to bed" and "I go to the bed"
> > mean very different things, but you couldn't deduce why or what the
> > difference was using only grammatical rules.  It's just the way it is.  The
> 
> Heehee, possibly a bad example.  "bed" is both a noun and a verb, and
> grammatically those two sentences ARE different; you can identify the
> latter as using a prepositional phrase with a noun because of the presence
> of the "the".  The former is actually a purpose clause, and mirrors the
> form of the less ambiguous "I go to sleep".
> 
> 
no.  "bed" is a noun in both sentences, but one is general and idiomatic and 
so has no article, and the other is specific and literal, and thus uses the 
article.  "bed" as a verb has a very specific meaning, one which has very little 
to do with sleep.

lay'tel SIvten

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: to bed vs. to the bed
    • From: "...Paul" <[email protected]>

• Prev by Date: Re: paghHu'/paghleS
• Next by Date: Re: paghHu'/paghleS
• Previous by thread: Re: qepHom vIche' vIneH
• Next by thread: Re: to bed vs. to the bed
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread
  • Author

Back to archive top level