[HPforGrownups] Grammar (OT)

[John Walton]

No: HPFGUIDX 10261

I wrote:

>> "If any student has a problem with this, he (they) should present his
>> (their) case to the Assistant Dean."
>> It's clearly grammatically wrong, yet it's used everyday.

Catlady wrote:

> Why is it more grammatically wrong than using the second person plural
> 'you' when addressing a single person 'thou' (and having dropped the
> dual person from the language!)?

Because nobody recognises the 2P plural any more, unlike most other
IndoEuropean descended languages. French has "vous", Spanish "vosotros",
Russian "v'ui"

> My ABD-in-English friend assured me
> that the natural English language, before scholars tried to force Latin
> rules of grammar (e.g. no split infinitive and no ending a sentence with
> a preposition) on English, used both 'they' for a generic third person
> singular, and double negatives -- in fact, my umpty-ump years of French
> in school taught me only that negatives in French are REQUIRED to be
> double : Je ne sais pas (NE PAS), je ne parle guere francais (NE GUERE).

That's not what I was taught was a double negative in French. The examples
above translate into English as contractions of two words. (ne pas=no do
[don't], ne guere=no any [none]. Other examples: no ever=>never, not
anybody=>nobody, etc.)

The "double negative" that I was taught is, for example, when you're talking
about something you've never done:

Je n'ai jamais ne fume' une cigarette.
I have never (not) smoked a cigarette.

I hope that makes sense. It might not, though. My French is, 'ow you say, un
petit peu rustique. (That is how you say "rusty", right? ;)

--John
========================================
John Walton     john at walton.to

Campaign spending: $184,000,000
Coke habit in your youth: $300 per day
Having your little brother rig the election for you: Priceless
========================================