Michael PryorAug 14, 2023

The English language is a wonderful thing, and we know some rules without knowing we know them.

‘Have you ever heard that patter-pitter of tiny feet? Or the dong-ding of a bell? Or hop-hip music? That’s because, when you repeat a word with a different vowel, the order is always I A O. Bish bash bosh. So politicians may flip-flop, but they can never flop-flip. It’s tit-for-tat, never tat-for-tit. This is called ablaut reduplication, and if you do things any other way, they sound very, very odd indeed.’ From ‘The Elements of Eloquence’ by Mark Forsyth.

#English #language

Show threadDrewAug 14, 2023
@MichaelPryor my favorite is how adjectives have a specific order they go in. Like "big red pimple", never "red big pimple".
Show threadHermit the FrogAug 14, 2023
@Drew @MichaelPryor and the exceptions, like the big bad wolf.
Show threadSean Murthy
@Jiriki @Drew @MichaelPryor What's a language without exceptions. English especially.
Aug 14, 2023 at 8:21amWeb
Show threadHermit the FrogAug 14, 2023
@smurthys @Drew @MichaelPryor sometimes I think English is quite easy to learn compared to other languages and then...
*here come the exceptions, marching down a long, long lane*
Show thread🐀 ␆Aug 14, 2023
@smurthys @Jiriki @Drew @MichaelPryor Even as a native speaker, I occasionally think that English without the exceptions would be the null set.
Show threadHermit the FrogAug 14, 2023

@walshman23 @smurthys @Drew @MichaelPryor
I tried to find out what that means, null set, but am only getting pages of explanations about mathematics and my tired dutch brain is grinding to a halt.

What do you mean by that?

Show thread🐀 ␆Aug 15, 2023
@Jiriki @smurthys @Drew @MichaelPryor I meant that English has so many exceptions (and so many implicit "rules") that sometimes it seems that it is nothing but exceptions. Thus, the part that is not exceptions is nothing (aka, an empty set).
Show threadHermit the FrogAug 15, 2023
@walshman23 @smurthys @Drew @MichaelPryor right! Thanks. And yes 😂
I only learned enough English to get by through osmosis, otherwise I don't know how far I would've gotten with it..