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Gnawings from the Sawdust Pit
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grahamb



Joined: 30 Apr 2003
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 10:01 am    Post subject: Decomposing Reply with quote
Actually, the pun was johnslat's; I just jumped on the bandwagon as usual.
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 12:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Dear grahamb,

Thanks, but I didn't "compose" the pun - it wasn't one of my compositions. I plagiarized it.

I hope no one's composure is decomposed by my admission.

Regards,
John
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grahamb



Joined: 30 Apr 2003
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:36 pm    Post subject: Roll Over Beethoven Reply with quote
Someone beet you to it, John. Wink
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fluffyhamster



Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yeah, I was wondering where the pun was in Grahamb's rather than Johnslat's words. A-mouldering? Scully? The Truth is Out There! Guess we'll all have to be much more CAREFUL in future when reading forums like these. Not that I want Scot to become a young filly or anything (well, not unless he wants to!).
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grahamb



Joined: 30 Apr 2003
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 9:45 pm    Post subject: A-mouldering Reply with quote
It's from the song "John Brown's body", Brown being an abolitionist who was hanged in 1859:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)

The tune inspired The Battle Hymn of the Republic (Mine eyes have seen the glory... etc). Stirring stuff!
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fluffyhamster



Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Oh, I know the songs (well, at least the tune), I was just poking fun at how the pun couldn't've been in what you'd posted. (No need for Mulder or Scully to investigate this "mystery" then). BTW Yodobashi Camera in Japan may've used that tune or very similar in a jingle ('His truth is marching on' = ?Dudu ?dadada Yodobashi Camera!, or something like that). Fascinating piece of trivia, I know! Very Happy
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fluffytwo



Joined: 24 Sep 2016
Posts: 139
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2016 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
6) While browsing an issue of Kernerman Dictionary News (as you do LOL) I discovered that Patrick Hanks, editor of such dictionaries as the NODE and now Professor of Lexicography at the University of Wolverhampton, has been developing something called the Pattern Dictionary of English Verbs:
http://kdictionaries.com/kdn/kdn21.pdf
> http://pdev.org.uk/#about_cpa

Not sure how valuable it will be compared to say the COBUILD Grammar Patterns (it's messier for a start, and looks somewhat idiosyncratic), but thought people would be interested to at least know about it.
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twowheel



Joined: 03 Jul 2015
Posts: 753
PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 1:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
fluffytwo wrote:
6) While browsing an issue of Kernerman Dictionary News (as you do LOL) I discovered that Patrick Hanks, editor of such dictionaries as the NODE and now Professor of Lexicography at the University of Wolverhampton, has been developing something called the Pattern Dictionary of English Verbs:
http://kdictionaries.com/kdn/kdn21.pdf
> http://pdev.org.uk/#about_cpa

Not sure how valuable it will be compared to say the COBUILD Grammar Patterns (it's messier for a start, and looks somewhat idiosyncratic), but thought people would be interested to at least know about it.


Could be good. Thanks, fluff.

twowheel
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fluffytwo



Joined: 24 Sep 2016
Posts: 139
PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2016 1:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Heh, you're very welcome, twowheel! Wink Smile
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fluffytwo



Joined: 24 Sep 2016
Posts: 139
PostPosted: Mon May 22, 2017 11:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
7) From page 16 of English Grammar: Understanding the Basics (Altenberg & Vago, CUP, NY 2010):
Quote:
And one more sentence type with sugar:

15. The sugar that works best in this recipe is brown sugar.

Here, sugar, while not pluralized, could be pluralized and refers, in fact, to a kind of sugar. For example, you could say: The sugars that work best in this recipe are brown and white sugar. For these reasons, sugar here is being used as a count noun.


Some uncountables may be capable of being counted (though any explicit addition of a partitive would place the countability on the partitive rather than the noun), but they can't be both at the same time, right? That is, surely the textbook should deal just with what the given example is showing, or am I the only one confused by A&V's reasoning here?
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