grammar question

doubles · Post by **doubles** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 4:01 am

I have never heard of people saying this but someone says this is correct so I would like to hear some other opinions.

Is " I am finished" same as " I'm done".
Is " I am finished" gramatically correct?

Is this sentence gramatically correct: It is such a very interesting book that I couldn't put it down. Should there be a "very" in the sentence.

Please help. Thanks!

wilderson · Post by **wilderson** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:02 pm

Finished am I.
This approaches non-grammaticality.

I am finished.
This is quite grammatical, although it might not make much sense, to you at least. Same goes for the "very" sentence, IMO.

The point is that sentences can be grammatical without making much "sense." I'll use Chomsky's famous sentence: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Now, what kind of "sense" that makes is up to the philosophyzers.

Lorikeet · Post by **Lorikeet** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:38 pm

I don't know how you could accept "I'm done" and not "I'm finished" because to me they are the same. (And I use both of them.)

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:48 pm

"such an interesting" gets 600,000+ Google hits.
"Such a very interesting" gets 127.
So, I think we can say it's not grammatical.

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:34 pm

Praps, but "such a very" gets over 400,000.

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 8:53 am

"such a" on its own gets 588 million so it's still 1,300 times more common

"such a very long" gets 24,000 hits, and maybe there are other common collocations.

Anuradha Chepur · Post by **Anuradha Chepur** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:28 am

The point is that sentences can be grammatical without making much "sense." I'll use Chomsky's famous sentence: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Now, what kind of "sense" that makes is up to the philosophyzers.

The point in this famous sntence is language is processed at two distinct levels of the brain for syntax and semantics.

#1. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
#2. Furiously sleep ideas colorless green.

On one hand we can judge both #1 and #2 as meaningless and on the other hand we can judge #1 as grammatical and #2 as ungrammatical though both are meaningless, indicating that the rules which form structures are independent of rules that form meanings.

wilderson · Post by **wilderson** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:42 pm

That's great! Thanks for clearing that up

I used the sentence to demonstrate a different, yet, not entirely un-related point.

Anuradha Chepur · Post by **Anuradha Chepur** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 6:42 am

You are welcome Wilderson

. Yes, what you said was not completely out of context, but even if it were it doesn't matter. Straying from contexts only make discussions more interesting. Wouldn't they be drab otherwise?

samp · Post by **samp** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 6:27 pm

I had an elementary school teacher who hated the phrase "I'm done" and wouldn't let any of her students say it. She felt "I'm done" evoked the image of a turkey roasting in an oven. We always had to say "I'm finished" instead.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:40 pm

Maybe, but people shouldn't confuse personal preference with grammaticality.