[lbo-talk] VERY off-topic: for the English teachers (probably not profs)

Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
Mon Oct 17 15:32:34 PDT 2011


On Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:54:19 +0000 (UTC) 123hop at comcast.net wrote:


> I think the short answer is that english grammar is the result of
> trying to fit english practice into Latin grammar

It's more a matter of having a somewhat impoverished toolkit of linguistic concepts. The English past participle (actually a past passive participle) is closely analogous to similar morphological verbal-substantive categories in other Indo-European languages, and calling it a past participle (passive being understood) doesn't stretch the Latin category too much.

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Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net

http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com



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