Re: Is "is" a verb?
From: Peter T. Daniels (grammatim_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 06/15/04
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Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 17:36:46 GMT
DE781 wrote:
>
> "Dylan Nicholson" <wizofaus@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<2j6qmtFub0n6U1@uni-berlin.de>...
> > "DE781" <de781@aol.com> wrote in message
> > news:c98b1ba0.0406141453.2e330253@posting.google.com...
> >
> > > I am indeed a native speaker of English. I challenge ANYONE to tell
> > > me that "I'm being well" is not a correct English sentence!
> >
> > Plenty of things in English are arguably 'correct' - in that you wouldn't be
> > able to find printed anywhere a specific rule stating that the sentence is
> > grammatically wrong. But 'correctness' is only half of what matters when
> > speaking/writing a language. "I'm being well" is not idiomatic as part of
> > Standard English in any major English-speaking country.
>
> Who ever said it was? *I* sure as hell didn't. But "I'm GOING well"
> is not exactly something you'd expect to hear every day either.
> CONTEXT is EVERYTHING. Like I said, if you were putting on a play and
> someone was acting as a lawyer, the "lawyer" could ask if he was
> "being" a lawyer well. To which the askee could respond "you're being
> it well". Of course, "you're DOING (it) well" or "you're acting (it)
> well" are probably more LIKELY answers. But, why the hell mightn't
> someone say, "you're being it well" or "you're being good at it"?
> Just because something isn't heard EVERY day, that doesn't make it
> incorrect. The Hindu said "I'm being well" is NOT an acceptable
> English sentence. I've just proved him wrong, as I've proved many
> wrong throughout the history of my time at the AUE. I'm being it VERY
> well, as matter of fact, if I do say so myself.
Do you not notice the difference between
You're being it well (which, in that context, is not impossible)
and
You're being well
?
The second string of words isn't grammatical or idiomatic or "correct."
-- Peter T. Daniels grammatim@att.net
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