Re: Is "is" a verb?
From: M. Ranjit Mathews (ranjit_mathews_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 06/16/04
- Next message: Brian {Hamilton Kelly}: "Re: "I'm coffee and he's espresso." -- facially nonsensical"
- Previous message: M. Ranjit Mathews: "Re: Is "is" a verb?"
- In reply to: DE781: "Re: Is "is" a verb?"
- Next in thread: Robert Bannister: "Re: Is "is" a verb?"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Date: 15 Jun 2004 22:43:08 -0700
de781@aol.com (DE781) wrote in message news:<c98b1ba0.0406150839.56739431@posting.google.com>...
> "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.
Only because satisfied laxative users tend not to expound on the
wellness of their going:-)
> 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.
Not likely. Likely answers would be "playing a lawyer well", "acting
the part of a lawyer well" or "acting well in the role of a lawyer".
> 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.
Is it incorrect if most never hear it and the rare ones who do grimace
at it? If your mom asked whether you're being, what whould you say? To
equate "be" with "exist", if an aspiring Sartre asked why we exist
well or your mom asked whether you exist well or badly, what would you
make of it?
> The Hindu said "I'm being well" is NOT an acceptable English sentence.
It's just his way of saying "Well am I":-)
> 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.
Hmm, perhaps we can show up proponents of Ebonics by having you teach
Ivorics:-) Or is it, perchance, Ebonics that we're being treated to?
- Next message: Brian {Hamilton Kelly}: "Re: "I'm coffee and he's espresso." -- facially nonsensical"
- Previous message: M. Ranjit Mathews: "Re: Is "is" a verb?"
- In reply to: DE781: "Re: Is "is" a verb?"
- Next in thread: Robert Bannister: "Re: Is "is" a verb?"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Relevant Pages
|
