Re: Is "is" a verb?

From: Michael West (mbwest_at_bigpond.com)
Date: 06/23/04 

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 00:56:41 GMT

Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> DE781 wrote:

>> But you can "go ALONE the climb", which in English becomes "go the
>> climb alone". "I'm going the climb", except in certain rare
>> contextual uses, is not heard often in English, since we can more
>> easily say "I'm climbing", "I'm going climbing", or "I'm doing the
>> climb" [even this is rare]. But, there ARE cases where one would say
>> they're "going a climb alone".
>
> Of the seven items in quotes in that paragraph, the only ones that are
> possible English utterances are "I'm climbing" and "I'm going climbing."
>
> ("I'm doing the climb" could work if "the climb" is a dance, or as an
> emphatic insistence in the face of strong advice not to go climbing.)

"Doing the walk", "doing the climb", "doing the trail",
usually with reference to a particular, known route,
are all unexceptional phrases among the outdoorsy
types I know here in Australia, and, I feel sure, in the
US as well.

I cannot imagine, however, substituting "going" in any
of those. "Going it" as an idiom is related to "roughing
it", "toughing it out", "sticking it out" (in the sense of
endurance), "hoofing it", "batching it" (living bachelor
style"), and a few others. 

-- 
Michael West
Melbourne, Australia

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