Re: Chinese-style measure words in English?
From: John Atkinson (johnacko_at_bigpond.com)
Date: 12/31/04
- Next message: Yusuf B Gursey: "Re: How many vowels did ancient Egyption language have?"
- Previous message: Peter T. Daniels: "Re: Who'd heed 'hood HUD head had hoed, hawed, & hid his hod?"
- In reply to: Peter T. Daniels: "Re: Chinese-style measure words in English?"
- Next in thread: Harlan Messinger: "Re: Chinese-style measure words in English?"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 03:17:10 GMT
"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@worldnet.att.net> wrote ...
> John Atkinson wrote:
> >
> > "Lee Sau Dan" <danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de> wrote...
> >
> > > I'm curious. When would "one trouser" or "one scissor" be useful?
> > > How come English make it this way? It looks so ridiculous that you
> > > MUST say "a pair of trousers" and "a pair of scissors", which are so
> > > clumsy. (Is it why people like to say "pant" now? I guess "pant" is
> > > related to French "pantalon"?)
> >
> > I've never heard of anyone say "pant". It's always "a pair of pants" --
> > exactly the same as with trousers.
>
> So you've never been to a custom tailor's!
Not since I was last in Hong Kong, which was in 1963. That tailor couldn't
speak English at all, as far as I can remember.
John.
- Next message: Yusuf B Gursey: "Re: How many vowels did ancient Egyption language have?"
- Previous message: Peter T. Daniels: "Re: Who'd heed 'hood HUD head had hoed, hawed, & hid his hod?"
- In reply to: Peter T. Daniels: "Re: Chinese-style measure words in English?"
- Next in thread: Harlan Messinger: "Re: Chinese-style measure words in English?"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Relevant Pages
|
