Re: I need help explaining basic linguistic concepts to a lay person


"António Marques" <m.ap@xxxxxxx> wrote...

> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>
>>> So my suggestion is, let us not judge people we really haven't spent
>>> much time with in a negative light, but also not in a rushed positive
>>> one. I'm sorry the last clause isn't really english, but it'll have to
>>> make do.
>>
>> What don't you like about the last clause? This isn't the first time
>> you've made such a remark, so your instincts are ahead of your conscious
>> knowledge of English.
>
> If I have any of the latter, that is.
> I thought there might be an issue with using 'one' to avoid repetition of
> 'light', since it doesn't refer to an actual item (physical, psychical,
> etc) but to a state of mind ('a positive light'); even if it's syntactally
> determined by an article, there seems to be something strange about
> itemising it with 'one'.

No problem with this for this English speaker. In any case, "light" is a
metaphor here. "To look at an object (or scene) in a positive light" means
"to look at it with the light falling on it in such a way as to highlight
its good points and conceal its bad ones".

> Moreover, and because of the preceding 'problem', it seems strange to
> modify it with 'rushed'.

Yeah, the phrase "a rushed light" does seem a bit wierd -- presumably
because it mixes the metaphor a little

> I also don't like 'also not' in 'not (verb) in X, but also not (implied
> verb) in Y'.

I'm not a hundred percent happy with it myself, but I wouldn't have picked
it up if you hadn't.

> But hey, if it works, all the better.

It works, but not all that well (i.e., I don't think I'd have put it just
that way myself, at least if I was trying).

John.


.

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