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Grammar Traces Language Roots

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the ancestral-tongues dept.

mlewan writes "Researchers use grammar to trace relations between Papuan languages. What is interesting is not that much that they use grammar features to do this, but that they seem to have given up using vocabulary as a help."

1 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. US grammar rotting? by bogaboga · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Consider this:

    Both parties are up-stairs:

    One party says to the other:

    "Can you bring the table downstairs?" (The asking party is to stay upstairs.)

    To me, the grammar is still wanting here and wrong; the party should have said, "Can you take the table downstairs?"

    Sadly, this kind of grammar is common among the American public, and reflects the extent to which our systems are slowly rotting.

    The other sayings I hear are: "He was like...", "I am like...",

    All these are wrong folks.