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Roro Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Bare Plural

0 Hello! 02br
00I've read in a certain paper that #1 and #2 behave differently: 02br
02br
00#1: John ate those sandwiches in an hour. 02br
00#2: (?)John ate sandwiches in an hour. 02br
02br
00... because in #2 there's no indication of a specific quantity of sandwiches, "eating" is not completed within an hour. 02br
02br
00It's difficult for me to get the hang of the meaning of bare plurality. So I'd like to ask your view: Is there a considerable difference between them? 02br
02br
00All the best, 0-
  

Top answer

0 I've read in a certain paper that #1 and #2 behave differently: 02br 02br 00#1: John ate those sandwiches in an hour. )John ate sandwiches in an hour. 02br 02br 00...

— Ranchhand

  • 0 I've read in a certain paper that #1 and #2 behave differently: 02br 02br 00#1: John ate those sandwiches in an hour.
  • )John ate sandwiches in an hour.
  • 02br 02br 00...
  • because in #2 there's no indication of a specific quantity of sandwiches, "eating" is not completed within an hour.
  • 02br 02br 00It's difficult for me to get the hang of the meaning of bare plurality.
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10 Answers
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0 I've read in a certain paper that #1 and #2 behave differently: 02br
02br
00#1: John ate those sandwiches in an hour. 02br
00#2: (?)John ate sandwiches in an hour. 02br
02br
00... because in #2 there's no indication of a specific quantity of sandwiches, "eating" is not completed within an hour. 02br
02br
00It's difficu
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0 Hello 02br
02br
00This trick may come from the phrase "in an hour". The adverbial phrase restricts the sense of "eat" into "finish eating something". When we say "finish some work", the work should be of a definite amount. Like a similar way, when we say "finish eating some food", the food should be definite in the quantity. The English "sandwiches" in a bare form sounds 0
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0 That sounds highly reasonable to me, Paco.[Y] 0-
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0Dear paco. I used the phrase good for you and then realized that it didn't express my gratefulness for you. I'm so embarrassed. I hasten to tell you about that ! Roro 050010id65
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0 Hello Roro 02br
02br
00Thank you for your kind compliment. I believe you can be another Norm Chomsky, but I'm far from a linguist (actually I am an engineer of such kind that you can find here and there. 02br
02br
00Yes. When I hear a word of "lunch", I take it as food of some definite quantity. 02br
02br
00Do you know the origin of
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0 Hello, paco! Are you an engineer? I've never imagined you as one. But now I understand why you are very good at seeing things with precision and accuracy. 02br
02br
00I've read before (in the thread 00) CalifJim's explanation about their difference. One of his concept is the difference in 00. Actually I was really surprized when I read it because I've been thinking
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0 Hello, paco, just as post scriptum: I have no answer about my question yet ( and H. Verkuyl, the above mentioned author, didn't consider about Present Perfect ). Let me think it over. 02br
02br
00As to the ethymology of 00, my little dictionary gives another explanation! It says 00 was a variant of 00. 00, in its turn, was from 00+00(some drink? cup?
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0 Hello Roro 02br
02br
00I'd like to quote what Pearl S. Buck said about sushi. 02br
02br
00"Since sushi is nothing more than the equivalent of a sandwich, or fishy snack, the sushi bar can hardly be described as a den of iniquity." (1968 P. S. Buck: "People of Japan") 02br
02br
00paco 0-
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0 !!! 02br
00I cannot stop laughing since I've found out what "a den of iniquity" means! 0-
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