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Discov0lante Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Something is down
Hi! I'm having having a hard time getting the meaning of the phrase "Subordinate is down." I found that when something is down it means that it is broken or not functioning, but I have my doubts as regards this sentence. It is a metaphor taken from the book "The Stuff of Thought." I can't provide any context, except for the examples that are next to it: control over him, under his control, decline and fall. Please, gime me a hand! Thanks in advance.
Top answer
Hello, discov0lante - and welcome to English Forums. Subordinate is down: control over him, under his control, decline and fall. This grouping of words has no reasonable grammatical structure, but it does sound like what a psychology popularizer might use to suggest how the brain works.
- Hello, discov0lante - and welcome to English Forums.
- Subordinate is down: control over him, under his control, decline and fall.
- This grouping of words has no reasonable grammatical structure, but it does sound like what a psychology popularizer might use to suggest how the brain works.
- It seems to be showing us in phrases and fragments (in the way we auto-suggest to ourselves) how we think about a subordinate when we are the boss: the subordinate is naturally below us ('down'), we have control over him, we are not under his control, unless our power declines and we fall to a subordinate position ('Decline and Fall' is of course the beginning of the title of a great history book).
- That's my uneducated guess.
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2 Answers
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Hello, discov0lante - and welcome to English Forums.
Subordinate is down: control over him, under his control, decline and fall.
This grouping of words has no reasonable grammatical structure, but it does sound like what a psychology popularizer might use to suggest how the brain works. It seems to be showing us in phrases and fragments (in the way we auto-suggest to our
Subordinate is down: control over him, under his control, decline and fall.
This grouping of words has no reasonable grammatical structure, but it does sound like what a psychology popularizer might use to suggest how the brain works. It seems to be showing us in phrases and fragments (in the way we auto-suggest to our
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