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For me the most annoying thing about this nonsense is that it does a
discredit to serious -- albeit controversial and also oft-riduculed
-- work that is being done on the effect that language might have on
cognition, eg. Lera Boroditsky's solid scientific experiments
showing that the presence or absence of grammatical TAM marking does
have an effect on how we conceptualize time. <br>
<br>
On 26/02/2013 17:29, Scott Delancey wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:8e8ebc7573f6bcb5b83b9785f3aca4a1@uoregon.edu"
type="cite">
<p>The most annoying thing about this nonsense is that English is
<em>not</em> a "strong FTR" language:</p>
<p>"If I wanted to explain to an English-speaking colleague why I
can't attend a meeting later today, I could not say 'I go to a
seminar', English grammar would oblige me to say 'I will go, am
going, or have to go to a seminar'."</p>
<p>First, of course we regularly use the simple present for future
reference: <em>I fly to New York on Friday</em>. Second,
neither <em>I am going</em> nor <em>I have to go</em> is in
any way a future construction. Neither is <em>I will go to a
seminar</em>, which is modal, not tense, but we can let that
go, because, in the context indicated here it is quite
impossible. In certain contexts one could say <em>I'm going to
go ...</em>, which is a real future construction. But it
simply is not obligatory in English to use any kind of future
construction here --<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande',
Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span
style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial,
Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'times new
roman', times;">the most natural way to say this is with
the </span></span><span style="font-family: 'times new
roman', times;"><strong style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande',
Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">present</strong> progressive:<em
style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial,
Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I
am going to a seminar</span></em>.</span></p>
<p>On 2013-02-26 7:54, Nigel Vincent wrote:</p>
<blockquote type="cite" style="padding-left:5px;
border-left:#1010ff 2px solid; margin-left:5px; width:100%"><!-- html ignored --><!-- head ignored --><!-- meta ignored -->
<div style="direction: ltr; font-family: Tahoma; color: #000000;
font-size: 10pt;">At Frans' prompting I post this piece of
nonsense for typological (or indeed other!) comment:<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21518574">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21518574</a><br>
<br>
Nigel<br>
<br>
<div><br>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;">Professor
Nigel Vincent, FBA<br>
Professor Emeritus of General & Romance
Linguistics<br>
The University of Manchester</div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;"><br>
<div>Vice-President for Research & HE Policy,
The British Academy</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Linguistics & English Language<br>
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span"
style="white-space: pre;"></span>The
University of Manchester</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span"
style="white-space: pre;"></span>Manchester
M13 9PL</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span"
style="white-space: pre;"></span>UK</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/lel/staff/nigel-vincent/">http://www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/lel/staff/nigel-vincent/</a></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Department of Linguistics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550119
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@eva.mpg.de">gil@eva.mpg.de</a>
Webpage: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/">http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/</a>
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