LL-L "Grammar" 2005.12.07 (08) [E]

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07 December 2005 * Volume 08
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From: Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong <Dutchmatters at comcast.net>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2005.12.07 (01) [E]

In his reply to    about      Sandy says the following
<In British Sign Language we're very stict about grammar - and very lazy
<too! We have lots of inflections - and none, too! We say:

"Cake girl ate"

or:

"Girl cake ate"

We don't care which way round it goes because we know the cake didn't eat
the girl! Of course if we really mean it we can say the cake ate the girl,
by putting "girl" first, with a comma after her to indicate a little pause
in the signing:

"Girl, cake ate"

Now, you might think, since we know what's eating what, we don't care where
the "ate" goes either:

*"Eat cake girl"

but we do! The verb has to come after the object, that's a strict rule, so
that last one was wrong!>

Sandy, I think that is very interesting. Since English is one of the
"Germanic" languages that insists on putting the verb between subject and
object in declarative sentences, and I would assume that BSL has been
developed by and for English users of sign language, why would they insist
on using a different syntax from the written or spoken language. What are
the advantages of such a ploy? I am curious, Jacqueline

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From: Ben J. Bloomgren <Ben.Bloomgren at asu.edu>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2005.12.07 (01) [E]

Most post war English publications have 'lighted' in print - yet listen to a 
book being read aloud - on the radio for example, and you will hear only 
lit.

Sandy and all, there is a weird one that I only hear in one environment - 
baseball. Flew is the past tense of to fly, but for some seemingly odd 
reason, baseball announcers, players, etcetera say flied. Barry Bonds hit a 
homerun and flied out to center field. At least to me, on the other hand, it 
would sound extraordinarily weird to hear Gregg Shulty of the Diamondbacks 
say, "Barry Bonds hit a homerun and flew out to center field." It seems that 
flied has a specialized meaning in baseball; he hit the ball, and the wind 
carried it to center field whereas flew would mean that he became 鹏 (péng, a 
large, fabulous bird with extraordinary flying powers) and flew to center 
field. Is that a good way to look at it?
Ben 

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