Mystery of living shorter

[James Smith]

But does anyone other than Vulcans say "Live long"
unadorned?  (What does the anti-Vulcan say; "Live
short and fail", "... decline", "...wane"?)


--- "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:

> In the same vein, how would generative grammar
> generate "live long" but exclude "live short" as a
> standard feature of the language?
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jonathan
> Lighter
> Sent: Thu 5/3/2007 7:04 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Mystery of living shorter
>
>
>
> From today's Yahoo News :
>
>
> "Dillin said it usually takes a 50 to 70 percent
> reduction in normal food intake to yield longer
> lifespan in animals.
>  "'If you reduce food too much, you're going to go
> toward starvation and actually live shorter,' Dillin
> said."
> Logic sez that "live shorter" should be just as
> idiomatically normal as "live longer," but I could
> never use it in a serious context. It would have to
> be, "actually live less long," "actually not live as
> long," or "live for a shorter time."
>
> If some things can live long, why can't other things
> live short ?
>
> JL
>
>
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>


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