thy thigh etc.

[Stanley Friesen]

At 03:58 PM 5/17/01 +0300, Robert Whiting wrote:
>Try putting it to NNS's like this:
>
>    Which of these words does not belong with the others:
>
>       a) either
>       b) other
>       c) whether
>       d) feather
>
>and see what kind of response you get.  I'd do it myself, but I don't
>have access to enough native speakers.  You could even slip it into an
>exam and then ask "why?".  I would expect that most speakers would see a-c
>as a unit, ...

Of course they would!  "Feather" is the only *concrete* word in the
list!  None of the others refers to a physical object.  That alone is
enough to make a speaker split it out as not belonging.

To make this a valid test you would have to make the third word something
abstract - something that has no concrete referent.

[P.S. in my dialect at least all four have a [D]].

--------------
May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at friesen.net