[Lexicog] yoked

[Marc Fryd]

Hi everyone and best wishes for the New Year!

In my experience of educated French, zeugmas are used in a tongue in cheek sort
of way, but are clearly bad taste if simply uncontrolled.

In the example quoted in this discussion, by the way,

> ‘Elle [Danièle] était pulpeuse, sensuelle, protestante’ (‘She was pulpy,
> sensual, Protestant’)

I would suggest that "pulpeuse" is more accurately rendered by 'luscious' than
'pulpy', more fitting for material reference.

As concerns "protestante", I have no knowledge of instances where the word could
exhibit verbal status: as an educated speaker of French, I feel justified in
saying that there is no way the grammar of French can equate
"Elle protestait" with "*Elle était protestante".
Having said that, in the context of language games, with an educated audience in
mind, I can readily admit that someone might stretch the grammar beyond its
limits and add so to speak another layer of fun to a series of zeugmas by
converting the stative adjective "protestante" into a dynamic present
participle. But one must realise that some amount of head scratching would be
required to grasp what the sentence actually means.
Yours,
Marc FRYD


 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:lexicographylist-digest at yahoogroups.com 
    mailto:lexicographylist-fullfeatured at yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/