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Joined: 04 May 2009
Posts: 301
Location: Nanjing |
 Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:11 pm
Post subject: What did I buy? |
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I bought a kilo of carrots.
What did I buy: 'a kilo of carrots', 'a kilo' or 'carrots'? |
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Joined: 21 Jul 2008
Posts: 1105
Location: Cadiz (Spain) |
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 6:14 am
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Neither!
It's an example "signifying nothing" ...
(If it had any meaning, you would already know and, therefore, you wouldn't ask. Ergo ...)
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JLG
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=w_oc_AqqqEk |
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Joined: 04 May 2009
Posts: 301
Location: Nanjing |
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:06 am
Post subject: No but seriously |
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No, I am confused here. I thought maybe someone would clarify. Too much learning Chinese. I don't know what anything means anymore!
Maybe I never did! Un kilo zanahorias
I didn't buy a Kilo. I didn't want a kilo. I don't know what a kilo tastes like. I wanted carrots. I ate one on the way home. Kilo was gone. |
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Joined: 21 Jul 2008
Posts: 1105
Location: Cadiz (Spain) |
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:25 pm
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When you buy three carrots, and you eat one on your way home, "three" disappears also.
You were not asking a linguistic question, Pedroski. Perhaps a very deep philosophical one, for if the seller is dishonest and he sells you less than a kilo, he still sells you carrots... Och, I don't know, lad, I am no philosopher!
Syntactically speaking, however, the complement of the verb BOUGHT is the whole NP (or N", for that matter). But this you knew. of course, which was the reason I didn't say it in my first response. You see? Your stubborness makes me now look like a bloody mug!
Which is perhaps what you wanted to achieve (one never knows, these days).
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JLG
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=w_oc_AqqqEk |
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Joined: 04 May 2009
Posts: 301
Location: Nanjing |
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:21 am
Post subject: philosophical? |
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I don't ask deep philosophical questions. And it is not my intention to make you look like anything, pues, quizas mas guapo, si se puede, pero, no. Don't be so circumspect!
Kilo is a noun, but called a quantifier. Carrots is the noun object of 'of'. You are sure that the whole NP 'a kilo of carrots' is the object of bought. What if I say there is only a PP, with 'a kilo' in SPEC PP, 'of' and a complement 'carrots'?
This started because I was talking to some Germans about 'Gib mir eine Flasche Bier' (Give me a bottle of beer) German is a language where they love to write nouns together, and you end up with some big words. Flasche Bier cannot be written together. Flasche is femenine, 'eine Flasche', Bier is neuter, 'ein Bier' 'Flasche Bier' is regarded as the object of 'gib', imperative of 'geben', give. There is no 'of beer' in German, just Bier.
I just thought someone might clarify this for my confused head. Still confused! |
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SumerologistGood Linguist 
Joined: 28 Dec 2009
Posts: 31
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:42 am
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I don't understand how your German example comes to the question you had in the first post. Now both of us are confused  |
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verbieLinguist 
Joined: 07 Dec 2009
Posts: 23
Location: Hawai'i, USA |
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:48 am
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If you say "I bought a kilo of carrots" and then replace the direct object with the question word "what", it's obvious that the answer to your question "What did I buy?" is the entire phrase that you substituted for "what".
"what" = "a kilo of carrots"
That seems pretty obvious... Is there some theoretical issue involved here that I'm not seeing? |
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Joined: 04 May 2009
Posts: 301
Location: Nanjing |
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 2:10 am
Post subject: connection |
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The connection was/is:
a bottle of beer
a kilo of carrots
a sheet of paper
a bar of chocolate
I don't want a bottle/kilo/sheet/bar. |
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Joined: 30 Aug 2009
Posts: 765
Location: U.S. |
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:23 pm
Post subject: Re: connection |
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Pedroski wrote:
The connection was/is:
a bottle of beer
a kilo of carrots
a sheet of paper
a bar of chocolate
I don't want a bottle/kilo/sheet/bar.
Really. Would you have been just as happy with a thimbleful of beer and a gram of carrots? |
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