wordplay: (Yale linguistics inverse)
wordplay ([personal profile] wordplay) wrote2007-04-28 09:37 am
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Marc and I were talking about this this morning and I need more opinions! Tell me about these sentences of English - do they work for you?

[Poll #974955]


Linguists, please maintain radio silence about this for a little bit till the data comes in. Just checking, that's all. :)
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[identity profile] aome.livejournal.com 2007-04-28 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
The ones lacking prepositions (ie "She lowered John the box") remind me of German dative structures.

[identity profile] piperki.livejournal.com 2007-04-28 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm just not comfortable with lowered + to. It sounds really weird. You lower something, but you don't lower it TO anyone.

Even "lowered toward" would sound odd, but slightly less unacceptable IMO.
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