User Comments - bcornell1
bcornell1
Posted on: Future Goals
July 22, 2011 at 2:57 PMThanks, tingyun. I looked up your question, it was on April 30, 2009. Very helpful and the comments cleared up the dog question a bit. Glad most words only have one measure word. Things are complicated enough already. It figured that when they are multiple the implication generally changes. Otherwise, why have more than one? This is a common feature in language. It explains why we often have so many little nuances expressed in different words for the same basic idea. Our forbears sometimes may have been overcreative. It gives the poets a wealth of material but at times at the cost of simplicity and even logical accuracy. We try to minimize some of this richness by dubbing it slang but it goes on and we just have to make the best of it as languages change. Anyway,
sometimes it does improve comprehension. Thanks again for all your remarks.
Posted on: Shut up!
July 22, 2011 at 2:32 PMReplying to yaming8808 & wongfeihung: Go to chinesepod.com/lessons/dog-personalities#comment 118386, then scroll down to near the bottom of the 1st Discussion page where tingyun is being answered by a few people.
Posted on: Future Goals
July 21, 2011 at 11:36 PMI notice gǒu has a second measure word here, namely tiáo, besides zhī. Is this common for words to have more than one measure word? If so, are there rules about which one should be used in certain cases? Is there a Qing Wen lesson that discusses this phenomenon? Thanks for anything you can tell me on this.
Posted on: I'm gonna be Late
July 15, 2011 at 6:59 PMMay the 2nd expansion also be taken as "He's late again today" depending on the context?
Posted on: Swearing at a Driver
July 15, 2011 at 5:26 PMRúguǒ wǒ zhǎng yànjīng le, shouldn't yànjing be yànjīng? Or are both ok?
Posted on: Requesting a Raise
July 22, 2011 at 7:40 PMThanks for the tip, Ken & Jenny, about not using 'but' after 'although' & 'even though', which I've been doing incorrectly it seems.