subjectless clauses

You have words - now what do you do with them?
Brazilian dude
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subjectless clauses

Postby Brazilian dude » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:15 pm

I just realized I've been leaving out my I's and it's (as in the plural of it) too often. Is this serious?
Sounds too much like a direct translation from English. It reminds me of vacunar la carpeta.
I don't know, sounds kinky.
Caught you with your pants down, huh! Please don't respond to this.
Brazilian dude
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tcward
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Postby tcward » Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:23 am

Sounds fine to me.

-Tim :lol:

Brazilian dude
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Postby Brazilian dude » Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:29 am

Gotcha.

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anders
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Postby anders » Thu Jul 21, 2005 2:08 pm

Somewhere, rather recently, there was a thread on this phenomenon. Can't find it now, though.
Irren ist männlich

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:02 pm

Perfectly good English as far as I'm concerned.

Probably colloquial, i. e., informal or spoken, though. Either that or a sentence fragment according to what little I could find in my ancient Prentice Hall Handbook for Writers. Where's Mr. Carney or Dr. Offutt when you need them?
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Garzo
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Postby Garzo » Sat Jul 30, 2005 7:50 pm

Called implied subject. Is used all the time. Use it all the time. Quite handy really. Most often seen on postcards: "Wish you were here". Wouldn't worry about it. S'long's context giving necessary.

--?
"Poetry is that which gets lost in translation" — Robert Frost

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Thu Aug 18, 2005 10:59 pm

Called implied subject. Is used all the time. Use it all the time. Quite handy really. Most often seen on postcards: "Wish you were here". Wouldn't worry about it. S'long's context giving necessary.

--?
Thinking back, probably a holdover from Latin:

Cogito ergo sum as opposed to Ego te absolve a peccatis tuis.
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Brazilian dude
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Postby Brazilian dude » Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:01 am

I never knew one to be opposed to the other. :wink:

Subjectless clauses are a feature of Romance languages (expect French) and most Slavic languages as well. Maybe subjects are really only necessary in Germanic languages, I don't know. I'd have to investigate further.

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M. Henri Day
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Postby M. Henri Day » Sat Sep 10, 2005 3:55 pm

... Ego te absolve a peccatis tuis.
Larry, you're the churchman, but shouldn't that be «absolvo» (1st person singular indicative), rather than «absolve» (2nd person singular imperative) ?...

(Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis - this time !)

Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Fri Sep 23, 2005 12:23 am

... Ego te absolve a peccatis tuis.
Larry, you're the churchman, but shouldn't that be «absolvo» (1st person singular indicative), rather than «absolve» (2nd person singular imperative) ?...

(Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis - this time !)

Henri
I never said I had an "A" in Latin I or II . . .

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

-----

Actually, I thought Garzo was the churchman; but I am a Catholic. There are two kinds of Catholics, you know: devout and lapsed. I'm not in the former category . . .
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

M. Henri Day
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Postby M. Henri Day » Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:42 am

Larry, would it be reasonable to say, from an «identity» perspective, that an identity as a «devout Catholic» or devout follower of any other religion, for that matter, is both religious and cultural, whereas that of a «lapsed» follower is mainly cutural ? I don't intend this as a question about your personal beliefs, but rather a more general one, based upon my own interest in and understanding of «identity» questions....

Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?


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