Dream journal: grammar

[hudebnik]

I was on vacation in some place that used the English language, but with an interesting grammatical quirk: in sequences of modifiers, the later modifiers are always more fundamental or chronologically earlier than, or provide a context for, the earlier ones in the list. For example, you could say you had fish for dinner last night on such-and-such island, because the island was there long before the evening, which is broader than dinnertime, which is broader in turn than fish -- but you couldn't say that on such-and-such island last night you had a dinner of fish.

Comments

[minstrlmummr.livejournal.com]

And it didn't make you wake up with a headache?

[hudebnik.livejournal.com]

Only a little.

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

D'you suppose it's because we were talking about German word order with Mr. Darras last night?

[hudebnik.livejournal.com]

Yes, probably a combination of that discussion and the Islands of Aran.