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| GAIUS,02.12.2005 | For those who may contemplate the possibility
of becoming "inmigrantes latinos" to the United
States in the Future. | | |
| GAIUS,02.12.2005 | The description in Problems and Solutions reads:
Are you experiencing technical problems in The
Stories.net, just write here your questions.
That is a perfectly understandable compound
sentence. But there is a grammatical issue,
which is important, and a conventional one,
which is not so important.
First, modern English places the direct object
of the verb in the closest position possible af-
ter the verb it modifies.
So, your questions should be positioned right
next to the verb write.
The second one is minor because it refers more
to convention than to rulings, but accounts for
a lot of adverse reactions from chauvinistic and
racist americans when immigrants fail to follow
the rules of convention for the English predicate.
There is a conventional order for three semantic
elements in the predicate, and they follow, with
very few exceptions, this order:
HOW WHERE WHEN
That is why there is a famous american song that
the Beatles included in their repertoire, which
says in the chorus:
ALONE AGAIN, NATURALLY.
It says Alone Again, not Again Alone, because of
the conventional order I mentioned.
A sentence like "Desde el mes pasado estoy tra-
bajando solo toda la noche en la oficina de New
York" should be I AM WORKING ALONE ALL NIGHT
LONG IN THE NEW YORK OFFICE SINCE LAST
MONTH.
Variations like Since last Month I am working alone
all night long in the New York office would be
understandable, but at the same time, would sound
peculiar to the american English Speaker.
So, when in placing the elements of the Predicate
in English, about eight out of ten times the order
should be COMO, DONDE Y CUANDO.
The time should almost always come at the end. | | |
| malomo,06.12.2005 | For the second part I understand that you mean it should say: "Write your questions right here."
But about the grammatical issue you mentioned, I'm not sure what you mean.
The whole sentence should be: "Write your questions right here, if you're experiencing technical problems in TheStories.net" ? | | |
| GAIUS,06.12.2005 | No, the grammatical part refers to the rule
regarding the position of the object.
The object of the verb in English should be
as close to the verb as possible.
Only semantic reasons allow for a minimal
separation between the verb and its object.
In this case, a spatial adverb like here does
not merit the separation.
That is why it should say Write your questions
here and not write here your questions.
Your questions is the direct object of the verb
to write ans should follow the verb.
I will post another more detailed comparison
of the object's position in English and in
Spanish.
As for the conditional sentences there is no
difference between "write your questions here
if you are experiencing technical problems" and
"if you are experiencing technical problems
write your questions here", because in English
as well as in Spanish conditional sentences can
interchange the position of the two clauses when
if is a part of the subordinate clause.
You could say "I would immediately go to Buenos
Aires if I win the Lottery" or "If I win the lottery
I'd immediately go to Buenos Aires", which is what
I personally would do given the case I win the
Mega Million.
In Spanish, as well, you could say without any
alteration of the meaning "Si me gano la loterķa
me irķa inmediatamente a Buenos Aires o "Irķa
inmediatamente a Buenos Aires si me ganara la
loterķa. | | |
| malomo,08.12.2005 | | Understood, txs! | | |
|
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