The Rules We Know But Don't Know We Know

[Bramblethorn]

Interesting piece here on rules that English speakers assimilate without consciously noticing:

For example:

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160908-the-language-rules-we-know-but-dont-know-we-know

“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.”

I think there are occasional exceptions to that rule, you could perhaps swap "green" and "rectangular", but on the whole it's pretty good. As he notes, "you can spend the next hour of your life trying to think of exceptions, which is useful as it keeps you from doing something foolish like working".

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Interesting piece here on rules that English speakers assimilate without consciously noticing:

For example:

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160908-the-language-rules-we-know-but-dont-know-we-know

“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.”

I think there are occasional exceptions to that rule, you could perhaps swap "green" and "rectangular", but on the whole it's pretty good. As he notes, "you can spend the next hour of your life trying to think of exceptions, which is useful as it keeps you from doing something foolish like working".

"little green old-fashionedly adorable whittling knife" works for me. I think you're running into idioms - "little old" has been a word pair for ages and it triggers a pattern. But the language isn't as rigid as all that.

 

[Kantarii]

Short,sweet, and petite.
Tall, dark, and handsome.

 

[SamScribble]

“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun.

Did anyone mention this to James Joyce?

 

[sr71plt]

If James Joyce had known it was a writing rule, he would have gone out of his way to brake it.

 

[SamScribble]

If James Joyce had known it was a writing rule, he would have gone out of his way to brake it.

Or even break it? (Sorry, Pilot. It's not often one gets the opportunity to catch you out. )

 

[sr71plt]

Or even break it? (Sorry, Pilot. It's not often one gets the opportunity to catch you out. )

It was worse than that. I originally wanted to write "breach," but couldn't remember if that should be "breech" and didn't want to take time to look it up. I make no claim to be good at spelling. I just claim to usually use a dictionary. I didn't train to try to know it all--just to know where to look it up. You know--to use authoritative sources, which doesn't seem to resonate with some of the posters here.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

In fairness to Moe a brake is a sheet metal machine used to bend things.

 

[sr71plt]

But in reality, I was going for "break."

 

[oggbashan]

But in reality, I was going for "break."

Brake! Don't break into a sweat about it.

 

[CyranoJ]

II think there are occasional exceptions to that rule, you could perhaps swap "green" and "rectangular", but on the whole it's pretty good. As he notes, "you can spend the next hour of your life trying to think of exceptions, which is useful as it keeps you from doing something foolish like working".

I like the fact that he explains that many "exceptions" are themselves the results of other "rules" taking precedence in certain situations, like "Big Bad Wolf" illustrating the same rule of recombination that gives us "tick-tock" and "ping pong" instead of "tock-tick" or "pong ping." Interesting and fun article, thanks for sharing.

 

[jehoram]

Brake! Don't break into a sweat about it.

It's OK to break into a sweat, but it's not OK to brake into a curve. (Ain't English great?)

 

[TxRad]

It's OK to break into a sweat, but it's not OK to brake into a curve. (Ain't English great?)

I'm going to assume you've never raced cars.

 

[Handley_Page]

I'm going to assume you've never raced cars.

How else can you make sure the front wheels grip the road ?

 

[Tio_Narratore]

How else can you make sure the front wheels grip the road ?

And then there was the time I took a ride to a conference in the Laurentian Mountains with a colleague who thought "automatic" meant you never had to change gears and was taught never to brake going down hills. I spent 50 kilometers hanging white-knuckled on to the Oh Shit! Handle and desperately hoping there was no traffic coming round the bend at the foot of each hill.


But to get back to the thread...

Were we "speeding frighteningly" down the hills, or "frighteningly speeding...?"