> -----Original Message----- > From: Steven Brust [mailto:skzb at dreamcafe.com] > Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 10:25 > To: Mark A Mandel > Cc: Draegara List > Subject: Re: Speaking of Vlad and Kiera > > > At 09:59 AM 2/21/2003 -0500, Mark A Mandel wrote: > > > >Yeah. How in hell do English-speakers manage to say "He's gone" without > >the absolutely vital grammatical distinctions between the degrees of > >certainty implied by "I saw him leave", "I saw him put his coat on and > >then I heard the door open and close", "Somebody told me he'd left", and > >"I haven't seen him for an hour"? No joke: there are languages where > >you can't avoid these distinctions any more than you can avoid verb > >tense or biological pronoun gender in English. > > See...this is why I like having you on the list. > *sigh* I admire those who can make any language sit up and beg. I have no talent for languages other than to badly mix metaphors. Although I can swear in 3 or 4 which is useful on occasion. W It compiles! Let's ship it! - overheard at Microsoft