Re: [Lingo] Re: [tlug] Correct particle to use

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 13/06/07, Bart Mathias <mathias@example.com> wrote:

> I used to be a professor of Japanese language, until I retired in 1999.
> What that status tells me is that you really need a *Japanese* professor
> of Japanese to do the question justice.

Or maybe a Japanese linguist.

> I certainly never taught anyone to say, e.g., 日本語の本を読めます, but
> I don't think it's at all anymore unheard of than the three native
> speakers someone in this thread queried suggested. It's probably felt to
> be something on the order treating 本を読む as a compound verb and
> potentializing it そのまま. "Hon'o yom..." runs trippingly off the tongue.

That is an interesting theory.

Language *does* change, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. ;)

As someone with an interest in linguistics, I am very aware of the
difference between prescription and description, and I agree
scientifically that the latter is more correct.

But I just cannot accept it in my heart; I'm a grammar Nazi in both
English and Japanese. :(

> The scariest thing is をほしい. I got 333,000 googits for that just now,
> and some of the first ten turn out to be coincidence (the noun before
> the を is the object of a later verb), but the first one is quite
> suggestive:
>
> ときどき「仕事をほしい」「子どもをほしい」など「を」を聞くことがありま
> す。連体修飾節では「子どもをほしい女性」のように「を」が現れることもあり
> ますが、現時点 ...

THAT'S JUST WRONG!!!!

/me cries huge angry tears

--
Cheers,
Josh