27 Replies to “Talking back to imperative verbs, 1”

1. JWebb says:

   January 4, 2005 at 2:02 am

   Thank God you stayed away from distransitives. Man, french fries give me the runs.

2. Seth says:

   January 4, 2005 at 2:41 am

   What’s next? Prepositions?

   Cause man, ‘for’ and ‘about’ really piss me off sometimes.

3. Hubris says:

   January 4, 2005 at 3:58 am

   I was thinkin’, I’m gonna take me some of these taters home with me.

4. basil says:

   January 4, 2005 at 4:47 am

   It is imperative that one talk to verbs. If you ignore verbs, they could turn to a life of crime. And you don’t want that on your conscience.

5. Beck says:

   January 4, 2005 at 4:47 am

   In Japanese, a verb is made imperative by adding “nasai” to the end.  Iku–to go–thus becomes ikinasai.  Their word for french fries, meanwhile, is “furaido poteto.”

6. Hubris says:

   January 4, 2005 at 5:11 pm

   News of another fry-based altercation.

7. Hubris says:

   January 4, 2005 at 5:13 pm

   Bad link, just ignore me (per usual).

8. gail says:

   January 4, 2005 at 6:13 pm

   One of my students, who works nights at McDonalds, told me about a customer who got a hot fry stuck in her tongue ring. She kept jumping up and down and screaming at her boyfriend “Get it out! Get it out!” His response? “Get it out yourself.” See? Three imperatives in the space of twenty seconds, and none of them heeded. If only if each had been preceded by an appropriate vocative….

9. gail says:

   January 4, 2005 at 6:27 pm

   Of course, a well-placed ejaculation never goes unappreciated.

10. Matt says:

    January 4, 2005 at 6:48 pm

    That was actually shocking, gail.  I am aghast.

11. basil says:

    January 4, 2005 at 6:52 pm

    Matt, does that make you a ghast blogger?

12. Ana says:

    January 4, 2005 at 6:52 pm

    Thank God for Schoolhouse Rock. All of this would be waaaaaay over my head otherwise.

13. gail says:

    January 4, 2005 at 7:00 pm

    If you are aghast at the ejaculatory form, Matt, I shudder to think how you would react to the copulative.

14. gail says:

    January 4, 2005 at 7:05 pm

    ejaculation (grammatical): A sudden short exclamation, especially a brief pious utterance or prayer.
    
    copulative (grammatical)Serving to connect coordinate words or clauses: a copulative conjunction. Serving as a copula: a copulative verb

15. gail says:

    January 4, 2005 at 7:12 pm

    Saint Francis de Sales isn’t aghast:

    http://www.ecatholic2000.com/desales/idl38.html

16. Ana says:

    January 4, 2005 at 7:33 pm

    Ejaculatory prayer. [Snort} Heh, heh, heh. Is that like when one screams…never mind. Too easy. Gail, please continue with the grammar jokes. I went to public school and this is filling in a lot that I missed.

17. Rightwingsparkle says:

    January 4, 2005 at 8:11 pm

    Only here could the comment section go from french fries to ejaculation and copulative definitions in such a short time.

18. gail says:

    January 4, 2005 at 8:35 pm

    Yes, Ana, every time you exclaim “Oh God!” in the throes of, uh, religious ecstasy,you are engaging in ejaculatory prayer. I think “Yes! Yes! Yes!” counts as a merely secular expostulation.

    Here’s another fun fact. In the nineteenth century, the word conversation was considered more suggestive than the word intercourse. So to avoid double entendre, you would say “We had private intercourse” rather than “We had private conversation.”

19. gail says:

    January 4, 2005 at 8:43 pm

    On the subject of ecstatic utterances, I’m going to have to go to confession for treating my patron saint like this, but pictures speak louder than words.

    http://www.boglewood.com/ cornaro/xteresa.html

20. gail says:

    January 4, 2005 at 8:47 pm

    http://www.boglewood.com/cornaro/xteresa.html

21. Rightwingsparkle says:

    January 4, 2005 at 9:02 pm

    Forget confession gail, sadly, your going straight to hell….

22. Joe says:

    January 4, 2005 at 9:41 pm

    And then there are the combinations, like this conditional subjunctive ejaculatory, ‘If you build it, he will come’.

23. gail says:

    January 4, 2005 at 10:42 pm

    Joe, what is “it”? An ice sculpture of Anna Nicole?

24. gail says:

    January 4, 2005 at 11:49 pm

    A topless mud-wrestling pit?

25. gail says:

    January 4, 2005 at 11:50 pm

    A topless tower of Illium?

26. Rightwingsparkle says:

    January 5, 2005 at 12:33 am

    possibly the bottom rung.

27. gail says:

    January 5, 2005 at 1:50 am

    in a handcar, RWS

Comments are closed.