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 Sun Jun 22, 2008 23:11 pm Expression: "Hey, look at that building..." |
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| Neither of them sound natural to me. |
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Molly
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| Mon Jun 23, 2008 5:15 am Expression: "Hey, look at that building..." |
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"Is it here you work?" sound a bit archaic or poetic, but it's technically not wrong.
Normally we would say, "Is this where you work?" |
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Jamie (K)
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| Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:13 am Expression: "Hey, look at that building..." |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: | "Is it here you work?" sound a bit archaic or poetic, but it's technically not wrong.
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But what about deixis? Do you think the mix of "that" with "here" is OK below?
Hey look at that building--is it here you work?
Surely "is it there that you work" would be more normal, wouldn't it? |
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Molly
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| Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:38 am Expression: "Hey, look at that building..." |
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| Deictic expressions mean whatever they are chosen to refer to. There's no reason why "here" can't refer to the same place just referred to as "that". |
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Jamie (K)
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| Mon Jun 23, 2008 14:05 pm Expression: "Hey, look at that building..." |
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| Quote: | | There's no reason why "here" can't refer to the same place just referred to as "that". |
I guess if the speaker were able to run - in the breath of uttering a single sentence - from the "this" location he's at when he says "that building" very quickly to the "this" location of when he says "here" (i.e. the builiding) it could be a possibility, yeah. |
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Molly
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| Mon Jun 23, 2008 17:17 pm Expression: "Hey, look at that building..." |
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| Molly wrote: | | Surely "is it there that you work" would be more normal, wouldn't it? |
| Molly wrote: | | Quote: | | There's no reason why "here" can't refer to the same place just referred to as "that". |
I guess if the speaker were able to run - in the breath of uttering a single sentence - from the "this" location he's at when he says "that building" very quickly to the "this" location of when he says "here" (i.e. the builiding) it could be a possibility, yeah. |
Said like a true prescriptivist, Molly. (Or is your native-speaker intuition simply on the fritz again?) 
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English |
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Yankee
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| Mon Jun 23, 2008 21:54 pm Expression: "Hey, look at that building..." |
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| Quote: | | Said like a true prescriptivist, Molly. (Or is your native-speaker intuition simply on the fritz again?) |
So you have no problem with the "mixed-deixis"?
Not sure how asking what is more normal, or more common, is being prescriptivist, but I'm sure you'll explain, Amy. |
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Molly
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| Mon Jun 23, 2008 23:46 pm Expression: "Hey, look at that building..." |
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1. Hey, look at that building--is it where do you work?
2. Hey look at that building--is it here you work?
In #1, you would need to omit "do". One problem with the sentence as it stands is its two levels of knowledge: the first clause suggests "surprise", but the second suggests "familiarity" of some kind (the speaker thinks it reasonable to suggest that it might be where the addressee works).
#2 suggests a very speedy speaker, as has been said.
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MrPedantic
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| Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:31 am Expression: "Hey, look at that building..." |
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| Quote: | | One problem with the sentence as it stands is its two levels of knowledge: the first clause suggests "surprise", but the second suggests "familiarity" of some kind (the speaker thinks it reasonable to suggest that it might be where the addressee works). |
I don't have a problem with that aspect of the sentence. If it were "Hey look at that building--is it there you work?", I could see a situation where the addressee had mentioned that he/she worked in a large, fantastic, horrible, or other, building. |
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Molly
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| Conditional questions (If I were sick, I would have taken this medicine.) | Deictic expressions |
