Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Green House

Someone told me that the English language is the only Latin Based language where we can say that's the greenhouse, that's the green house, or that's the Green house and the listener will know by our inflection if we are talking about a glass house, a house with green siding or a house where the Green family resides. I don't know if this is true or not,(if English is the only language where this occurs) Where inflection must be used to distinguish one meaning from another... but I found it interesting.



"I feel that if a person has problems communicating the very least he can do is to shut up."
Tom Lehrer

12 comments:

chrome3d said...

At least in finnish all these 3 are different. There are ,however, other words that have 3 different meanings. That was a really GREEN house you have captured there.

Bob Dylan said...

I'd be interested in examples, Chrome3D. Are all the letters the same, in the same order?

Deborah Godin said...

Cool post! I just love neat language trivia stuff like this. I was able to inflect the house of glass, but can't quite tell the paint from the surname.

(still chuckling over the Lehrer quote).

Bob Dylan said...

It wasn't the different meanings that got me, but the need to use inflection in speech to differentiate between them.

Prixie said...

lol...good point

thanks for popping by

alicesg said...

Interesting post. Thanks for the visit to my blog. Have a nice day.

chrome3d said...

For example MAKASIINI. it means:

- Case for bullets in the rifle
- Newspaper (magazine)
- Warehouse (6 different types of warehouse)

There is more. I just have to remember them.

Miranda said...

Ha, ha. Love it

Bob Dylan said...

Chrome d3, but you can't tell by inflection what someone means if they simply say "We saw the Makasiini" my example has stressors.

Bob Dylan said...

Oh unless makasiini is spoken differently each time, then it works.

chrome3d said...

There is no difference how it´s spoken, inflection(?). The other words have to explain the context. I´m not really an expert so others might know more.

Bob Dylan said...

i get it but it's hard once you think about it...

I want to buy the greenhouse

I want to buy the GREEN house

I want to buy the green HOUSE

maybe it's more subtle than this though.