tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31830497.post5946167670955208782..comments2024-02-28T05:25:12.859-05:00Comments on English, Jack: Being sellingBretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870575277556244419noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31830497.post-58502682639669932432011-06-14T21:46:59.166-05:002011-06-14T21:46:59.166-05:00Yes I know it is a gap - if it indeed is one - tha...Yes I know it is a gap - if it indeed is one - that has little use; hence the last sentence in my post. <br /><br />I found someone tweeting thus:<br /><br />*alternates being leaning against the wall and pacing in DMs, hoping @Blay_BDB has calmed @TehrrorBDB_DU enough to be able to see me*<br /><br />You know, it is almost always like this - this person may not do that in proper writing; 'leaning' here may not have the sheer verbal quality that, say, 'jumping' would have; etc. Still, this phenomenon tickles some part of my brain. <br /><br />I forgot to mention one thing. The English language appears to abhor the mere combination of ing-ing; there has been a whole lot of discussion on so-called 'doubl-ing', or even 'tripl-ing', since the 70s. You can glance at the classic paper on the issue by Ross here:<br />http://www.jstor.org/pss/4177686<br /><br />Like everything else, language is a dynamic, ongoing result of various factors. I don't even know what the exact status of the 'being selling' type construction might be. I simply hoped to tickle some part of your brain, that's all.Q Higuchihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12065110305928472008noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31830497.post-87706631532708874122011-06-12T08:12:38.833-05:002011-06-12T08:12:38.833-05:00Interesting! I hadn't run into this idea befor...Interesting! I hadn't run into this idea before. <br /><br />I mostly agree with Ran that Q's examples aren't the clearest. I went looking for some others and did find some in speech, but they all strike me as either speech errors or transcription errors. I can't come up with any myself.Bretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02870575277556244419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31830497.post-35174980554705654432011-06-12T07:35:30.329-05:002011-06-12T07:35:30.329-05:00In neither of your examples does the gap-filling s...In neither of your examples does the gap-filling seem necessary or useful to me.<br /><br />In the first one, "Psystar being selling PCs", "being selling" is equivalent to "selling".<br /><br />In the second one, "accused of being selling grades", I think there is a clear difference — "accused of selling grades" could be true even if there had been just a single instance of grade-selling, whereas "accused of being selling grades" makes clear that it's an ongoing thing — except that according to the linked article, it's <i>not</i> an ongoing thing. Worse yet, the linked article isn't actually about the accusations of grade-selling; those past accusations are treated as background, with the current article being about the president's salary. So the headline is completely infelicitous.Ranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01369980917358096502noreply@blogger.com