Resistance to change
Is this a good example of the way grammar changes and of the resistance to such change?
"A grammarian is walking on the beach 200 years ago. He picks up a pebble from the thousands that sit on the shore and he climbs upon a rock and observes the pebble. 200 years later he climbs down with his pebble. All the other pebbles on the beach have changed through time and the to-and-fro action of the waves, but this one pebble remains the same. The grammarian takes the pebble home to protect it from the tides."
Actually, the pebble he has has also changed through the rubbing it has received from his fingers. He just thinks it hasn't changed
I didn't know grammarians lived forever. I learn so much at Antimoon.
No, they just live 201 years. Poor sap's only got one left.
So he picked up that pebble as an infant and grammarian?
<So he picked up that pebble as an infant and grammarian? >
You've heard of dramatic license, have you, K.T.?
<< No, they just live 201 years. Poor sap's only got one left. >>
That post was mine. Don't know why I ended up typing "I hate spam" in the name field...
And no, they're born fully-grown, too.
- Kef
Where do they come from? Are they some kind of mutated human?
They are people just like you and me but they know the reason why we write "I hate Spam" after writing our posts.
I know why we write "I hate spam" after the post. What I didn't know is why I wrote it as my name. (Well, I know why: because I was confused.)
Anyway, we've derailed this topic enough...
Yes, I think it's a nice metaphor. But if I were the grammarian, I would recognize that the 'saved' pebble is no better than any of those on the beach: it's nice to have so that the way things were before isn't forgotten, but the way they were before is not intrinsically better or worse than they are now.
- Kef
If I was this grammarian, I would eat the stone for digesting my food in the stomach. Then I would eat a new stone. They will both be in my stomach to grind my food, working together for harmony, and continuous collisions between them rub the into one harmonious set of Beauty.
I'm pretty sure, you are not a physician, then.
<I would recognize that the 'saved' pebble is no better than any of those on the beach: >
Apart from being much less useful to ESL/EFL students than the other pebbles.