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Subject:Seed crystals From:Mark Levinson <mark -at- CRABAPPLE -dot- BITNET> Date:Thu, 3 Feb 1994 11:22:13 IST
Americans usually seem to write (for example) "a couple remarks;" ...
** Sounds like English overly influenced by some other language that
lacks the preposition following the quantity. Did you read that,
surprisingly, the USA has more families whose pre-American ancestors
spoke German than whose pre-American ancestors spoke English?
A German speaker will offer you "a cup tea" or "a piece cake."
"A progress message displays in the Message Window."
** A verb can from time to time flip over to take its own passive meaning,
as in "this car handles easily" or "this wood saws clean." I think
it's permissible to say "a progress message displays," but it's a
little idiosyncratic to flip that verb over when "appears" is available.
The message does appear, and the long list of credits for its appearance
(the operating system, the application, the cathode-ray gun, the
power company) is irrelevant. Actually, the work inside a computer
is done by a very bashful community of elves. If you want to see them
you have to stay very late at night...
__________________________________________________________________________
Mark L. Levinson, SEE Technologies, Box 544, Herzlia, Israel
mark -at- dcl-see -dot- co -dot- il | voice +972-9-584684, ext. 230 | fax +972-9-543917
