Subject: Re: help with NLP library
From: rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock)
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:45:37 -0600
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <vMSdnUHsRpocthTUnZ2dnUVZ_oDinZ2d@speakeasy.net>
D Herring <dherring@at.tentpost.dot.com> wrote:
+---------------
| In school, I remember several texts directly contradicting each 
| other with respect to proper grammar; much of our grammar is stylistic 
| in nature.  "Eat beef" is generally acceptable while "eat cow" sounds 
| wrong to a native speaker.
+---------------

Except in such usages as, "I'm so hungry I could eat a cow!"
[Or sometimes "...a whole cow!"]

The cow/beef (boeuf), pig/pork (porc), sheep/mutton (mouton) thingy
is a relic of English history -- the Anglo-Saxon commoners versus
Norman (French) nobility situation, q.v.


-Rob

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