Forum: English Questions
Jun 19th, 2012, 11:14 am
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Replies: 11
Views: 3,420 Re: the strange OF and FOR
The answer is the same. Englishmen - and women - don't learn English. They acquire it as children. At school they may learn French, or Spanish or German (or any other foreign language) but why would...
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Forum: English Questions
Jun 19th, 2012, 01:33 am
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Replies: 11
Views: 3,420 Re: the strange OF and FOR
By listening to their mother and/or other caretakers speaking to them - the same way any child learns its mother tongue.
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Forum: English Questions
Jun 14th, 2012, 04:21 am
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Replies: 11
Views: 3,420 Re: the strange OF and FOR
As I said above, the first time someone put two words together in a set order, there was "grammar". So of course there was "grammar" in the 15th century - and in the 10th, and in the 10th BC and in...
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Forum: English Questions
Jun 11th, 2012, 10:26 am
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Replies: 11
Views: 3,420 Re: the strange OF and FOR
"grammar" is just the word we use to describe how we out words together to make meaning. once upon a time there was a little group of prehistoric cavemen. Every time they saw a deer they used the...
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Forum: English Questions
Jun 5th, 2012, 10:25 am
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Replies: 11
Views: 3,420 Re: the strange OF and FOR
Johnson was writing in the 1760s, and the language has changed radically since then. It makes no sense to look at something written 250 years ago and ask "why?" comparing it with what we might say or...
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