8 replies to this topic

[lac]

Coran says blah blah .. _you'll give me a melancholy_

Melancholia is not something that you are given in English. Instead you make people melancholy, just like you make them angry. Also it's not countable ... you cannot have _a melancholy_ (or 5 or 10 of them).
So the fix is ...

blah blah blah .... you will make me melancholy.

Edited by lac, 23 October 2008 - 01:45 AM.

[berelinde]

Dunno, here. Gramatically, you are 100% correct, however, when I proofread that file, I interpreted author intent to be Coran brushing it off, and not necessarily using correct grammar to do it. Flirts are, by nature, informal, so you'll get a bunch of odd things going on.

Say "You give me a melancholy" and it's more or less light-hearted, a jest, like Coran is using hyperbole to get his point across. Say "You make me melancholy" and Coran is berating the PC. I didn't think he had it in him, at this point, to be so serious.

In other words, this deliberate use of bad grammar illustrates Coran's teasing nature. If you make it serious with proper grammar, you rob him of the chance to "make a funny", which, coincidentally, most people will interpret as humor.

[lac]

Well, if the mistake was intentional, I won't argue with it. But I would write that as

'you will give me melancholy' or 'you will give me a .... a ... melancholy.' because popping out
an indefinite article for a noun that doesn't take one is a mistake that you really only make
when you were planning to say something else, something countable, i.e. 'you will give me a sorrow'
and then you changed your mind in the middle of saying it. Or, of course, if you are more accustomed
to speaking a language where melancholia is countable. I wonder what language Coran is
supposed to be speaking to my elven PC? If it is common we may have found a secret difference
between elven and common here...

Laura

[Domi]

No, no, not intentional, just a direct translation of how you'd say this in Russian, save for the article, since I will never figure them out. Sorry about that. I guess, because you can say "You will give me a headache" (or without an article, I wouldn't know, unfortunately), I thought it was a valid structure in English too. The intent was to be humorous, but I dunno if bad grammar conveys that to an English speaker.

Edited by Domi, 23 October 2008 - 04:42 AM.

[berelinde]

Slightly faulty grammar used to convey humor makes sense to a native speaker, but it might not to someone who is fluent in the language as a second language. It's idiomatic usage. "I made a funny" is a casual way of saying "I was joking." "I'll put a hurting on you" is less serious a threat than "I'm going to hurt you." In these cases, the nouns don't take articles, but using them softens the overall effect of the statement.

To me, it looks like you were right, without knowing it.

[cmorgan]

Definitely. Colloquialism.

"You will give me a headache"
"You are a real headache"
"You make my head hurt."
"You are a pain in the neck."


"You are funny"
"You are a funny one."

Slippery meanings. I don't think splitting it out with a graphical "thought stutter", ~ a... a... ~ will signify what you want it to.

[Domi]

I like that suggestion, as long as it works for the native speakers

[cmorgan]

Up to you, Domi - tell me which one to implement, please...

a) you'll give me a... a... melancholy

b) you'll give me a melancholy

c) you'll make me melancholy

d) You will give me a melancholy feeling

e) Word, yo - you be bringin' me down, <PRO_BRO_SISTA>... pep it up a little. Day-amn.


(e is a friendly joke response, not an actual option. This post has not been endorsed by MENSA, the Society for the Prevention of Extraordinary Cruelty to International Anglogenic Language [SPECIAL], etc. )

[cmorgan]

Domi, I am choosing lac's

"you will give me a .... a ... melancholy."

@76   = ~What a sight for sore eyes and aching heart! Do not turn away, sweetling, it'll give me a... a... melancholy.~

and implementing it in prerelease v17, 11/22/2008 -

please post or PM within 24 hours if you want something else