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04-Oct-2007, 12:09
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| |  Everyone is silence
Everyone in the class is silence.
Everyone in the class is a good student.
I presume the first of the above two does work. But how do you explain away that it doesn't work while the second sentence with a similar pattern does sound right and good. Thanks. |
04-Oct-2007, 12:13
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| |  Re: Everyone is silence
"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is a sentence composed by Noam Chomsky in 1957 as an example of a sentence whose grammar is correct but whose ... Read more here Colorless green ideas sleep furiously - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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04-Oct-2007, 12:17
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| | Re: Everyone is silence
silence (n.) the absence of any sound or noise; stillness. People can be described as (being) silent and even as silence, but that would be a personification; e.g., People are silence. |
04-Oct-2007, 12:22
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| | Re: Everyone is silence
Thanks, Soup.
I like your answers all the time but not this time.
I think you didn't hit the bull's eyes.
Ok, I'll explain more about my question. Note the following:
Everyone in the class is silence.
Everyone in the class is silent.
Everyone in the class is a good student.
Everyone in the class is good.
Do you notice the problem? Why is it that only the first one is wrong but the rest are correct? |
04-Oct-2007, 12:24
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| | Re: Everyone is silence
Quote:
Originally Posted by Soup  silence (n.) the absence of any sound or noise; stillness. People can be described as (being) silent and even as silence, but that would be a personification; e.g., People are silence. | Concurred! This one hits the target! Well done! Soup. |
04-Oct-2007, 14:19
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| | Re: Everyone is silence
You have an abstract noun there with silence. You could be being very poetic and use it like Soup said, just like I could say "My daughter is my happiness" but it's not common. Pick a concrete noun and grammatically it works better, even if it doesn't work better semantically.
[not a teacher] |
04-Oct-2007, 15:28
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| | Re: Everyone is silence
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barb_D You have an abstract noun there with silence. You could be being very poetic and use it like Soup said, just like I could say "My daughter is my happiness" but it's not common. Pick a concrete noun and grammatically it works better, even if it doesn't work better semantically.
[not a teacher] | Thanks, Barb, for the extra info.
I like your sample--My daughter is my happiness. | | Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode | 
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