Thursday, February 9, 2012

word order

Language is funny.  In Latin, the order of words in a sentence does not matter one whit.  Puella poetam amat means the same thing as poetam puella amat.  Scramble the words around any old way; it won't change the meaning.  It's the ending on the words themselves that dictates meaning, not word order. 

This is not so with English.  The girl loves the poet does not mean the same thing as the poet loves the girl.  Order matters.

Most children seem to get word order "wrong" at some point.  Both girls went through phases where they would say, "Carry you?" when in fact they wanted me to carry them.  This morning, Natalie woke up before Sarah.  Natalie started munching some granola for breakfast.  Knowing that Sarah would be up soon and would also want some granola as well, Natalie proclaimed her desire to share with her sister.  "I want to feed my Sarah to the granola!" 


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