From: David Reitter <david.reitter@gmail.com>
To: Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
Cc: bob@rattlesnake.com, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>, emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: NEWS.22: `allows' without an object
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 10:51:39 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <0214BD85-1410-480A-A982-9F2942138212@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <jwvveecj9u3.fsf-monnier+emacs@gnu.org>
On 29 May 2007, at 09:48, Stefan Monnier wrote:
>> I think "allows reading mail" is also okay, and doesn't require
>> "you".
>
> That's indeed what I was told, and that's a source of the confusion
> (for me
> at least): in most contexts, "blabla to read mail" and "blabla
> reading mail"
> translate into the exact same thing in French, so I tend to not
> know when to
> use which.
> In the specific case of "allow" and "enable", I know I'm not alone ;-)
"Reading" is used as a noun here, and "allow + noun" is an English
construction. Additionally, English allows for the omission of the
agent of nouns that have been converted from verbs (read -> reading):
"Reading was popular in the 50's" is okay, even though it is not
specified who is reading. (The genitive takes the place of the
subject, otherwise: "Peter's writing was awful.")
"Allow" is a control verb, where the entity that experiences the
"allowing" is realized as an object, but is also the subject of the
complement clause: "A allows B to do X" means "A permits that B do X".
A complement with "to" always means that a clause follows, and this
calls for a subject in English. With a control verb like "allow", you
should therefore always use the extra object: "The rain allows John
to go back to bed."
In the general case, I find the verbal style better than the noun
style, but native speakers may have a different view.
--
David Reitter
ICCS/HCRC, Informatics, University of Edinburgh
http://www.david-reitter.com
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2007-05-29 9:51 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 11+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2007-05-28 21:17 NEWS.22: `allows' without an object Robert J. Chassell
[not found] ` <2cd46e7f0705281639m4e06b938sd0fbcc6d710812dc@mail.gmail.com>
2007-05-28 23:41 ` Ken Manheimer
2007-05-29 3:03 ` Eli Zaretskii
2007-05-29 8:48 ` Stefan Monnier
2007-05-29 9:51 ` David Reitter [this message]
2007-05-29 19:27 ` Eli Zaretskii
2007-05-29 10:33 ` Robert J. Chassell
2007-05-29 11:13 ` David Kastrup
2007-05-29 16:00 ` Ken Manheimer
2007-05-29 4:10 ` Richard Stallman
2007-05-29 8:20 ` Alan Mackenzie
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