"Breathnach, Proinnsias (Dublin)" wrote:
>> Not strictly true ... you have a verb and two nouns (one object, one
> subject), therefore you can construe a unit of sense, in this case "cat mat
> sat", they are in order, and since we know from experience that mats have
> difficulty sitting anywhere (especially on cats) we can assume that the cat
> is doing the sitting (being the animate object in the sentence, and
> therefore the subject of the verb "to sit")
True(ish): but what about a conjunction? You're assuming (and thus
making an ass out of u and ming) that the cat is *on* the mat, whereas
it could equally be sitting beside the mat or, if it's cold, under it.
Asyndeton lends confusion. And, metaphorically speaking, mats are quite
capable of sitting on the floor. Then, of course, a mat is also a
decorative border, and a cat is a type of whip. And as for sat...
The sentence could mean, if you're sufficiently crazed, that a whip was
saturated during a matinee. I don't know exactly how you saturate whips,
but I'm not ashamed to admit that my knowledge of saturation hasn't
reached... damn, what's the word?
--
|Robert Elliott |robert at alphyra.ie |
|Systems Administrator, Alphyra Group | |
|http://www.alphyra.ie |http://robertelliott.org |
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