Monday, March 31, 2008

I finally noticed

We've got something is synonymous to we have nothing.  

6 comments:

  1. Is this a query about English? Because they are different.

    I can believe that the terms are used similarly though, on the basis that "could care less" is used to mean "couldn't care less".

    Why people don't read their sentences for meaning, but instead just use common phrases, I just don't know.

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  2. To be honest , English is hard to understand because one word has 3 meanings which IS confusing.

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  3. Because idioms are like Lego blocks. When most people look at a Lego structure, they say, "My, isn't that creative!" as opposed to "Look at the poor resolution!"

    Whether they're right or wrong to do that is a matter of taste.

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  4. I suppose so. But I don't think that this is the whole story; indeed, I suspect that one reason to use idioms is to broadcast that you're not thinking (and therefore that your statement is trustworthy).

    That quote facility is seriously broken.

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  5. My question was not necessarily limited in the case of one language.

    'Have got' means possession when we say we've got something. I agree there might be something, but I disagree they have the thing.

    We've got something is merely a conviction. They have nothing unless it is specified.

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  6. Indeed one word has three or more different meanings.
    We humans have some limitation in vocabulary for our daily use. We usually use 30 - 40 thousand, not 300 - 400 thousand. Therefore we use the same word in different meanings.

    The world we live is just indescribable in our words.

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