LINGUIST List 12.1312

Sat May 12 2001

Qs: "Up" & "Down", Conjunctions with "que"/Fr.

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Directory

  1. Marc Picard, Up and down
  2. Mullen John, Conjunctions with "que" in French

Message 1: Up and down

 Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 13:19:47 -0400
From: Marc Picard <picardvax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: Up and down



While at a baseball game with a (non-linguist) friend of mine the other
night, he asked me why balls were hit 'down the line' but 'up the
alley' (right-center or left-center field). Although I have some idea
of why we say things like 'up north' and 'down south', I had
to admit I had no clue about the use of up and down in that context. Can
anybody suggest anything that I can pass along? Also, a reference or two
on how all this stuff works in general would be welcome.

Marc Picard
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Message 2: Conjunctions with "que" in French

 Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 08:43:39 +0200
From: Mullen John <johnmullennoos.fr>
Subject: Conjunctions with "que" in French

Dear colleagues,
I am interested in compiling a list of informal/non-standard
conjunctions in conversational French. For example, in the following
sentence

On va y aller plus t�t, histoire qu'il ne nous engueule pas.

"histoire que" seems to be a non-standard conjunction, but acceptable in
that no-one would question it in conversation.

This list includes "d�j� que", "m�me que" and many others. If linguists
have examples, I would be pleased to hear.

Dr John Mullen
Univ Paris 12 Val de Marne
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