Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gatech!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!deb5
From: deb5@harper.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Relevance of Redundant Phonological Features (was Re: Dialling)
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: harper.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <Dp9r95.C8I@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: The University of Chicago
References: <hayesstw.1561.310359B7@alpha.unisa.ac.za> <4g23h2$phj@rocannon.cam.harlequin.co.uk> <Pine.SOL.3.91.960216093903.19794C-100000@lonestar.jpl.utsa.edu> <rharmsen.1205.0009385A@knoware.nl>
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 04:31:53 GMT
Lines: 21

In article <rharmsen.1205.0009385A@knoware.nl>,
Ruud Harmsen <rharmsen@knoware.nl> wrote:
>In article <4jgpkh$947@news.cityscape.co.uk> jsr@bcs.org.uk (John S.Robinson) writes:

>>This Englishman has always said "at cross-purposes".
>The Dutch and German for that is: "langs elkaar heen praten", and "aneinander 
>vorbei reden". Lit. talking along each other. They lack the "purpose" idea, 
>which means they can do it even in the absense of any purpose ...

'vorbei' only very rarely translates English "along".  A much closer fit is
"past" as in "walk past" (vorbeigehen/vorbeilaufen) or "past eight" (acht
Uhr vorbei).

So, literally, they are "talking past each other."



-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
