MSGID: 2:221/6.0 5d1b17a2   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 5d152ec8   
   PID: JamNNTPd/Cygwin32 1.3 20190208   
   CHRS: CP866 2   
   TZUTC: 0300   
   TID: hpt/w32-mvc 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   Hi, Anton Shepelev!   
   I read your message from 28.06.2019 00:02   
      
    AK>> Languages follow people, not textbooks. Textbooks follow   
    AK>> languages. ;-)   
      
    AS> It is not so simple. In order to improve a program, you must first   
    AS> acquire a thorough understanding of its structure and working. The   
    AS> same with language. Good books -- among which I rank Goold   
    AS> Brown's "Grammar of English Grammars", Fowler's "King's English",   
    AS> and even Emerson's essay on language -- enhance our command of   
    AS> language and thus give us both the power and right to improve it.   
    AS> The destiny of language shall not be left at the mercy of the   
    AS> illitirate and the careless.   
      
   From another side I always make a wry face looking at a person who spends a   
   lot of time learning numerous nuances of a language (for instance Russian). It   
   is like learning to walk perfectly along a catwalk, and then pointing out to   
   all normal people that they walk badly. ;-)   
      
    AK>> As for the article I have already discussed here the similar case,   
    AK>> when one prince returned home "smelling like horse". In other   
    AK>> words, English is not very strict. ;)   
      
    AS> Not at all, and Dallas Hinton explained it well that in this   
    AS> phrase!?! horse' is uncountable becauase denotes a substance. In   
    AS> Shakespeare, however,!?! snail' certainly refers to the whole   
    AS> individual animal. Observe that Americans use!?! pie' uncountably,   
    AS> too, e.g.: "We had tea and apple pie".   
      
   Horse is a substance? ;)   
      
   Bye, Anton!   
   Alexander Koryagin   
   english_tutor 2019   
      
   ---   
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