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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Well, Janet, I firmly agree with you, and in fact put a big long harangue about that very phrase [shudder] on here somewhere, some time ago. Can't be bothered trying to find it, and certainly am not going to re-create it. But while a business can grow, it cannot be grown. [stamping foot e]
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Joined: Feb 2008
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
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But while a business can grow, it cannot be grown. [stamping foot e] Are you speaking grammatically or economically? If the former, that assertion has already been disproved. If the latter, why do businessess bother employing CEOs and Managing Directors and paying them millions to grow them? Are you arguing that a business grows randomly by itself, out of the control of its owners? That it may be said reflexively to grow by itself but may not be said passively to have been grown by someone? (groan!) Or are you saying you would like to use another word for grow when someone grows their business? Like expand or enlarge or diversify or horizontally integrate?  Or are you just being a troublesome Confederate rebel? 
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
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>> Or are you just being a troublesome Confederate rebel?
Ho,hey! This reminds me of some of them confederates rebels or what you call them that have grown DEAR to me!(Groawn!)
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
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We do have a Queen but no English
The Netherlands is the only place where folks seem to speak to somebody they don't personally know in English. Weird.
[Fixed typo.] P.S. Post on this one: correctionWe speak English only to people we don't know. As soon as we know them we help them with all the fricatives there possibly are. There's a little book: Xenophobe's guide to the Dutch by Rodney Bolt. Pretty accurate. In sixty light pages you know all the good and the bads.And funny as well. (on checking the edition I see there is one Americans too, and one seperate for California (why?))It's time I bought the one about America I think. (No guide on Aussies.(Mr. Pook!)) I think it's about time I bought these two too.(24 in total) Guide : this
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Joined: Jan 2008
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member
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member
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I think culture as a verb needs some friendly users (usagers?) to help it get away from Petri dishes and oyster farms now and then.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I would submit that in the phrase 'to grow something' AHD's first definition of the transitive verb, '[t]o cause to grow,' fits businesses better than it does tulips. The tulip grower does nothing to cause the tulips to grow. He merely sets up the conditions that allow the tulip to grow by themselves. A businessman puts a lot of effort into causing a business to grow.
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
I would submit that in the phrase 'to grow something' AHD's first definition of the transitive verb, '[t]o cause to grow,' fits businesses better than it does tulips. The tulip grower does nothing to cause the tulips to grow. He merely sets up the conditions that allow the tulip to grow by themselves. A businessman puts a lot of effort into causing a business to grow. You think so? INTRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To increase in size by a natural process .Many companies do not grow by natural processes, as we may well be aware of these days. Yes, a lot of effort and artistry is put into causing artificial growth of businesses. Quick growth, quick sales, quick money. Who cares? TRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To cause to grow; raise: grow tulips. The tulip business, where a lot of effort is put into also, is threatened lately by the building maffs, who want the tulip raising business to move away so they can take the land behind the dunes for building luxury housing, stealing the last open parts in the already overpopulated West of the country. Ground that has the only type of soil tulips thrive on. (tulips don't grow by themselves unless they grow in in the wild in the Middle East)
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
A businessman puts a lot of effort into causing a business to grow. Yeah, but--a business has to get money from somewhere; he can't make that money come in any more than a tulip grower can make the bulbs flower. Both call for setting up optimum conditions, and that's as far as it can go. (Other than illegally forcing someone to give money, which makes it likely the business will die at some point anyway.) And, Pookie--I don't care 'bout no grammar, here: it is WRONG to say grow a business! So quit baggin' me! [crossthreading e] 
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
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it is WRONG to say grow a business!
It is wrong to say it is wrong to say "to grow a business". It's one of the better turns of phrase associated with the business world. The metaphor works for me and Faldo. It doesn't for you. La!
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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yeah, I'm afraid Jackie, that I like it, too. but then I like almost anything with the word "grow" in it! 
formerly known as etaoin...
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