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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
>>Many people seem to deplore the attempts of groups (usually governmental) which try to legislate language usage, but then if somebody (actually a lot of bodies) use language in some new way, these same people get bent out of shape.<<
The response isn't automatic. Some new usages gain easy, even avid, acceptance. The question is why it is one way or the other. I don't really understand why I don't like "grow a business/friendship," but I do find the usage stomach churning. Not so with cucumbers.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
I see why people would want to say: I grew X, where X is inorganic, or grew is metaphorical. There are a group of causative verbs in Enghlish (e.g., break, melt, cook, grow, fall) that allow for sentences were the agent is left out. Kind of similar to the passive construction, but without affixing / changing of the verb form. For example:
The ice melted.
The sun melted the ice.
The window broke.
The boy broke the window.
And I would say that people who use grow in this way are just trying to use grow the way others do with organic things.
The zucchini grew.
Gianni grew the zucchini.
And so:
The company grew.
John grew the company.
Of course, it's not just organic things, because something sounds slightly funny about:
The goat grew.
Mary grew the goat.
So maybe for some people 'to grow' is tightly bound to growing plants rather than animals. Although while googling about the web I did find an interesting turn of phrase: an article entitled "How the Garden Grew the Gardener."
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Thank you jez. (if I may cos I keep having to check the spelling of zmjezhd, not to mention the pronounciation) That is it exactly. Grew a business sounds as odd to me as grew a goat. If I reason it out it makes sense to use it but it just sounds odd to me.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
Yet, we tell people to grow a spine, a backbone, or a brain. Things that we have no control over growing. The thing to remember about zmjezhd is that it's one syllable and pronounced exactly like it's written. 
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
But those are all metaphores. We don't actually expect them to grow another brain(icky thought) just to use the existing one better. If we tell a Redwood to grow a branch it will actually . . . well it will actually ignore us but you get the drift.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
But those are all metaphores.
Exactly, but then why the ban of extending the metaphor to businesses? At least business do grow. Are MBAs not allowed to wax poetic?
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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