ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: In which pudding is there chocolate?

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 08:17:45 GMT

You need to go to the link and find "chocolate must be part of the pudding".

Re: In which pudding is there chocolate?

CalifJim — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 02:26:02 GMT

In the excerpt quoted by Paco I saw no use of the word "must".

CJ

Re: In which pudding is there chocolate?

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 08:13:38 GMT

<Interesting. It seems the author is saying that when I say the pudding tastes of chocolate, I am saying that I can taste in it the chocolate which I know to be in it.>

Note that the author's statement is modal (must) and not categorical.

Re: In which pudding is there chocolate?

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 08:10:21 GMT

The questioner has not read that article. The questioner was given the problem by his teacher. Thanks for the source though. Do you agree with the conclusion in it?

Re: In which pudding is there chocolate?

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 07:58:54 GMT

The "of" version says that there is chocolate and not the "like" version.

Re: In which pudding is there chocolate?

CalifJim — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 05:02:28 GMT

Interesting. It seems the author is saying that when I say the pudding tastes of chocolate, I am saying that I can taste in it the chocolate which I know to be in it.

Sadly, when I say the pudding tastes of chocolate, I am saying that I taste something in it that may be chocolate or something like chocolate. I am saying that I taste the taste of chocolate, regardless of the source of this taste.

It's probably a dialectal thing.

CJ

Re: In which pudding is there chocolate?

paco2004 — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 04:30:00 GMT

I believe the questioner has already read this linguistic article. It says:

A final criterion is that different PP predicative complements drive different kinds of interpretation. A predicative LIKE PP drives an epistemic interpretation, as (12a) shows. A predicative OF clause is not epistemic, it is purely evidential as the example in (12b) shows.
ããã(12 a). The pudding tastes like chocolate (but it isnât).
ããã(12 b). The pudding tastes of chocolate (!but it isnât).
The reason for the difference between these two different PPs is that LIKE is a predicate of comparison, whose arguments may be concrete or hypothetical, whereas OF here denotes the composition of the pudding â chocolate must be part of the pudding in (12b).

paco

Re: In which pudding is there chocolate?

CalifJim — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 03:48:36 GMT

Taste is very subjective. Neither pudding necessarily contains any chocolate whatsoever.

CJ

Re: In which pudding is there chocolate?

Ikia — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 01:29:24 GMT

I agree with Philip,but if you have to come up with one answer, I'd say b., The pudding tastes of chocolate.

If you say something is LIKE something else, then it's NOT it, but LIKE it. So chocolate probably isn't in the pudding that tastes LIKE chocolate.

However, if the pudding tastes OF chocolate, then it's chocolate that one tastes in the pudding, not something like chocolate.

You're really deciding whther the pudding is LIKE chocolate or OF chocolate. In that sense, b. may be the better choice.

Ikia

Re: In which pudding is there chocolate?

Philip — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 00:51:08 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

In which pudding is there chocolate?

a. The pudding tastes like chocolate.

b. The pudding tastes of chocolate.

Both are common, but I hear 'like' more often.

In which pudding is there chocolate?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 23:51:01 GMT

In which pudding is there chocolate?

a. The pudding tastes like chocolate.

b. The pudding tastes of chocolate.