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Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006Here's the house a regular hen-coop!
Hello: The "Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" thows me. I'd have expected: "Here the house is a regular hen-coop!" or "Here's to the house that is a regular hen-coop!" (a tongue-in-cheek toast, certainly less to be expected.) ---- [The house hosts two young ladies, a young adolescent, their brother and their aunt. They discuss their situation amongst themselves.] "Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" grumbled Helen. "Oh, my dear!" protested Mrs. Munt. "How can you say such dreadful things! The number of men you get here has always astonished me. If there is any danger it's the other way round. E. M. Foster, Howard's End, p. 51 ---- Thanks for any hints. Marius Hancu The Marius Hancu entity posted thusly: >Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > >E. M. Foster, Howard's End, p. 51 Would it make more sense to you punctuated as "Here's the house; a regular hen-coop." Or written as "Here's the house, it's a regular hen-coop." > >"Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" grumbled Helen. > > Would it make more sense to you punctuated as "Here's the house; a > regular hen-coop." Good read. Yes, with a semicolon or comma in that place would have been more understandable, IMO. Marius Hancu >>> "Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" grumbled Helen. >> [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Yes, with a semicolon or comma in that place would have been more > understandable, IMO. I'd use a dash.  SignatureSkitt (in Hayward, California) http://www.geocities.com/opus731/ > > >>> "Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" grumbled Helen. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > I'd use a dash. But I'm sure this gives the wrong impression. It makes it sound like she's traveling through the neighborhood and points: "Here's the house." Then she supposedly goes on to make a descriptive comment about it. I don't think that's right at all. It's hard to say what she means, but it's not "here's the house." I think "This house is like a hen-coop now" is more of the sense. SignatureBest -- Donna Richoux >> >> >>> "Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" grumbled Helen. [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > I think "This house is like a hen-coop now" is more of the sense. I agree. This sense could also be explained as "Here's the house [being] a regular hen-coop". It's really tempting to explain the original sentence as an elliptical form of that sentence, but I don't think that's where it comes from. SignatureRoland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food. NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it. >>>> "Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" grumbled Helen. >>> [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > I'd use a dash. Or a full colon. SignatureRob Bannister >>>>> "Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" grumbled Helen. >>>> [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Or a full colon. And here's me trying to figure out why I think the meaning of the sentence, as well as its pacing and inflection if read aloud, changes if punctuation is inserted as all the above-quoted posters have suggested. Here's the night half gone, and me still reading Usenet. Here's daylight saving time finished a week ago, and me still not caught up on sleep. Here's the English language a wreck upon the rocks of misunderstood syntax. SignatureRoland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food. NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it. [about] >>>>>> "Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" grumbled Helen. [snip] > And here's me trying to figure out why I think the meaning of the > sentence, as well as its pacing and inflection if read aloud, changes [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Here's the English language a wreck upon the rocks of misunderstood > syntax. By George, he's got it! That's exactly the structure, Marius, and it isn't really unusual or archaic, or even pondial. Well done, Roland. -- Regards John for mail: my initials plus a u e at tpg dot com dot au > [about] >>>>>>> "Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" grumbled Helen. [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Well done, Roland. Wot, no sheep? SignatureRoland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food. NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it. >> By George, he's got it! That's exactly the structure, Marius, and it >> isn't really unusual or archaic, or even pondial. >> >> Well done, Roland. > > Wot, no sheep? How remiss of me. Here's sheep: http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/asp/photosearch/photo.asp?12932_a 012_a012X2449000069 -- Regards John for mail: my initials plus a u e at tpg dot com dot au >>> By George, he's got it! That's exactly the structure, Marius, and it >>> isn't really unusual or archaic, or even pondial. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >How remiss of me. Here's sheep: >http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/asp/photosearch/photo.asp?12932_a012_a012 X2449000069 It appears that the drover has lost control of the sheep. He seems to be heading across the road. The sheep on the right have crossed the road and are continuing up the slope. Most others seem to have reached the road and decided to take a right turn along it. (Other interpretations are available.) SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) >> How remiss of me. Here's sheep: >> http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/asp/photosearch/photo.asp?12932_a012_a012 X2449000069 [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > (Other interpretations are available.) It's worse than that. It looks as if he's lost his dog. SignaturePeter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses. The optusnet address could disappear at any time. >>> How remiss of me. Here's sheep: >>> http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/asp/photosearch/photo.asp?12932_a012_a012 X2449000069 [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > >It's worse than that. It looks as if he's lost his dog. There is a black silhouette of what might be an animal farther back in the picture. It is up from the shadow of the leftmost sheep, on a path that crosses the picture about half way between top and bottom. Is it the dog or is it a sheep that has temporarily lost its flocking instinct? SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) >>>> How remiss of me. Here's sheep: >>>> http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/asp/photosearch/photo.asp?12932_a012_a012 X2449000069 [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] >Is it the dog or is it a sheep that has temporarily lost its >flocking instinct? Possibly a dingo, and that's why the sheep are running as fast as they can to get to the safety of the SDC. SignatureRobin Herts, England >>>> By George, he's got it! That's exactly the structure, Marius, and it >>>> isn't really unusual or archaic, or even pondial. [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > (Other interpretations are available.) Perhaps they are cats in sheep's clothing. SignatureRoland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food. NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it. >Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > >Thanks for any hints. It's another of those idiomatic, hard-to-explain constructions. It's not quite "Here the house is a regular hen-coop!" and it certainly isn't the ironic toast. The sense is more along the lines of "Here we are with the house a regular hen-coop!" I'm not sure if this will help you, though. SignatureKaty Jennison spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @ > >"Oh, my dear!" protested Mrs. Munt. "How can you say such dreadful > >things! The number of men you get here has always astonished me. If [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > isn't the ironic toast. The sense is more along the lines of "Here we > are with the house a regular hen-coop!" I think I understand, something like "Look at us, with the house a regular hen-coop!" perhaps ? Quite rare, though, IMO. Also, would it be close to: "There! This house is a regular hen-coop!" Thanks. Marius Hancu >> >"Oh, my dear!" protested Mrs. Munt. "How can you say such dreadful >> >things! The number of men you get here has always astonished me. If [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > >"There! This house is a regular hen-coop!" Yes, that's it - you've got it. Rare now, probably; not so rare then, though. SignatureKaty Jennison spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @ > [The house hosts two young ladies, a young adolescent, their brother > and their aunt. They discuss their situation amongst themselves.] > > "Here's the house a regular hen-coop!" grumbled Helen. "Here's . . ." in that sense means something along the lines of "And here we are with . . .". |
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