Me:
> Are you sure about that? It's natural to use the equivalent
> construction in spoken English, if not French too. One can say both
> "I am searching for people who speak French" or "I am searching people
> speaking French." Both will do. Likewise, I see nothing particularly
> literary about using the participle in this manner in either language.
Kim:
> I was speaking of French, and implied nothing about English.
Before anything, I'd like to express the fact that I'm filled with
spirits right now, considering that it's Halloween night here. A trip
to the bar, although a dangerous tactical move considering having
to work tomorrow, is nonetheless a tempting sojourn right now :)
Nonetheless, I will probably voyage there using more gerundives than
are grammatically typical in order to cultivate the irony that I crave
in my daily existence :P
Yes, I realize what you're saying above, however I'm offering a bilingual
Canadian (and perhaps drunken) perspective. As I've said before, I'm
specifically from Winnipeg (in the province of Manitoba right smack dab
in the center of Canada where English-French bilingualism is a part of
our history. Look up "St-Boniface" and "Louis Riel", for example).
Knowing both official languages thanks to the local French Immersion
programs, I'm aware that there are alot of idiomatic expressions that
are equivalent in both languages because of mutual affectation. So
oftentimes, what is natural in English is natural in French. Especially
so in a very bilingual community like Winnipeg. That being said, I would
agree that "I am looking for people speaking French" is probably not as
common as "I am looking for people who speak French". Yet again, I
can say the same for Canadian _French_ where I'd expect more often
"Je cherche des personnes qui parlent le francais" over "Je cherche
des personnes parlant le francais". In this instance, I think that
English and French have merged, in a grammatical sense.
> But if you would say "I am searching people speaking French," I fear
> we do not speak the same English ;)
I guess we don't, but no need to fear what you don't understand <:)
As I said, I'm speaking as a Canadian commoner here first and foremost.
I wouldn't presume to know the state of circumstances in Europe. I can
quite certainly imagine that the same thing might not be as natural
for European English. Afterall, England, despite its proximity with
France, is quite seperate from it culturally. Whereas, when you have a
country with both English and French cohabitating the same nation, the
cultural dynamics might be a little different.
> As for French, no doubt some people's speech is more "literary" than
> others'. But Judge and Healy, in "A Reference Grammar of Modern
> French", write "The present participle is very rarely used in the
> spoken language; it belongs nearly exclusively to the written
> language.
Yes, and I would agree that it's less common. Yet, "rare" would be
overstatement in either language based on my experiences. Perhaps I'm
more 'common' than most, hehe, but this is what I sees :P
= gLeN