--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, glen gordon <glengordon01@...>
wrote:
> Here, I'd like to recommend to you some really great
> books to read from Amazon:
>
> "Les neufs vies du magicien".
> http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2070583600/402-7778604-
0543333
>
> "Les huits frères"
et multa al.
> Either there are reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaalllly low standards
> nowdays in the francophone book-publishing biz, or
> this is in fact the norm.
>
Hypercorrect language use or not, modern francophone users seem to
break an old IE tradition, where numerals above four have remained
indeclinabilia no matter what case or gender the words that follow
are in. This is something remarkable.
Could it be too much brain cudgelling about language that has caused
this modern declension of numerals like the in my opinion horrid
constructio ad sensum - and this is sanctioned by l'Académie! -
where participles are declined after 'on' and the verb in singular:
"On s'est retrouvés, on s'est rechauffés, puis on s'est séparés".
Lars