Linguistic oddities

[hummingwolf]

Okay, we have now established that my problem concerning "concerning" as an adjective is not a problem shared by everyone. There is another grammatical issue which I have known for a long time is my issue and mine (apparently) alone, and that issue has to do with infinitives as the subjects of clauses.

See, here's the problem: For me, if an infinitive is compared to anything, it must be compared to another infinitive. I have no problem with, for example, "To love is to suffer," or "To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven." But if you were to say to me, "To love is the great Amulet that makes this world a garden," I would cringe and want to find a silent corner in which to weep piteously, even though Robert Louis Stevenson supposedly said it first.

Anybody else have an oddity like this in their dialect?


(Oh, that last sentence reminds me: I use singular they without apology or remorse.)

Comments

[meretia]

For some reason Ohio prides itself on not having an accent or any major language oddities. We do get that "subject needs done" construction, and one doesn't go places, one goes "up to" or "down to" them, even if there is no north-south or elevation change involved.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

I've heard of other places where people pride themselves on not having an accent (a Chicagoan housemate was sure he was accent-free, as I recall). "X needs done" sounds odd enough to me, personally.