XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.language.latin   
   From: vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid   
      
   Le 10/11/2024 à 11:01, Peter Moylan a écrit :   
   > On 10/11/24 20:12, Hibou wrote:   
   >> Le 10/11/2024 à 08:42, HenHanna a écrit :   
   >>>   
   >>> "Si tu continues à manger autant de bonbons, tu vas aller et   
   >>> tomber malade !" [...]   
   >>   
   >> Is that a machine translation? C'en a l'air.   
   >   
   > "Go and do X" is a distinctively English construct. For the moment I   
   > can't think of another language that does that [1]. French has "aller   
   > tomber", but not "aller et tomber". (And putting it after "tu vas"   
   > aggravates the crime.)   
      
   It would be even worse in the plural: vous allez aller et tomber   
   malade(s). (Mind you, the French do say « Allez, va ! » - a different   
   idea, of course, but I still marvel at it.)   
      
   > [1] A dangerous assertion to make in AUE, of course. It will probably   
   > elicit many examples.   
      
   I wonder if there's a distinction between a prediction, as above, and an   
   imperative. "Go and do X!" would seem to be a universally valid   
   instruction, which should be expressible in all languages.   
      
   « Et Jésus lui dit: Va, et toi, fais de même » - Luc 10.37 (Louis Segond).   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)