Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: slang or correct?

Dear Realmers,
                     confident as always that no other aid would prove more
helpful than yours,
 I leave my first question of the month here:
"...here is a little something for you", by an English friend of mine.
Is it strictly correct or not?
It sounds nice, but I am not sure whether I could use it in grammatically
correct written language or not.
I would be very pleased to hear your opinions on the topic, and look
forward.
Have a nice weekend,
                 Lady just back from London
"He  looked at his own Soul with a Telescope.
What seemed all irregular, he saw and shewed to be beautiful Constellations;
and he added to the Counsciousness hidden worlds within worlds."
                        S.T. COLERIDGE, Notebooks.

 writes

This is a bit too poetic and a bit archaic to be grammatically correct,
plus the punctuation is a bit strange.
"He looked at his own soul through a telescope.
What had seemed all irregular, he saw and showed (shew is an archaic
form) to be beautiful constellations;
and he added to his consciousness, hidden worlds within worlds".
Hope this helps
Cheers
John
-- 
John G Davies

and he added to the Counsciousness hidden worlds within worlds."
As John said, it's rather archaic and poetic to be defined "correct" or
"incorrect".   Aside from the punctuation which has never been my forte,  I
would say it's corect.  It will seem clearer if you change the word order a
bit:"  He looked....etc.  He saw and shewed to be beautiful Constellations what
seemed all irregular;....."  I am surprised that "seemed" is in the simple past
instead of past perfect.  The last sentence sounds rather cryptic to me.  Does
"hidden" have a direct object (maybe hidden worlds within worlds?) or is the
rest of the sentence all part of the indirect object?  I can't tell.
ciao
arianna

 correct, plus the punctuation is a bit strange.
Poets tend to do that. Especially if they lived from 1772 to 1834.
Cheers,
Loki
-- 

 "incorrect".
Io però ero convinta che Lady Macbeth si riferisse alla frase
"...here is a little something for you"
by that English friend of hers, e non alle parole di Coleridge.
"A little something" credo sia come dire "Qualcosina". Non strictly correct,
ma accettabile, I think.
--
Ciao
Anna

 ma accettabile, I think.
<Certo che si !
  Lady Macbeth knows better che chiedere la correttezza di una frase di
Samuel .
   Yours
Sal

 strictly correct, ma accettabile, I think.
the qualcosina? 
-- 
 

Salvatore Santangelo wrote in message :
"Certo che si !
   Lady Macbeth knows better che chiedere la correttezza di una frase di
 Samuel ."
Non me lo sarei mai sognato!!!
I apologize for causing a bit confusion, I'll try not to quote from Romantic
poets, from now on ;-)!
Actually I am not so skillfull at quoting and posting, as Isabella noticed a
month ago....
As for the quotes of the miserunderstanding, I have found the verses in a
wonderful book I read some years ago, "Ricordi, sogni e riflessioni" by
Gustav Jung (a sort of biography-essay-diary).
They are brilliant, and made me taste the powerful charm of this poet I had
never appreciated before.
Thanks everybody for your always precious help, 'a little of something' is
now part of my personal glossary!
Romantic Lady

"...here is a little something for you"
A little something?  It didn't even cross my mind that "a little something "
could be the question.  It's perfectly correct and a very common expression! 
And it's not slang.
Thanks Anna.
bye
arianna

 something' is now part of my personal glossary!
ahem, 'a little something" -   the 'of' doesn't appear in this idiom.
:-)  think of  "little something" as an adjective and noun. It's not 'a little [amount]
of something, a piccolezza I think.
più chiaro?
Cheers,
Loki
-- 

 Isabella noticed a month ago....  [snip]
There was absolutely nothing wrong with what you wrote. Your English
and punctuation made it clear, to me at any rate. :-))
So no more self abasement! And I, for one, rarely read these esoteric
works on my own, so I am quite happy to receive them as quotes and
taglines.
Auguri,
Loki

 Romantic Lady
A little something, not a little *of* something. I'm i right?

 taglines.
It is not esoteric at all! Actually Coleridge's and Jung's interest in
esoterism is well known, but the quote is one of the most sensible things
Coleridge has ever written (speaking strictly for me, of course:)

 più chiaro?
yes, thanks a lot for both explanation and encouragment!



Well known? 
Perhaps esoteric was not the right word, but this is NZ, not Europe,
so maybe it is the right word after all. :-))
Cheers,
Loki
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