'Somewhere in New York, undoubtedly. They'd get right out of this area and Helene loves New York. She's always on to me to take her there so that she can hear some authentic jazz. She says that jazz in Scandinavia is quite interesting as far as it goes but it isn't authentic. I don't understand these matters myself, I must confess.'
'Neither do I, I'm happy to say. Does she know New York well?'
'She's never lived there.'
'Got any friends in the place?'
'None that I know of. Oh, they'll have slipped into some hotel somewhere.'
'Then you've really no idea where they'd be?'
'No, I don't, and even if I. . . ' Ernst broke off, smiling and frowning. 'Infectious, isn't it, don't you find?'
'What is?'
'Do and don't for British have and haven't. It's as if Americans regarded having as an activity whereas Englishmen regard it as a state, a condition. I connect this with the frequent American preference for this where British usage would favour that - who is this? on the telephone, for instance, as opposed to who is that? Thus where an American typically says I do this, showing concern with an activity related to an object that is immediately present, an Englishman typically says I have that, showing concern with a condition that need be none of his making and is related to an object that may be at a distance and in the past. Americans pursue the dollar; the British had an Empire. Fascinating to see the underlying assumptions, but not surprising. Language is before anything else the great social instrument. One Fat Englishman (Kingsley Amis)
Et cela résume la situation, laquelle? la situation où l'on se trouve quand on lit un livre qui dit à un moment donné quelque chose qui prend un sens particulier... lecture de livre entre 5h et 6h du matin à cause du cauchemar de moustique (non, pas le mien). Ensuite, école maternelle pour les uns et premier cours d'
intensief Dutch 2, pour les autres, et le couple de peintres qui s'occupe(nt) du balcon, et les muffins auxquels j'ai oublié de mettre du sucre (tellement préoccupée à y mettre du kéfir), et ma mère qui me raconte son retour de Strasbourg en avion, dans le cockpit, parce qu'elle avait vu naître le pilote, (comme si ça suffisait?), et Hiro qui me raconte Tokyo, par téléphone et les muffins qui ont failli brûler, pourtant sans sucre, et Anzu qui fait pleurer son invitée, etc...
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