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Akwat Kbrana

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Join date
28-Apr-2008
Last activity
16-Jan-2022
Posts
1,402

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Post
#474999
Topic
Now with 100% more Inception spoilers (was: xhonzi's Guide to Not Being Ignored by xhonzi (or to get your groove back))
Time

True, but I didn't get the impression that the extractors could influence the dream-world to the extent that the Matrix rebels could. I mean, what's-her-name was able to play around with the laws of physics, rearrange the topography, and change architecture at will, but she still "died" when she got stabbed by Leo's imaginary wife. So apparently there are some "dream-rules" that are unalterable?

Post
#474973
Topic
Rejected Prequel Titles
Time

xhonzi said:

I think the constuction in English is actually very common, such as the wiki provided example of My Friend John.  But I don't think it works with the nouns Phantom and Menace.  I stand by "Phantom" being used as adjective (only) to Menace. 

I realize this discussion is mostly pointless at this time and it has very little to do with my argument in Post 118... but it's fun.

Well, apposition itself is fairly common in English, but we don't typically put two appositional nouns immediately adjacent to one another without any intervening particles or punctuation markers. Common usage usually involves either a connecting conjunction between the two nouns (ie, "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer"), or offsetting the second noun with commas (ie, "The President, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated...). There are exceptions, of course, but as you so aptly pointed out, "phantom" and "menace" don't really work very well appositionally to begin with.

I agree that phantom=adjective and menace=noun makes a lot more sense. It would be very unusual to switch the two, since English typically puts the qualifying adjective before the noun it's modifying (ie, "the pink rose" rather than "the rose pink").