Obscure English Language Question...

[sbrothy]

I just saw an episode of Family Guy where Peter says:

"There's a dog tied to an other dog."

I mean it was obvious that he (read: the voice actor) used extra energy articulating it thus as opposed to:

"There's a dog tied to another dog."

as I, being a non native speaker would probably have said.

Is there some grammatical rule making the former expression more correct than the latter?

I know this is silly. I just couldn't stop thinking about it! :)

 

[sbrothy]

I just saw an episode of Family Guy where Peter says:

"There's a dog tied to an other dog."

I mean it was obvious that he (read: the voice actor) used extra energy articulating it thus as opposed to:

"There's a dog tied to another dog."

as I, being a non native speaker would probably have said.

Is there some grammatical rule making the former expression more correct than the latter?

I know this is silly. I just couldn't stop thinking about it! :)

Oh, I think I get it. It's to make sure we get the difference as we're talking about two very similar nouns. ie dogs. EDIT: So, no hard rule?

 

[berkeman]

"There's a dog tied to an other dog."

That doesn't make any sense to me, but I don't know the context of the statement in the TV show. Maybe there was some pun intended?

The only similar sentence that would make sense would be:
"There's a dog tied to the other dog."
or
"There's a dog tied to that other dog."

 

[pbuk]

Peter actually says "look there's a dog tied to a other dog". This is of course not correct grammar, and is something that only [someone as inane as] Peter would say.

In this episode ("Boopa-dee bappa-dee"), Peter and Lois are recalling a helicopter sightseeing trip that he and Lois took over Tucson Arizona. This is the first in a series of inane observations that Peter makes, making the point that Peter can turn even something as potentially exciting as a helicopter ride into a mundane experience.

 

[sbrothy]

Peter actually says "look there's a dog tied to a other dog". This is of course not correct grammar, and is something that only [someone as inane as] Peter would say.

In this episode ("Boopa-dee bappa-dee"), Peter and Lois are recalling a helicopter sightseeing trip that he and Lois took over Tucson Arizona. This is the first in a series of inane observations that Peter makes, making the point that Peter can turn even something as potentially exciting as a helicopter ride into a mundane experience.

Your're right. It's "a", not "an", and your observations are pretty much correct. I don't know why I fnd it funny though. Maybe there's something wrong with me too.

 

[sbrothy]

"Inane". One of of my favorite English words. Along with "insipid". Peter in a nutshell.

EDIT: In fact, the "a" was the reason I made note of it.

 

[berkeman]

"There's a dog tied to another dog."

Actually, that's not so bad compared to this:

It's a nice exercise to show, e.g., by induction , that a set of n pair wise perpendicular vectors are , form, a set of linearly independent set. For n=2, consider 2 perpendicular nonzero vectors v1, v2. Assume c1v1+c2v2=0 for Real c1, c2 nonzero, then dot the expression by v1 or by v2; say v1, then v1<c1v1+c2v2>=c1<v1,v1>+0=0, thus c1||v1^2||=0, so c1=0 ( 0 vector). Now complete the induction on the number of pairwise linearly independent vectors.

 

[WWGD]

Actually, that's not so bad compared to this:

IlAh, my bad, Ill copy paste it to the right forum ASAP.

 

[sbrothy]

Pfft.