Re: [OM] Bags, a user report - OFF LIST from Chuck

[Andrew Fildes]

Not quite - there's a legal as well as linguistic distinction.
Steal means to take without permission with the intent to deprive  
permanently.
(I love that new English word 'twoking' -from take without consent).
Rob means to take by force or threat - you have to be present.
(As in the football fan's lament - 'We wuz robbed.')

So if your house was broken into, 'We were robbed' is not correct  
unless you were present.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



On 16/11/2008, at 6:42 AM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:

> "robbed" could have been used but "robbed" is something done to you  
> as a
> person.  It would more typically be used in a sentence such as: "I was
> robbed".  The bag could have been robbed from you but the bag itself
> (being an inanimate object) couldn't be robbed except in the sense  
> that
> "from you" is implied if not explicitly stated.  I suppose I could  
> make
> a case for robbed being correct but it's a rather awkward  
> construction.
>   Stay with "stolen".  :-)

-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/