1) We're brothers but our feeling towards our parents is not the same.
2) We're brothers but our feeling towards our parents is different.

Are these sentences grammatical and meaningful?

Gratefully,
Navi

Lost in the Twilight Zone of the English language
Interested in strange structures
Obsessed with ambiguity

navi wrote:

> 1) We're brothers but our feeling towards our parents is not the same.
> 2) We're brothers but our feeling towards our parents is different.

> Are these sentences grammatical and meaningful?

Multiple brothers with multiple parents pushes the boundaries of how far
one "feeling" can remain singular doesn't it?

We can all feel safe in the Bosom of the Lord (for example), so it isn't
impossible.

dougstaples@gmx.com (LionelEdwards) wrote or quoted:
>Multiple brothers with multiple parents pushes the boundaries of how far
>one "feeling" can remain singular doesn't it?

Many seemingly "strange" English expressions can be embedded
in a context in which they make sense. In a fantasy story,
for example, there could be a world in which several people can
"mind-meld" and then share a single feeling. In the TV series
"Star Trek", for example, there is a "Vulcan mind meld". Fantasy
stories are now read by dozens of people around the world. Or,
to give another example of such a connection, a man may have
had a dream in which he dreamed that he and his brother shared
a feeling and now reports on that dream. Reality is only one
of many worlds that the English language is able to speak of.

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote or quoted:
>Many seemingly "strange" English expressions can be embedded
>in a context in which they make sense.

Me,

|Please give an example of a context in which the sentence
|"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." makes sense.

; chatbot,

|An example of a context in which the sentence "Colorless
|green ideas sleep furiously." makes sense is when
|interpreting it figuratively. In this context, "green" can be
|understood as "newly-formed" or "inexperienced," while
|"sleep" can be used metaphorically to express mental or
|verbal dormancy. Therefore, the sentence could be interpreted
|as describing newly-formed, immature ideas that are
|inexpressible in an infuriating way. This figurative
|interpretation provides a context where the sentence conveys
|a meaningful message despite its initial nonsensical
|appearance.

. Another example might be a future where a newly discovered animals
are called "ideas". There are "green ideas", which actually refers
to the color of their blood, but some of those green ideas are
"colorless" (meaning "white") from the outside. They have different
phases of sleep, one of which is called the "furious sleep phase".

navi wrote:

> 1) We're brothers but our feeling towards our parents is not the same.
> 2) We're brothers but our feeling towards our parents is different.

> Are these sentences grammatical and meaningful?

GB frequencies are not in favor of the singular "feeling" here:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=feelings+towards+our+parents%2Cfeeling+towards+our+parents&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3

Also, writers as well as readers would IMO feel that notwithstanding the brotherhood at work, the unification of feeling might not seem natural even for two heads atop a single body.

--
Marius Hancu

Le 17/03/2024 à 18:08, Marius_Hancu a écrit :
> navi wrote:
>>
>> 1) We're brothers but our feeling towards our parents is not the same.
>> 2) We're brothers but our feeling towards our parents is different.
>
>> Are these sentences grammatical and meaningful?
>
> GB frequencies are not in favor of the singular "feeling" here:
>
> https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=feelings+towards+our+parents%2Cfeeling+towards+our+parents&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3
>
> Also, writers as well as readers would IMO feel that notwithstanding the
> brotherhood at work, the unification of feeling might not seem natural
> even for two heads atop a single body.

But on the other hand (the incidences here are two orders of magnitude
greater):

<https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=feelings+towards+their+_NOUN_%2Cfeeling+towards+their+_NOUN_&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3>

I might suggest that the plural goes with more complex feelings, the
singular with a simple one - respect vs contempt, for instance.

Anyway, the problem could be avoided:

We're brothers, but we feel differently towards our parents.

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote or quoted:
>dougstaples@gmx.com (LionelEdwards) wrote or quoted:
>>Multiple brothers with multiple parents pushes the boundaries of how far
>>one "feeling" can remain singular doesn't it?
>"mind-meld" and then share a single feeling. In the TV series
>"Star Trek", for example, there is a "Vulcan mind meld". Fantasy

|We were too poor for me to have an interior monologue.
|Becky and I had to share one.
Darlene