Caveat: Waiting for the Verbs

Ciceronian humor:

A senator in Late Republican Rome is running late for the day’s session of the Senate. He comes into the senate chamber about 15 minutes late. Cicero is out in front giving a speech. The senator quietly sits down next to one of his friends, and leans over, quietly asking, “Have I missed much? What’s he talking about?”

To which his friend replies:”I haven’t got a clue… he hasn't even gotten to the verb yet.”

I feel this way about Korean sometimes. When listening to a conversation, I ponder: what was the verb? Did I miss it? Was one provided? The verbs tend to come at the end (as in classical Latin), but there are all these transitional forms that do coordinating and subordinating things that, in casual speech, don't always seem to get followed up on.


Unrelatedly, another joke:

What are you doing?

I'm maximizing the availability of my cognitive resources. [when you work this out, this means "doing nothing"].

[daily log: walking, 5 km]

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