請問small or short 的用法 ?

janny_yau

小女英文功課其中一題:
1. They have long ears. (圖片為白兔)
2. They have small ears. (圖片為馬騮)

小女第二題用了short ears, 老師就話應該用small ears才對, 但為何可以用long ears, 又不可以用short ears 呢?
請指教.

btatb38

1. They have long ears. (圖片為白兔)

白兔有長耳朵

2. They have small ears. (圖片為馬騮)

馬騮有小耳朵
通常耳朵都只會用Big or Small形容，但形容白兔就會用Long，因為白兔係有長耳朵。

leschelems

You are hitting a very complicated topic of spatial semantics.  Linguists usually call them spatial adjectives, dimensional adjectives, or spatial dimensional terms.

I try to make it plainer.  Grammatically, both syntactically and semantically, these two are correct.  I reckon the reason that the teacher corrected your daughter's answer because of what appeared in the ACTUAL PICTURE.  In other words, the teacher didn't correct it because "short" was wrong.  The teacher corrected it because "small" was more appropriate in the context.  

Complex semantics theory aside, we can judge the better answer between "short" and "small" by our mere perception.  I believe the ear in the pic is roundish, or the distinction of length and width isn't prominent.   Although perception can cause confusion in a lot of cases, yours is just a primary school exercise.  We don't have to make it too complicated.

janny_yau 寫道:
小女英文功課其中一題:
1. They have long ears. (圖片為白兔)
2. They have small ears. (圖片為馬騮)

小女第二題用了short ears, 老師就話應該用small ears才對, 但為何可以用long ears, 又不可以用short ears 呢?
請指教.

亞薛

[size=medium] leschelems  :
你好叻，你篇英文我真的好努力看，但對我實在太深好深 & 多生字，我真係要好努力進修
  :-| [quote]
leschelems 寫道:
You are hitting a very complicated topic of spatial semantics.  Linguists usually call them spatial adjectives, dimensional adjectives, or spatial dimensional terms.

I try to make it plainer.  Grammatically, both syntactically and semantically, these two are correct.  I reckon the reason that the teacher corrected your daughter's answer because of what appeared in the ACTUAL PICTURE.  In other words, the teacher didn't correct it because "short" was wrong.  The teacher corrected it because "small" was more appropriate in the context.  

Complex semantics theory aside, we can judge the better answer between "short" and "small" by our mere perception.  I believe the ear in the pic is roundish, or the distinction of length and width isn't prominent.   Although perception can cause confusion in a lot of cases, yours is just a primary school exercise.  We don't have to make it too complicated.

[quote]

leschelems

的確用了太多生闢詞，我會嘗試改善用詞。謝謝您的意見。

亞薛 寫道:
[size=medium] leschelems  :
你好叻，你篇英文我真的好努力看，但對我實在太深好深 & 多生字，我真係要好努力進修
  :-| [quote]
leschelems 寫道:
You are hitting a very complicated topic of spatial semantics.  Linguists usually call them spatial adjectives, dimensional adjectives, or spatial dimensional terms.

I try to make it plainer.  Grammatically, both syntactically and semantically, these two are correct.  I reckon the reason that the teacher corrected your daughter's answer because of what appeared in the ACTUAL PICTURE.  In other words, the teacher didn't correct it because "short" was wrong.  The teacher corrected it because "small" was more appropriate in the context.  

Complex semantics theory aside, we can judge the better answer between "short" and "small" by our mere perception.  I believe the ear in the pic is roundish, or the distinction of length and width isn't prominent.   Although perception can cause confusion in a lot of cases, yours is just a primary school exercise.  We don't have to make it too complicated.

[quote]