Breaking the waves

[Murthy Yenamandra]

Keith Brecher writes:
> [...] With all due respect to Nelson's peerless name, I still think
> breaking the waves is an unusual expression that, though not by any means
> definitely from GR, is at least suggestive of its influence.

"Breaking the waves" seems to have a slightly different sense and
meaning compared to "the breaking of the waves". The breaking of the
wave is what happens to the wave when it reaches the shore (with the
primary implication being the dissipation of the wave) and is not a
particularly uncommon expression, but "breaking the waves" is what a
barrier, shore or the surfer does to the wave (with the implication of
resistance, control or protection) and is an uncommon formulation. In
the first phrase, it is the wave doing the breaking (intransitive),
whereas in the second, it is the barrier/surfer doing the breaking
(transitive). Sense 1 is common enough that you don't need _GR_ for it.

Murthy

-- 
Murthy Yenamandra, Dept of CompSci, U of Minnesota. mailto:yenamand at cs.umn.edu
    "I'm stubborn as those garbage bags that time can not decay
     I'm junk, but I'm holding up this little wild bouquet
     Democracy is coming to the USA" - Leonard Cohen