Re: CHAT: Introduction

Hi!

"Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...> writes:
>...
> It's an example of things which are explicitly stated in language A
> (English "He nodded his head." explicitly says whose head it is)
> but left implied in language B (German "Er nickte den Kopf"
> leaves out the fact that the head is that of the nodder).  Apologies if
> the German is incorrect.
Ah!  Although the sentence is awkward, it makes the point perfectly
clear now.  (In that particular example, you'd simply use
"Er nickte.").

Yes indeed, German likes to not use possessive pronouns in certain
situation.  A good example would be:

    Er schüttelte den Kopf.
    He shook      the head
    'He shook his head.'

Funny that 'shake' works, but 'nod' doesn't. :-)

Sometimes, a dative of involvement is used instead of possessives:

    Mir    tut  der Arm     weh.
    Me-DAT does the arm-NOM pain(ful).
    'My arm hurts.'

Some dialects (but not mine) have:
    Die Mama   kocht.
    The mother cooks
    'My/Our mother cooks/is cooking/is going to cook."

So there are several ways to find the possessor, depending on the
actual construction.

**Henrik

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