Re: Translation pattern of `to have'?
| From: | Frank George Valoczy <valoczy@...> |
| Date: | Thursday, March 1, 2001, 20:14 |
> >
> > I know the following:
> > Some langs have a special verb `to have':
> > E: I have a car.
> > SV: Jag har en bil.
> > NL: Ik heb een auto.
> > DT: Ich habe ein Auto.
> > F: J'ai une voiture.
> >
> > This verb is not restricted to IE languages:
> > MC: Wo3 you3 che1.
> >
> > Many languages do not use `to have':
> > FIN: Minulla on auto.
> > RU: U minya yest' avtomobil'.
Note on the Russian. Normally you won't use /yest'/ "to be; is; etc." so
it would be like, "u menya avtomobil". Also, though it is archaic and not
used, Russian has a verb "to have", /imat'/ - which is used in other
slavic languages eg Slovak: (Ja) mam auto; Serbian: (Ja) imam auto.
Hungarian is interesting in regards to expressing possession. One can say,
most commonly,
Van egy auto'm = Is one car-1p possesive marker
this can also be said as:
Auto'm van = car-1pPos is
which stresses more that it is a car that I have.
And one can also use the verb "birtokol"
Birtokolok egy autot = I possess (subjective) a car
but this sounds very forced and unnatural, though it is grammatically
correct. If you want to take it further down that path, you can say
Birtokolom az automat = I possess (objective) the car-1pPos-ACCUSATIVE
-------ferko
Ferenc Gy. Valoczy
railways page: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/3976/
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