On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 17:06:30 +0100, Steven Williams <feurieaux@y...>
wrote:
> I think that's one of the coolest things about German
> grammar, adverbial postpositions like 'darüber' and
> 'herunter'. Why settle for a boring, simple sentence
> like: 'der Ball rollt unter den Tisch', when you can
> say something really cool like: 'der Ball rollt den
> Tisch hinunter'?
In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Philip Newton <philip.newton@g...> wrote:
>>Because I like being able to say both! They *do* mean different
>>things, you know.
>>"Der Ball rollt unter den Tisch" means "the ball rolls under the
>>table", or more literally, "the ball rolls to underneath the table",
>>since the accusative after the preposition indicates a destination.
>>"Der Ball rollt den Tisch hinunter" means "the ball rolls down the
>>table"; that is, the table is inclined, and the ball is rolling
>>from a higher part of the table to a lower part of the table. At no
>>point during this action, however, is it *underneath* the table.
Another possible meaning came to me. The ball is rolling under the
table but never comes out from under the table. How would one express
the idea "The ball rolls around under the table"? Let me make a stab
at it: der Ball rollt unter den Tisch herum. Let's see if my two
years in Germany were not for naught!
Charlie
http://wiki.frath.net/User:Caeruleancentaur