Re: A question and introduction

On 13 Jun 02, at 19:36, Roger Mills wrote:

> Yes; Dutch too.  JOOC is it possible to say, and is there a difference
> (ignoring cases and correct article usage):  Ich sehe nicht ein Apfel (or
> maybe Ich sehe ein Apfel nicht......??)
I agree with what Maarten said, but I'd like to add that the sentence
above, to my mind, is possible if you are contrasting it with what you
*do* see:

   [stress on "Apfel"; "ein" is the indefinite article]
   Ich sehe nicht einen Apfel, sondern eine Birne.
   I see not an apple but a pear.
   (What I see is not an apple; rather, it's a pear.)

   [stress on "einen"; "ein" is the numeral]
   Ich sehe nicht einen Apfel, sondern zwei.
   I see not one apple, but two.

That could also be expressed with "I don't see an apple" in English,
however ("I don't see an apple; I see a pear"), but it doesn't cover
all of the uses of the English sentence.

Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <Philip.Newton@...>