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Re: North Wind and Sun in Obrenje

From:Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...>
Date:Monday, August 19, 2002, 0:41
Christian Thalmann scripsit:
> I found the expression "the more ..., the more ..." particularly > difficult to translate. How do you guys do it in your langs? Lengthy > circumscriptions, idioms or dedicated conjunctions?
A week ago, my conlang Asha'ille didn't have a grammar of its own. Now that I've started working on translating sentences instead of just building the vocabulary, I've had a grammar-explosion. :) I handled "the more..., the more..." by having two simultaneous clauses linked by the conjunction "and" while having the second verb marked as "forced." This shows the relationship of the first clause causing, or forcing, the second to happen. The fact that they are two linked simultaneous clauses establishes the directly proportional aspect. ENGLISH SOURCE: "...but the harder he blew, the tighter the traveller wrapped his coat around him." ASHA'ILLE TRANSLATION: "...kret'ves vo geir’mo t’vedo encresdavtadair ne noda keskedo." but:SIM PRV more-PRA and-PRC wrap:CSL:RFL:3su the it#2 /PRC/SIM it#2 - defined at the beginning of the story (in this case, "his coat") 3su - third person singular, unspecified gender CSL - causal relation (ie the subject was "forced" to do something -- what's the linguistics term for this?) PRA - pro-adjective (in this case, refers to the modifying phrase in the main clause, "strong") PRC - begin pro-clause; begin clause of the /PRC - end pro-clause PRV - pro-verb (in this case, refers to the verb of the main clause, "blow") RFL - reflexive action SIM - begin simultaneous clause /SIM - end simultaneous clause The literal translation is something like "...but while he blows more strongly the man is also forced to wrap his coat around himself." -- Arthaey

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Adrian Morgan <morg0072@...>