--- In conlang@y..., Christophe Grandsire
<christophe.grandsire@F...> wrote:
> En réponse à Stephen DeGrace <stevedegrace@Y...>:
>
> >
> > I think in our group we have possibly better
strength
> > on the logical analysis of this matter than on
> > knowedge of actual linguistic usage and precedent.
> > Languages defintely have their own unique "logic"!
As
> > the latter as well as the former has some bearing
on
> > decisions we make, I was wondering what people
might
> > be able to tell me about how universal is making a
> > lexical some/any distinction, and what are some
ways
> > people know about for languages to make these
kinds of
> > distinctions, especially if they differ from the
> > practise in English...
> >
>
> Well, French does make the distinction, but quite
differently from
> English. "Something" is rendered with the adjective
"quelque": "some" added to
> the noun "chose": "thing": "quelque chose" (although
the singular form of this
> adjective appears only in some set expressions like
"quelque chose":
> something, "quelqu'un": someone, "quelque part":
somewhere ("some part"),
> etc...). "Quelque chose" can be used in questions
(contrary to "something"),
> and in negative sentences you have to use "rien":
"nothing" even when you put
> the explicit negation: "ne". "Anything", only when
it's used in affirmative
> sentences, is rendered in French by "n'importe
quoi", which is the
> interrogative pronoun "quoi": what, preceeded with a
verbal expression
> meaning "it doesn't matter". So "n'importe quoi"
really means "it doesn't
> matter what", but is used as a simple pronoun.
>
> So even when the distinction is made, be careful
that it can be made very
> differently from English, both semantically and
morphologically.
Thanks, that is a very good sort of warning... it is a
comfort to me that we have Carlos in our group, and
some hispanic lurkers as well :), so I don't feel as
bad about the potential of English bias in the
collective product. Anyway, this has been a useful
answer, thank you! :)
Stephen
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