Using 'to be' and cases
From: | zzz <kyrawertho@...> |
Date: | Monday, September 26, 2005, 12:38 |
Hi While translating, I came across the sentence "is her dream a thought or
is her thought a dream?". English uses a fixed word-order; in my language
Neimalu (previously Némalo) the translations "tse hugzedru agus keizöns
jüma" and "tse jüma agus keizöns hugzedru" are the same because word-order
doesn't matter in this case. Normally there would be an accusative word but
because 'is' is being used, I do not use the accusative and I also don't use
stress. Other sentences also give a problem: "he sees her" is "sku agar
miros" (he-nom her-acc see) but "he is her" would either be "sku agu keizos"
(he-nom she-nom be) or "agu sku keizos" (she-nom he-nom be) where it's not
very clear who's the focussed person. Should I use accusative in 'to
be'-sentences like 'he-nom she-acc be' or genitive maybe? Also, because I do
not use stress, a question is pronounced like any other sentence. Therefore
I use the word 'tse' for making questions (except when a word like who,
which, where, etc. is already used) should I use words for exclamations,
hypothetical sentences aswel? How is this done in natlangs?
Replies