Re: verbs = nouns?

On Wed, Jan 10, 2001 at 09:22:16PM -0500, DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
[snip]
> Indeed. With color words, when used with the perfective particle, we
> normally expect it to be a more natural, slower-going process. Leaves turn
> green, sunburned skin turns red, sun-bleached linens turn white. But say you
> put the blue car in the garage at night and the next morning it's red; "Che1
> hong2le" is an okay utterance (though "Che1 bian4hong2 le is also possible
> and more likely).
I'd say, you probably won't ever hear a native speaker say "che1 hong2le"
in such a scenario. "Che1 bian4hong2 le" is wayyyy preferred. The former
seems to carry a connotation that you're responsible for causing the car
to turn red (or you're expecting it to turn red), and after it happens,
you exclaim, "che1 hong2le!" Whereas using "bian4" conveys a more
accidental, non-deliberate event, which better fits your scenario.

> Perhaps your car is on the beach, it's got some weird
> chemical compound in its paint, and through it, triggered by heat, and as
> the afternoon wears on, your car turns red. You can say, "Che1 hong2le".
[snip]

OK, in this case this is acceptable, because presumably you're aware of
the strange paint, and when the car turns red, you say "che1 hong2le" --
almost like an acknowledgement that what was expected has indeed happened.

A better example might be, you're cooking lobster, and after being cooked
in boiling water for some time, it turns into the characteristic
red-orange color. You'd then say, "long2xia1 hong2le".


T

--
Curiosity kills the cat. Moral: don't be the cat.