Re: How to minimize "words" (was "Re: isolating conlangs")
| From: | Eugene Oh <un.doing@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Sunday, February 25, 2007, 7:02 |
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2007/2/25, Jeff Rollin <jeff.rollin@...>:
[snip]
> Well, as I replied in a previous email (to someone else, I think), Japanese
> usually gets by without pronouns at all - sentences like:
>
> "_anata wa_ amerikajin desu"/"_I [TOP]_ America-person am (be)"
>
> are "gaijin-isms" for:
>
> "amerikajin desu" "I am American", lit "there is an America-person".
>
[snip]
The correct pronoun should be "watashi" or its equivalents. "Anata" is
the second person singular pronoun. Also, the literal translation of
the second sentence does not involve the existential paradigm; it
should read "America-person is".
Cheers,
Eugene