Re: Trigger language?
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, January 24, 2003, 10:14 |
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En réponse à James Landau <Neurotico@...>:
>
> I'm not exactly sure I would translate "anata" as the object --
> shouldn't it
> be the object of a VERB to be the direct object?
Did you read what I wrote? I said: "what is *translated* as an object is
actually a *subject* in the *original* sentence!!!". Was it unclear? It meant:
what is an object in the translation "I like *you*" is actually a subject in
the original sentence "watashi wa *anata ga* suki da". My point being that the
concepts of subject and object are slippery ones which change from language to
language, and are thus not that practical to use.
"Suki" is an adjective
> in
> Japanese, meaning "liked". Something that is liked by someone (would
> likeable
> be a good translation? Well, not exactly; it reflects personal tastes)
> is
> "suki". Languages do not always use the same part of speech to translate
> the
> same word. In the Romance languages, for instance, you say, "I have
> hunger"
> or "I have thirst" using a noun and an adjective where in English you
> the
> words "hungry" and "thirsty" are adjectives.
You are just repeating my point in other words and with other examples. I
appreciate the effort, but don't try to make it like I'm saying anything
different from what you say :)) . You are just proving my point that the
notions of subject and object have little use since they can be used in very
different ways in the languages where they can be defined (when they can be
defined at all).
As I said, an analysis in terms of "subject" and "object" can be doable for
most nominative-accusative languages, and can sometimes be done for ergative
languages too, but that's all.
>
> (For those of you who are interested, you'd put "az esinas", (that/which
> is
> beautiful) after a noun if you just wanted to use the word "beautiful
> without
> a copula. So:
>
> Bisedik as tzehimez az esinas.
> Ebisedian is a beautiful language.)
>
Interesting.
Christophe.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.