Re: Circumfixes?

Douglas Koller wrote:

>Ray wrote:
>>but I seem to recall that such circumpositions are not uncommon in
Mandarin.
>If I understand your use of the word "circumposition", then I have a
>slightly different take on it in Mandarin. "Dao4" is a coverb (though
>it can also stand on its own, meaning "arrive, get to"), while "li3",
>I think strictly speaking, is a noun. So literally, it's: to/toward
>(something's) inside.

Comparable to Indonesian usage:  ...kedalam kaleng '(to) inside~into the
can' more lit. to interior of the can.  Cf. e.g "correct" kedalaman kaleng
kotor 'the inside of the can is dirty' (the two ke- prefixes are not
identical!)  ~ colloq. dalamnya kaleng kotor.  Still, the status of dalam is
odd; it's also an adjective meaning 'deep'-- how about "li3"?

DK also wrote:
>I've since learned to
ignore Grammarcheck entirely, since I'm not writing for "Teen Beat",
and to use Spellcheck judiciously, as it allows such mistakes as "Oh,
what a beautiful mourning!".>

I don't need no stinkin' Grammarcheck (ah, sin of Pride)--  and Spellcheck
really gets in the way when writing in two languages.  It's forever
correcting Kash (kandi 'face' > kanji), and-- rather nicely, I think-- keeps
turning Indo. hukum 'law' into _hokum_.

Reply