Re: Existential clauses

On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 08:46:38 -0700, Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
wrote:

>--- Carsten Becker <post@...> wrote:
>> From: "Philippe Caquant" <herodote92@YAHOO.COM
>>
>> I guess this is what I mean? Waaaah, I'm completely
>> confused now!
>> Man, I really could it make as easy as this: You
>> always use "to be" for
>> such things, except if what follows "to be" is an
>> adjective. But a fact
>> does *not* tell us WHY things are like they are in
>> this case. Now I do
>> want to think about something in detail, but by
>> doing that I only
>> confuse myself.
>
>Hem, I'm lost myself. Anyway you could say : the man
>is standing on the lawn (French: l'homme se tient
>debout sur la pelouse), so it wouldn't be the verb "to
>be" any more. But that might be out of topic. Anyway,
>my point is that what is true in one language does'nt
>have to be so in another one.
Very right.

>
>>  > 'Le monde appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt'
>> (French
>>  > proverb: the world belongs to the ones who stay
>>  > early).
>>
>> "Morgenstund' hat Gold im Mund", grrrrr! "Se lever"
>> is in this context
>> "to get up", though. "To stay" is "rester", no?
>
>What's nice with Germans is that they are all the time
>ready to make verses out of anything. As I read on a
>yard toilet door in German Switzerland:
>
>"Zwei Minuten scheisst ein Tier
>Drei Minuten ein Polier
>Und der arme Arbeitsmann
>Scheisst so lange, er sitzen kann".
>
>(I'm not quite sure about the word "Polier". Sehr
>romantisch, anyway).
lol! No, "Morgenstund' hat Gold im Mund" is also a proverb. I guess it's
from the Prussian military as well ;) In English, it's "The early bird
catches the worm" I think. Translated it is "Morning hour has gold in the
mouth." Among us students, the proverb is turned into "Morgenstund' hat
Blei im Arsch." ("Morning hour has lead in the ass."). You know what I mean.

>>
>> I already answered on that. What I meant was
>> "adverbiale Bestimmung des
>> Xes" (adverbial definition of x), where x can be
>> anything that is left
>> because there is no case for it (not among the
>> "traditional" four cases
>> of German at least).
>
>Warum tut mir das Kopf so weh ?
It's "der Kopf", but anyway. That's what I ask myself as well. Did I
already say that language can make your brain ache when thinking too much
about it? Once upon a time, "Linguistics causes brain meyooortdown" or so
was in a .sig of a Zompist Bulletin Board member.

I guess I simplyfy things for now: For adjectives, "to be" is dropped.
Otherwise, you use it. I planned to overwork Ayeri once its grammar is near
completion anyway. Then I can think about such things again
(your "concepts", how to do without "to be" etc.).

--Carsten