Re: Translation exercise with fries?

Danny wrote:

<<> In Tech, the slogan would probably be something like:
>
> a 'ih-amkw (h- is a barred h)
> [?a ?_j@X\aB~k_w]
> that I-desire-what
> That's what I love.>>
Well, in order to get at a translation of this in any of my languages, I
first have to consider what the English
means, and, it occurs to me, I'm not quite sure.   What does it mean?   "I'm
lovin' it."   If I were to say that in
English, it'd have to be about something I was experiencing right then and
there.   So, if it's a movie, I could say
that in the middle of the movie.   If it's, like, a year, then it'd have to
be in the middle of that year (i.e., "How's
2004 treatin' you?", "I'm lovin' it!").   So what the heck is it supposed to
mean in these McDonald's commercials?
Is it their food?   'Cause I'm not in the middle of eating their food while
watching the commercials.   Is it just the
McDonald's chain?   If it is, I can't say "I'm lovin' it" and have it be
grammatical.   If it's in reference to a new ad
campaign, then I could say it (that'd be circular, wouldn't it?), or maybe
the new wave of new McDonald's food.
("I'm lovin' all these new menu items they keep trotting out!")   If it's not
meant to be any of these
interpretations which I said I find okay, then I really don't know how to
interpret the phrase.   Is it dialectical?
Like, is there some dialect of English where you can say, for example, "Man,
I'm lovin' brunch", to mean, "I find
the concept of the meal 'brunch' to be a good one", and *not* "I'm enjoying
eating this brunch which I'm eating
right now"?   If there is, what dialect is it?   And if that, indeed, *is*
the interpretation, then the translation
becomes very simple for something like Zhyler:

zaJjalZam
/enjoy-D.O.-affirm.-1stsg./
"I do indeed love it."

This is my attempt at trying to determine the pragmatic function of "I'm
lovin' it" in English.   Anyway, the direct
object used here is a class xiv, which means that it's the "I don't know what
'it' means, so it's class xiv" category.
What does the "it" refer to?   Food?   McDonald's?   What?   If I knew which
it was, then it'd be a different direct
object suffix, but since I don't, class xiv will do.   The affirmative is
just a suffix which kind of does the work of
"do" in the English sentence above.   It's a way of more strongly asserting
something, without upgrading the
verb itself.   So, adding the intensive would render a meaning like, "I
*really* love it!"   Adding the affirmative
just makes it more forceful, so "I do indeed love it".   You can use the
affirmative to indicate blase-ness, like, "I
really do indeed have no feeling whatsoever", whereas you couldn't do that
with the intensive.   Then the first
person pronoun is just a first person pronoun.   Interesting exercise
(especially since I'm taking formal semantics
right now).

-David
*******************************************************************
"sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/