Re: translation exercise

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On Thursday 10 October 2002 02:50, Amanda Babcock wrote:
> Well, it looks like I was more vague than I meant to be, or else everybody
> has been more creative than I expected :)  Was expecting things like "the
> cat shouldn't pee on the bed" or "it's not good if the cat pees on the bed"
> or "it won't do for the cat to pee on the bed".  The dialogue-based answers
> have been entertaining.
>
In that case:

Quna gusir.tayr tau.tau.musao.ju
cat  bed.TEG    SNEG.piss.CRT
The cat shouldn't piss on the bed.

or

*Quna gusir.tayr tau.tau.musao.hau
 cat  bed.TEG    SNEG.piss.IMP
 The cat don't piss on the bed.
or

Quna gusir.tayr tau.tau.musao.bu
cat  bed.TEG    SNEG.piss.IRR
The cat couldn't piss on the bed.

The first sentence uses the certitudinous attitudinal, which, combined with
the strong negative conveys the idea that the cat certainly shouldn't piss
on the bed. (To convey the meaning that the cat certainly hasn't pissed on the
bed, one would use the perfective aspect: _Quna qusirtayr tautaumusaojunai_.)
Matt Pearson was quite right when he analyzed the Denden negative prefix
<tau-> NEG as containg a strong irrealis component in its basic meaning.

The second example uses the imperative attitudinal suffix <-hau> IMP. Denden
cannot use the imperative suffix <-hau> IMP in the third person, even though
it contains a jussive component, so this example won't work. (There are
exceptions to this rule, for instance when trying to magic the reality into
something different, but that's not relevant here.)

The third example, finally, uses explicitly the irrealis suffix <-bu> IRR, but
in this case the meaning is not that the cat shouldn't piss on the bed, but
rather that the cat couldn't possible do that.

This was a nice excersise. I can lift this straight into my Grammar of Denden!

- --
Boudewijn Rempt | http://www.valdyas.org
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