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Confessions of an adverb (and participle) junkie

von orthohawk, 16. Dezember 2012

Beiträge: 12

Sprache: English

orthohawk (Profil anzeigen) 16. Dezember 2012 14:12:36

Does anyone else "overuse" adverbs?

In another post erinja mentioned using "teme pri X" as a change-of-subject device, or alternatively, "aliteme" which personally I fell instantly in love with. I will make anything into an adverb to avoid another way of saying it. For example: "kiam temas pri X" is something I would never say, now, with "aliteme" available.

I admit, also, that I much prefer participial forms than dum/ki- clauses; -ante/-inte forms fly from my lips/fingers instead of "dum ŝi X-as....." or "kiam li X-is...". Also, "la hieraŭnokte bojanta hundo min kolerigis " is much more likely from me than "la hundo, kiu bojadis hieraŭnokte, min kolerigis" (the dog which was barking last night, ticked me off). The equivalent forms in Russian are eschewed in speech which kind of saddens me, but then I'm a grammar geek.

Is there any other feature in Esperanto that's not permissable/available in English which feature you tend to use a LOT? In recent months and years, I've found myself building words, which aren't exactly "kosher" English, because they'd be perfectly fine in an Esperanto setting, like, "otherwhen." It garners odd looks, of course, but it gives me a chance to introduce Esperanto ("well, that's something you could do in this one language that I speak......").

erinja (Profil anzeigen) 16. Dezember 2012 16:42:36

FYI, it's "kolerigis" in this case.

La hundo kolerigis vin. Vi koleriĝis pro la hundo.

I've been tempted to bring a form of "senti la mankon de..." into English. To miss something isn't quite the same, in my mind, as 'feeling its absence'.

I use a lot of adverbs in Esperanto, and though I'm not tempted to bring them into English, it's a danger when I study other foreign languages and I'm tempted to use adverbs in ways that aren't appropriate for those languages.

darkweasel (Profil anzeigen) 16. Dezember 2012 21:21:02

And Esperanto made me want an equivalent of ial in German. ridulo.gif Aus irgendeinem Grund (for some reason) just isn't very compact.

orthohawk (Profil anzeigen) 16. Dezember 2012 21:24:21

erinja:FYI, it's "kolerigis" in this case.

La hundo kolerigis vin. Vi koleriĝis pro la hundo.

I've been tempted to bring a form of "senti la mankon de..." into English. To miss something isn't quite the same, in my mind, as 'feeling its absence'.

I use a lot of adverbs in Esperanto, and though I'm not tempted to bring them into English, it's a danger when I study other foreign languages and I'm tempted to use adverbs in ways that aren't appropriate for those languages.
Heh. yes, I saw the iĝ/ig problem just now and figured someone would catch it (i corrected it as well)

T0dd (Profil anzeigen) 18. Dezember 2012 13:31:04

There's no question that the ability to use adverbs to replace prepositional or participial constructions is one of the strengths of Esperanto, just as the ability to use nouns in apposition is a strength of English. These are strengths because once you get a feel for them, there seem to be endless opportunities to use them in ways that make sentences simple yet strikingly clear.

I think of SENPERE, which glues two prepositions together and turns the result into an adverb. It's an Esperanto gem. I wonder if any other language allows this kind of thing.

I like the simple JESE, instead of some more cumbersome construction to say "in the affirmative."

creedelambard (Profil anzeigen) 18. Dezember 2012 18:59:55

Esperanto is a cool language like that. I've always been captivated by the word "peranto". "By means of" + "one who" = "one who facilitates things" = "agent." Likewise "kialo" = "reason" ("Mankas kialo por tia konduto" = "There's no reason for that kind of behavior" ).

I have no idea whether any other language admits or even tolerates this kind of behavior, but in Esperanto it's a natural.

creedelambard (Profil anzeigen) 18. Dezember 2012 19:01:39

darkweasel:And Esperanto made me want an equivalent of ial in German. ridulo.gif Aus irgendeinem Grund (for some reason) just isn't very compact.
It's German. It's not supposed to be compact. ridulo.gif

Kirilo81 (Profil anzeigen) 18. Dezember 2012 19:11:34

creedelambard:It's German. It's not supposed to be compact. ridulo.gif
Don't underestimate the German compounding. I think there is no shorter way than Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänswitwenrentengesetz to express "law regulating pensions for widows of captains of the Danube Steamboat Travel Society". okulumo.gif

T0dd (Profil anzeigen) 18. Dezember 2012 23:04:45

[quote=creedelambardLikewise "kialo" = "reason" ("Mankas kialo por tia konduto" = "There's no reason for that kind of behavior" )./quote]But I've always wondered why TIALO didn't catch on for that particular meaning.

tommjames (Profil anzeigen) 18. Dezember 2012 23:40:44

T0dd:But I've always wondered why TIALO didn't catch on for that particular meaning.
There's some discussion on that in this thread.

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