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Why use "sen" instead of "mal"?

de Aubright, 25 décembre 2012

Messages : 8

Langue: English

Aubright (Voir le profil) 25 décembre 2012 05:53:35

Apologies if this question has already been addressed somewhere already, but I'm really kind of perplexed here. Why use "sen", as in senkohera, instead of "mal" in certain words? Would malkohera just not work or does it carry some nuance I'm just not getting due to the fact that I'm pretty new to this whole Esperanto business?

(afterthought: I do understand the usage of "sen" in,say, the word senkolora, but stuff like senkohera is just kind of throwing me off a bit.)

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

Vilius (Voir le profil) 25 décembre 2012 09:23:18

Aubright:Apologies if this question has already been addressed somewhere already, but I'm really kind of perplexed here. Why use "sen", as in senkohera, instead of "mal" in certain words? Would malkohera just not work or does it carry some nuance I'm just not getting due to the fact that I'm pretty new to this whole Esperanto business?
I'd say both senkohera and malkohera (also nekohera) are synonyms, because adjective kohera just doesn't have the opposite counterpart, à la good-bad, hot-cold, etc.

Off course everyone perceives nuances differently, but I'd translate senkohera and nekohera as incoherent and malkohera as somewhat more incoherent, perhaps closer to chaotic or messy.

erinja (Voir le profil) 25 décembre 2012 14:37:22

"mal" is usually not used with words that don't have a logical opposite, so if you think that "coherent" doesn't have a logical opposite, you wouldn't use "mal" with it. That would be a matter of opinion, whether "coherent" has a logical opposite or not.

Having said that, I think both senkohera and malkohera would have a similar meaning but would not be strict synonyms.

For example, if you put sen- and mal- on a root like "gajna" ("winning" ), "sengajna" (without winning/earning) is not the same as "malgajna" (losing).

Aubright (Voir le profil) 25 décembre 2012 21:02:27

Seems to make some sense now. Thanks a lot for the information ridulo.gif

Aaron94 (Voir le profil) 26 décembre 2012 01:09:02

When prefixes are added, usually it's kinda literal. So when I sen- I usually think -less, not really being the opposite.

RiotNrrd (Voir le profil) 26 décembre 2012 03:33:18

"Mal" means "the opposite of".

"Sen" means "without".

There are a few cases where the use of either one will work. However, most of the time it makes a big difference which one you choose.

Tempodivalse (Voir le profil) 27 décembre 2012 23:46:57

For certain words the prefixes "ne-", "sen-", and "mal-" can all be used interchangeably. For example, neracia, senracia, and malracia all pretty much mean the same thing ("irrational" ).

But in other cases the strength of the negation changes based on which one is used. In this case you can get a more nuanced meaning.

neriĉa - not rich, but not necessarily poor either

senriĉa - without riches; not at all wealthy

malriĉa - opposite of rich, e.g. poor.

So there is no consistent rubric which will help you determine the correct prefix. When in doubt, remember that "mal-" gives the logical opposite of the root word, while "sen-" simply implies absence.

Aubright (Voir le profil) 28 décembre 2012 17:16:05

Thanks a lot for the assistance everybody. Glad to have that sorted out lango.gif

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