讯息： 15
语言: English
Nile (显示个人资料) 2013年12月14日下午6:33:17
I just noticed something weird and idiomatic about that kind of phrase: negation is done differently.
Orinarily, saying "not" after a verb like that negates it, so "learned not to" should mean "did not learn to", and "learn to not" should carry the meaning that this sentence has.
Orinarily, saying "not" after a verb like that negates it, so "learned not to" should mean "did not learn to", and "learn to not" should carry the meaning that this sentence has.
jismith1989 (显示个人资料) 2013年12月14日下午7:01:23
Nile:I just noticed something weird and idiomatic about that kind of phrase: negation is done differently.If you wanted to say 'did not learn to', you could put the ne earlier, e.g. Li ne lernis ke li ĝenegu ŝin. Which is similar to what you're doing in English (with 'learned not to', the 'not' is going with the 'to mess with' rather than the 'learned', whereas it's the other way around with 'did not learn to' ).
Orinarily, saying "not" after a verb like that negates it, so "learned not to" should mean "did not learn to", and "learn to not" should carry the meaning that this sentence has.
So yeah, there is a difference in meaning between the two. 
jkph00 (显示个人资料) 2013年12月16日下午2:41:27
sudanglo:Kontraǔi has just the flavor I was looking for. I'll go back and edit what I had written so as to use it. Thank you, Sudanglo and everyone who made suggestions. They were all deeply appreciated.
Of these, I think I prefer lernis ne kontraŭi
Regarding the way to parse the sentence itself ("He learned not to mess with her" ), I diagrammed the sentence and have attached a .bmp of it. Does that help clarify the parse order?