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Say what you mean

by sudanglo, October 15, 2015

Messages: 5

Language: English

sudanglo (User's profile) October 15, 2015, 9:39:18 AM

Say what you mean, and mean what you say.

Translations please. Can you do it using the same verb in the second half as in the first?

By the way:

1. Vi perfekte scias, kion mi volas diri
2. Mi volas diri kelkajn vortojn pri la semajno, kiun ni ..

Is the usage in 1 a francismo, or a true Esperanto idiom? In 2. of course the meaning is literal. (Both examples from the Tekstaro)

Miland (User's profile) October 15, 2015, 12:20:27 PM

sudanglo:Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
Translations please. Can you do it using the same verb in the second half as in the first?
One suggestion:
Diru laŭcele kaj celu laŭdire.
sudanglo:1. Vi perfekte scias, kion mi volas diri
Is the usage in 1 a francismo, or a true Esperanto idiom?
I would call it a possible Gallicism. However I'm not sure we can easily distinguish a "true Esperanto idiom" from one that was imported into the language, unless perhaps we have a fixed event in mind that distinguishes the creation of the language from its subsequent evolution, such as the publication of the Unua libro in 1887, or the first World Congress in 1905.

Tempodivalse (User's profile) October 15, 2015, 4:56:03 PM

1. Vi perfekte scias, kion mi volas diri
This doesn't sound like a francismo at all. Cf. Russian Ty prekrasno znajesh, chto ja imeju vvidu - quite natural-sounding.

eshapard (User's profile) October 15, 2015, 6:45:27 PM

sudanglo:Say what you mean, and mean what you say.

Translations please. Can you do it using the same verb in the second half as in the first?
Diru kion vi signifas, kaj signifu kion vi diras.

Same verbs, different conjugations.

nornen (User's profile) October 15, 2015, 7:36:32 PM

sudanglo:1. Vi perfekte scias, kion mi volas diri
2. Mi volas diri kelkajn vortojn pri la semajno, kiun ni ..

Is the usage in 1 a francismo, or a true Esperanto idiom? In 2. of course the meaning is literal. (Both examples from the Tekstaro)
Why sould (1) be a gallicism? Which French expression do you have in mind? Or which part of this sentences strikes you as French?

Tempodivalse already mentioned Russian, but also in German (Du weißt ganz genau, was ich sagen will, germanic language), in Spanish (Sabés exactamente lo que quiero decir, romance language) and Q'eqchi' (Tz'aqal nakaanaw k'a' ru tinwaj xyeeb'al, mayan language) there are similar constructions.

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