Messages: 5
Language: English
robinast (User's profile) July 26, 2009, 9:29:26 AM
Mia simpla kamparana racio malpermesas mian malscion nomi Dion.
My simple rustic mind does not allow to call my ignorance God (hmm, I'm not sure I got it right even in English - but posting here the original phrase in Estonian wouldn't help anyway).
"mia malscio" is an object, so it has to be in accusative. But what about "Dio"? "nomi" is a transitive verb - but "Dio" does not seem to be an object... Am I right? Is it an adverbial and if so, does not take the -n ending??
Harri.
darkweasel (User's profile) July 26, 2009, 10:31:27 AM
robinast (User's profile) July 26, 2009, 11:16:45 AM
darkweasel:"malpermesas nomi mian malscion Dio"Thanks!!
Amike,
Harri.
tommjames (User's profile) July 26, 2009, 11:17:25 AM
robinast:"mia malscio" is an object, so it has to be in accusative. But what about "Dio"? "nomi" is a transitive verb - but "Dio" does not seem to be an object... Am I right? Is it an adverbial and if so, does not take the -n ending??You are right that Dio is not the object, and thus, as darkweasel has shown, does not take the accusative.
Dio in this case is not adverbial, but rather a predicate noun in the nominative. That is, it is a descriptor -of- the object, but not the object itself.
The following from the Detala Gramatiko explains it:
Detala Gramatiko:10.1.4 Predikativo
Predikativo estas frazparto, kiu priskribas la subjekton aŭ la objekton pere de la predikato. Predikativo normale estas nominativa.
• Ŝi estis terure malbela. Terure malbela estas priskribo de ŝi. La priskribo estas perata de la verbo estis.
• La juna vidvino fariĝis denove fianĉino.
• La ĝojo kaj surprizo faris lin muta!
• Ĉemizojn, kolumojn, manumojn kaj ceterajn similajn objektojn ni nomas tolaĵo.
Detala Gramatiko:A predicate noun/adjective is a part of a sentence which describes the subject or the object by way of the predicate. Predicate nouns/adjectives are normally in the nominative.The last example there which is translated into English is the one most similar to your sentence.
• Shirts, collars, cuffs and other similar objects we call linen.
robinast (User's profile) July 26, 2009, 11:54:55 AM
In Estonian, we use an accusative case for the "mia scio" in this sentence and and a translative case for the "Dio". Saying the same thing in English or Esperanto and using a nominative for Dio makes me to feel that something important is missing... Using cases (in Estonian, we have 14 of them) seems so natural and logical for me that when I lack the possibility to use them, I feel like picking daisies with toes, not fingers...
Amike,
Harri.