Meddelelser: 9
Sprog: English
sublimestyle (Vise profilen) 2. jan. 2011 22.03.35
Situation 1, say you want a teammate to tell the on deck batter that the pitcher for the other team is very good and he should not take him lightly.
Situation 2, say you want a teammate to tell another person on the team that he is good.
I was thinking for situation 2 that you could use "si" after ke instead of li to clear up any confusion, but I am sure if the sentence was used that the context of the situation would clear up the confusion. I know that not everybody is familiar with baseball or likes it, but it was the first thing that came to mind to show the confusion I am having with using this sentence. I am not trying to translate the situations, but wondering if you could/ should use "si" to clear up confusion.
darkweasel (Vise profilen) 2. jan. 2011 22.39.33
If it is unclear whom li, ŝi, ĝi, ili refer to, do the same as in any language: say explicitly whom you're talking about.
sublimestyle (Vise profilen) 3. jan. 2011 00.46.25
I was wondering if there are any general rules about pronouns. For example in the sentence "John told the catcher that he was throwing too slow to him. Does the former pronoun usually go to the first object listed and the latter pronoun usually go to the last object listed. I know you can look at this sentence from two different perspectives which completely change the meaning. I know this question seems a little confusing. I am not sure how to better word it.
After writing this I realize I have learned a lot about English grammar through trying to learn Esperanto. Before trying to learn Esperanto I was not even sure what a preposition was, which I think is a failure of the education system I was in because I was able to get good marks all through High School without knowing.
Miland (Vise profilen) 3. jan. 2011 17.12.31
sublimestyle:I was wondering if there are any general rules about pronouns. For example in the sentence "John told the catcher that he was throwing too slow to him." Does the former pronoun usually go to the first object listed and the latter pronoun usually go to the last object listed.It appears that John is complaining about the way that the catcher is throwing something to him (John), so John appears to be also a catcher himself! Is that the case?
Anyway, the standard sequence in English is Subject-Verb-Object. So "He" is the person throwing something, "throwing" is the verb", and "him" is the person at whom something is being thrown.
Mustelvulpo (Vise profilen) 5. jan. 2011 04.34.10
sublimestyle: "John told Robert's son that he must help him,"These sentences are ambiguously worded and could be expressed more clearly. Perhaps wording such as "'I'm throwing too slowly,' John told the catcher." or "The catcher was throwing too slowly and John told him so" would make the second one clearer.
"John told the catcher that he was throwing too slow to him.
In Esperanto, "si" can be a little tricky at times. Remember that it relates only to the subject of the sentence. For example, you would say: "La lito de mia frato estas en lia dormoĉambro" not "sia" because that would mean in the bed's own room. (Bed is the subject of the sentence). But you would say "Mia frato havas liton en sia dormoĉambro" because in this case "mia frato" is the subject of the sentence.
sudanglo (Vise profilen) 5. jan. 2011 11.59.08
Quite often such ambiguities are resolved in Esperanto through its grammar. But in any case, there is a long established tradition in Esperanto of the avoidance of ambiguity leading to a rephrasing to make ones meaning clear.
geo1963 (Vise profilen) 6. jan. 2011 08.52.24
Mustelvulpo:In Esperanto, "si" can be a little tricky at times. Remember that it relates only to the subject of the sentence. For example, you would say: "La lito de mia frato estas en lia dormoĉambro" not "sia" because that would mean in the bed's own room. (Bed is the subject of the sentence). But you would say "Mia frato havas liton en sia dormoĉambro" because in this case "mia frato" is the subject of the sentence.The "si" forms can be found in German (sich) and in Slavic languages (Polish: się, swój, swoja, swoje, sobie). For speakers of these languages "si" is quite natural.
EO:La lito de mia frato estas en lia dormoĉambro
PL:Łóżko mojego brata jest w jego[/b] (lia) sypialni. (same word for word).
EO:Mia frato havas liton en sia dormoĉambro.
PL:Mój brat ma łóżko w swojej[/b] (sia) sypialni. (again, same word for word).
trojo (Vise profilen) 12. jan. 2011 01.25.47
Miland:In American baseball, a pitcher will throw (or "pitch", if you will) the ball which an opposing team's batter will try to hit. If the batter doesn't hit it, then the catcher, who is on the same team as the pitcher, will catch the ball and throw it back to the pitcher. "Catcher" and "pitcher" are names of two baseball positions, but everyone playing defense in baseball will probably have an opportunity to catch the ball and throw it-- in other words, catching is not an exclusive role for the catcher. Does that make the example clearer?sublimestyle:I was wondering if there are any general rules about pronouns. For example in the sentence "John told the catcher that he was throwing too slow to him." Does the former pronoun usually go to the first object listed and the latter pronoun usually go to the last object listed.It appears that John is complaining about the way that the catcher is throwing something to him (John), so John appears to be also a catcher himself! Is that the case?
In the sentence given, I understood John to be a pitcher complaining that the catcher is throwing the ball back too slowly. But the sentence is kind of ambiguous-- it could be John is noting his own lack of throwing speed.
Miland (Vise profilen) 18. jan. 2011 21.34.59
trojo:In American baseball, a pitcher will throw .. the ball .. If the batter doesn't hit it, then the catcher .. will catch the ball and throw it back to the pitcher .. Does that make the example clearer?Indeed, thanks for the baseball lesson!