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From: "Paul J. Kriha" <kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz>
Subject: Re: Most Internation Written Word
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Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 15:06:08 GMT
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xxdant@aol.com (XXdant) wrote:
>
> "Paul J. Kriha" <kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz> writes:
> > D Tilque writes:
> >> Well, you've both shown the inadequacies of the dictionaries I'm
> >> using, which is one of the reasons why I'm posting here.
> 
> >Heehee. Don't blame the dictionary, it's the inadequacy
> >(ambiguity) of English. :-)))
> >When you say 'mango' in English it's not clear
> >whether you mean a fruit or a tree.
> 
> These kinds of ambiguity exist in virtually every language pair 
> on Earth.  Good dictionaries rise above them, generally by 
> means of a parenthetical word or phrase indicating the sense.  
> For instance, the English-Czech dictionary could have said
> 
> mango  (fruit) mango (tree) mangovni'k  
> 
> --
> Dan Tilque

Sure, a good English-Whatever dictionary ought to be
more thorough. But carrying on for a little longer making
tongue-in-cheek remarks...  :-)
I bet a Czech-Finnish dictionary wouldn't have to be that
*good* to do an adequate job of it. They are of course
plenty of homonyms in Czech and Finnish, but I would 
venture to say they exist only when the respective
meanings are more separated.

When a word-stem like 'mango' is loaned it immediatelly 
gives birth to several bohemized derivatives:
  nouns:
mango - fruit
mangovnik - tree
mangovnice - like slivovice made from mangoes :-)
mangicko - diminutive of fruit 
mangovnicek - diminutive of tree
mangovity - mango-like
mangovnaty - dtto
etc.
etc.
  verbs:
zamangovat      - cover by mangoes :-)
zamangovnikovat - cover by mangotrees :-)
odmangovnikovat - clear of the mangotrees :-)
etc.
  adjectives:
zmangovnikovany - being totally befuddled by mangoes :-)
                  whoops, sorry by mangotrees!
 

Cheers,
Paul JK.
(climing into my asbestos suit and crawling into the celar)


