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From: stevemac@bud.indirect.com (Pascal MacProgrammer)
Subject: Esperanto and UG
Message-ID: <D6AvMu.F15@indirect.com>
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Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 10:25:42 GMT
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Not so very long ago, iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski) said...
  [replying to...]
>>Another linguistically relevant fact about the accusative in Esperanto
>>is that there is an apparent tendency for speakers to use the incorrect
>>form [2] while there is no tendency to use the incorrect form [3]; [1]
>>is the correct form:
>>
>> [1] Li ricevis multe da mono.
>> [2] *Li ricevis multe da monon.
>> [3] *Li ricevis multen da mono.
>
>Does [1] assume that _multe da mono_ is not a direct object, but
>rather an adjunct of some sort?  That's how it looks, and it is natural
>that speakers should revolt against that, since _ricev-_ is transitive.

  The situations in Esperanto (such as the above), in which a direct 
object is something other than a noun or pronoun, bothered me, and I 
proposed the pseudo-preposition "na", which causes the following sentence 
element to be understood as being in the accusative case.  This is to be 
used =only= in situations where the proper "-n" ending cannot be used.

(1)  One-word quotations:  In Esperanto, you use "mi" as the subject of a 
sentence, and "min" as the object.  ==>  En Esperanto, oni uzas na "mi" 
kiel subjekto de frazo, kaj na "min" kiel objekto.

(2)  Infinitives, where English would use a gerund (which Esperanto 
lacks):  I'm absolutely crazy about =hiking=!  ==>  Na piedvagi mi 
s`atas!  (Here's a situation where I want to emphasize the direct object 
by placing it first in the sentence, but that would normally make this 
one look like a subject, since infinitives can't take the "-n".)

(3)  Expressions such as the above:  He received a lot of money.  ==>  Li 
ricevis na multe da mono.

  This suggestion, by and large, was not welcomed on the Esperanto newsgroup
<soc.culture.esperanto>, but I have seen it used (and misused) by some, 
so it may eventually catch on, anyway.

-- 
                              ==----=                    Steve MacGregor
                             ([.] [.])                     Phoenix, AZ
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        Help stamp out, eliminate, and abolish redundancy!
