Important notice from the GRAMMAR POLICE. Plz read. This means you.
PirateFaafy:
Quote from: rufio on 2009 July 06, 04:14:00
Quote from: PirateFaafy on 2009 July 05, 23:15:23
The headpeen has managed to start being inconsistent within the space of a single post. That must be some sort of new record.
I fail to see how the two statements are inconsistent. The first is pointing out that (rake in face!) X no Y cannot ever be translated as X of Y/Y's X (e.g. Neko no ai -> Cat of Love). The second statement is a general truism about all languages.
If it's true of all languages, I fail to see why it shouldn't be for Japanese. The alternate translations that were provided are (almost) all identical in meaning, so unless you're insisting that there are direct, coherent translations for Japanese phrases into English, they would be acceptable. Either way, I think one of your statements is rendered objectively invalid.
Audrey:
Quote from: SolaceDevotio on 2009 July 02, 15:11:32
There are people who say "take" a decision? My head would explode.
Come and live in South Africa, you would be headless. Yes, they say 'take' a decision every time. It freaks me out.
rufio:
Quote from: PirateFaafy on 2009 July 07, 01:36:59
If it's true of all languages, I fail to see why it shouldn't be for Japanese. The alternate translations that were provided are (almost) all identical in meaning, so unless you're insisting that there are direct, coherent translations for Japanese phrases into English, they would be acceptable. Either way, I think one of your statements is rendered objectively invalid.
There is actually a significant difference between "cat of love" and "love of cats" but I digress.
Of course something that is true for all languages is going to be true of Japanese. Jelly was trying to suggest that this was a feature that was unique to east asian languages (which wouldn't make sense anyway, since Japanese is not actually related to Chinese in any way). That was what I was disagreeing with.
Jelenedra:
Quote from: rufio on 2009 July 08, 19:49:21
Quote from: PirateFaafy on 2009 July 07, 01:36:59
If it's true of all languages, I fail to see why it shouldn't be for Japanese. The alternate translations that were provided are (almost) all identical in meaning, so unless you're insisting that there are direct, coherent translations for Japanese phrases into English, they would be acceptable. Either way, I think one of your statements is rendered objectively invalid.
There is actually a significant difference between "cat of love" and "love of cats" but I digress.
Of course something that is true for all languages is going to be true of Japanese. Jelly was trying to suggest that this was a feature that was unique to east asian languages (which wouldn't make sense anyway, since Japanese is not actually related to Chinese in any way). That was what I was disagreeing with.
That's not what I was saying at all.
I was responding to someone that pointed out that Chinese English speakers were speaking accurately, if they did a direct translation from mandarin or cantonese into English. So I illustrated that the same could be said for the Japanese language. Because they don't 'go to the store'. They just 'store go', with the verbage getting some sort of distinction with how they chose to say it. But you had to stick your head peen in and try and prove you were smarter than me by supporting my statements.
Because I never understood why you followed up "Japanese can't be directly translated either" with "NO languages can be directly translated." Because...wow, you sure showed me by agreeing with me.
Jorganza:
Quote from: rufio on 2009 July 03, 17:55:12
Quote from: Jelenedra on 2009 July 03, 17:45:58
Can be translated as follows and still be correct because "NO" doesn't have an English counterpart. It's merely a possessive marker.
"Cat of love"
"Cat's love"
No, try "love of cat(s)". That is exactly what it means. Those first two translations you gave are, in fact, wrong.
Wrong, the second one is indeed correct. The particle no gives possessive, so neko no ai would translate as (the) cat's love.
"love of cat(s)" as a translation is only acceptable if love isn't used as a verb, like in "my love of cats has no bound"
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