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Why isn't the mal- prefix always used?

door GorkiT, 10 augustus 2014

Berichten: 16

Taal: English

kaŝperanto (Profiel tonen) 11 augustus 2014 16:49:39

It does seem at first to be an inconsistency, but in practice it is highly impractical to use mal- in a lot of situations. Words that are used frequently to construct other words always merit a separate root; otherwise you would end up with words containing multiple uses of "mal" that are difficult to understand. I can see this being a slippery slope, though.

As has already been mentioned, it is rarely used with nouns, and is primarily used on adjectives/adverbs/verbs. It is hard to imagine what malviro would mean (is the opposite of a man a woman, or a boy, or a man made out of antimatter okulumo.gif ).

There is a difference between the literal, exact opposite of something and "un-" something. It is a bit like trying to define "malrugxa"; the "opposite" of red is imprecise. The opposite of light is easily understood to be darkness.

robbkvasnak (Profiel tonen) 11 augustus 2014 17:19:45

I teach English and Spanish here. One of the most important things for any language student to know is that language is not mathematics. This also holds for Esperanto. Language is not a 1 + 1 = 2 formula and to try to twist any language in that way is contrary to the human mind. We have "fuzzy" brains. We do not think, dream, fantasize, or daydream "logically" - the world we live in is, despite philosophy and fiction, not a logical place. Do not try to reduce Esperanto to math. It is a language, a human invention, an expression of human thought, and a means to express that illogical and "unlogical" (excuse my liberty with English vocabulary, but I am not a prescriptionist) mind.

Alkanadi (Profiel tonen) 12 augustus 2014 08:21:02

If new roots are created and the mal system is used then it might be strange. For example:

cxu vi estas mallaca aux malenergia?

kaŝperanto (Profiel tonen) 12 augustus 2014 15:03:10

Alkanadi:If new roots are created and the mal system is used then it might be strange. For example:

cxu vi estas mallaca aux malenergia?
In this case the speaker knows both words already and this situation would only arise intentionally. For the roots I'm familiar with there is always one that is far more common, and that is used with mal- in every case I've seen.

I'd also say that even if every linear concept had two roots mal- would still be useful to create a certain mood/feeling/etc., such as in malespero = despair. Malespero feels deeper to me in that it is the opposite of hope.

orthohawk (Profiel tonen) 12 augustus 2014 21:54:47

kaŝperanto: It is a bit like trying to define "malrugxa"; the "opposite" of red is imprecise. The opposite of light is easily understood to be darkness.
Oh, I dunno. If you look at the color wheel it's easy to see that green is (quite literally) the opposite of red (i.e. on the opposite side/other end of the radius fo the circle).

But then we have to be careful since one culture's color wheel may not be quite the same as another culture's ridulo.gif.

But yes, thee is correct: not every word HAS an opposite.........and then one can get REALLY pedantic and say that "cold" doesn't really even exist, much less as the opposite of "warm/hot" seeing as "cold" is really nothing more than an absence of heat. ridulo.gif

nornen (Profiel tonen) 13 augustus 2014 01:34:40

robbkvasnak:I teach English and Spanish here. One of the most important things for any language student to know is that language is not mathematics. This also holds for Esperanto. Language is not a 1 + 1 = 2 formula and to try to twist any language in that way is contrary to the human mind. We have "fuzzy" brains. We do not think, dream, fantasize, or daydream "logically" - the world we live in is, despite philosophy and fiction, not a logical place. Do not try to reduce Esperanto to math. It is a language, a human invention, an expression of human thought, and a means to express that illogical and "unlogical" (excuse my liberty with English vocabulary, but I am not a prescriptionist) mind.
Seconded.

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