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Few / Little Versus A Few / A Little

از Polaris, 28 اوت 2014

پست‌ها: 6

زبان: English

Polaris (نمایش مشخصات) 28 اوت 2014،‏ 14:16:17

The words "few" and "a few" mean two different things, as do the words "little" and "a little". If someone "has little money", he's broke, but if someone "has a little money", he's got a small nest egg. A patient who "has little strength left" is probably not going to recover, but one who "has a little strength left" is expected to improve. Someone with "few friends" is lonely, but someone who "has a few friends" has his or her companionship needs met. How do we navigate this? These differences are obvious to (native) English speakers---but how do we make them clear in Eserpanto? I noticed this ambiguity recently--malmultaj and malmulte or kelkaj/kelke da seemingly could be taken either as a negative focus on scarcity (few/little/not many/much) or as a positive focus on "at least you have that". Without an indirect article, how do we know?

erinja (نمایش مشخصات) 28 اوت 2014،‏ 14:34:04

I don't think the presence or absence of an indefinite article in the language's grammar makes a difference in this case. You would simply choose different words in Esperanto.

"iom" for "a little" and "malmulto" or "malmulte" for "little" works in a lot of the contexts that you're talking about.

He has a little - Li havas iometon, or Li havas iom
He has little - Li havas malmulton

It goes back to the old idea that if you translate ideas rather than words, these things get easier to translate.

michaleo (نمایش مشخصات) 28 اوت 2014،‏ 14:37:17

You can also express it explicitly - tro malmulte.

Polaris (نمایش مشخصات) 29 اوت 2014،‏ 3:25:40

erinja:I don't think the presence or absence of an indefinite article in the language's grammar makes a difference in this case. You would simply choose different words in Esperanto.

"iom" for "a little" and "malmulto" or "malmulte" for "little" works in a lot of the contexts that you're talking about.

He has a little - Li havas iometon, or Li havas iom
He has little - Li havas malmulton

It goes back to the old idea that if you translate ideas rather than words, these things get easier to translate.
Thank you, Erin, that works. I wasn't suggesting that Esperanto needed an indefinite article; I realize that we translate ideas as opposed to words--I was just inquiring as to how to make the meaning clear. I recently saw an example of this in something I read in Esperanto and couldn't tell for sure which meaning the writer was driving at.

sergejm (نمایش مشخصات) 29 اوت 2014،‏ 7:41:55

erinja:He has a little - Li havas iometon, or Li havas iom
He has little - Li havas malmulton
What is less: iometo or malmulto?
In English, as I understood, a little < little, but it is not clear in Esperanto.

Polaris (نمایش مشخصات) 29 اوت 2014،‏ 14:07:38

sergejm:
erinja:He has a little - Li havas iometon, or Li havas iom
He has little - Li havas malmulton
What is less: iometo or malmulto?
In English, as I understood, a little < little, but it is not clear in Esperanto.
It's the other way around, Sergejm. In English, "I have a little (time, money, property, knowledge, etc.)" means "it may not be much, but at least I have some", and the focus is upon what one HAS. The expression "a few" works the same way...it indicates "there aren't many, but at least there are some".

When we leave off the article and say "few" or "little", we are emphasizing the scarcity or lack of something (time, money, effort, talent, etc.). It's similar to saying "not enough".

Here's an example: Suppose a teacher is conferring with you about your child. If she says "he put forth a little effort on his project", that's a compliment, meaning he at least tried. But if the teacher says "he put forth little effort on his project", that is a criticism meaning he didn't try hard enough.

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