User Comments - f.at.lo
f.at.lo
Posted on: Separable Verbs
March 12, 2011 at 6:43 PMVery interesting lesson - even for a Newbie like me. And I never realised that we have similarly strange things in German, too.
I have two questions:
(1) you mention "reduplication" in the podcast, e.g. "chi1 chi1 fan4, to have a bite to eat". But: when do I actually need to to redublicate a verb? I cannot think of an example in English (or German) ... are thre any rules when and how redublication is the way to go? Or is it just that by redublicating a verb, I can create new words?
(2) I once learned that A grammar is only ONE way of many to explain the structure of a language. Its quality can be measured by the number of exceptions it has to allow ... so what is the benefit of defining an element "separable verb" instead of Simon Petterson's Version "it's just a verb plus an object". Do these "separable verbs" have other properties which cannot be explained by Simon's simplified grammar?
Posted on: How to Address Someone
March 23, 2011 at 8:59 PMI was wondering: is it possible to say how I should address an engineer? How a manager of a team in a factory? How the managing director of a factory?