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grammar glitch



A couple of problems:

go vol kom.   I want to eat.

This is considered a shortening of

go vol ke go kom.

It's distinguished from "I voluntarily eat." because that would be:

go vol sa kom.

But a construction like:

go pinmo kom.

I intend to mean by this, "I forget to eat." but if you go by the pattern above, it seems to be short for:

go pinmo ke go kom.   I forget that I eat.

Not the same thing. I wonder how other languages that lack an infinitive form deals with this ambiguity.

Or could 'go pinmo kom' be considered short for

go pinmo ke go dwa kom.

But, that isn't exactly what "I forget to eat" means, is it?

Anybody know how Mandarin or Malay deals with this?  Or anything else?


Rex May
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