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Re: [saweli] Re: ditransitive verbs: he called me a friend

In a message dated 5/15/2007 7:12:41 AM Central Daylight Time, sts@hidden.email writes:


Another English sentence is:

"He heard her singing in the garden."

This can mean both

"He heard that she was singing in the garden." and
"He heard her while she was singing in the garden.

"Li audis sin kanti en la gardeno."
"Li audis sin kantantan en la gardeno."


Stefo

I don't think "He heard that she was singing in the garden" is a good paraphrase of "He heard her singing in the garden".  Using a separate clause with "that" makes it sound like he heard a second-hand rumor or report of her singing, and not her singing itself.  The Esperanto "Li auxdis sxin kanti en la gxardeno" is pretty close, I think, but doesn't match the English sentence with "that", which would be "Li auxdis, ke sxi kantis en la gxardeno".

This particular example also admits of another possible interpretation, namely treating "singing" as a direct object noun: "Li auxdis sxian kantadon en la gxardeno".  This last has the same ambiguity as the English.  Who is in the garden, or where are the participants, and where do the hearing and singing take place?

stevo