len lawa loje

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jan Pina
Posts: 34
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2016 10:55 pm

Re: len lawa loje

Post by jan Pina »

sentences like " ona li tawa e tomo " usually "means he moves house".
To say "he moves himself to the house" we say "ona li tawa tomo".
Similar logic could be applied (i suppose) to "ona li monsuta e soweli".
For me it sounds more like "She got him scared" than "She afraid of him"
May be some form like next could make it better.

ona li pilin e monsuta (tawa/tan) soweli.
or
ona li jo e monsuta (tawa/tan) soweli.

actually it is pretty common use of "pilin monsuta" to say "afraid" and "li monsuta e" to say "to scare".
see tatoeba.
https://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/searc ... und&to=eng
janKipo
Posts: 3064
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: len lawa loje

Post by janKipo »

But 'tawa' is a preposition, so takes a direct object (with 'e') only when made into a causative: "causes the direct object to move to". 'monsuta' is either a noun "monster" or a verb "fear". In the latter case, it takes as a direct object the thing one fears, the monster of the subject's thought. In the former, it again takes a direct object in a causative sense "causes the direct object to be a monster (thing feared)", laying the blame for the subject's fear on the subject. To be sure, there is another derivation from a noun that might apply, though it is less common, the applicative:"applies a monster to the object" (cf. 'telo e' for "wash") and that could mean "frightens object", I suppose, by having some horror pop up suddenly, for example.
I guess the 'pilin/jo e monsuta tan' is a good safe middle ground to take.
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