Comments on: Hindi & Urdu: ‘He stole a watch’ vs. ‘He stole the watch’ ? ?? ?

By: dilpav

dilpav — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:02:59 +0000

I agree with Meenaksh. Merely changing the position of Ne and Hii is not going to make a profound change in the meaning of these two sentences except it is supported by different emphasis on these two words and supported by different expressions and toning. In absence of these things we may however roughly say that sentence No 1 matches meaning no-b more and sentence No.-2 with meaning No. a
References :

By: meenakshi

meenakshi — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:33:59 +0000

1-b . this is a very clear match.

2-a . but this is not so clear-cut. It all depends on how one vocalizes it; which syllables are emphasized; what sort of expression is used – exclamatory, questioning, statement-of-fact, absolute statement, gossipy….
for it to be Shocking, there has to be some conspiratorial tone, a disbelief. i don’t believe that the mere placement of HII in 2) is doing the job unambiguously. the tone has to be congruent with the words.

have i helped any?
i’m getting all muddled up myself !
References :

By: Maitrey

Maitrey — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:01:59 +0000

Well (2) naukar hii ne ghadi churaayi doesn't seems to be correct. Translation for (1) will be (b).
References :

Comments on: Hindi & Urdu: ‘He stole *a* watch’ vs. ‘He stole *the* watch’ ? ?? ?

By: dilpav

By: meenakshi

By: Maitrey

Comments on: Hindi & Urdu: ‘He stole a watch’ vs. ‘He stole the watch’ ? ?? ?