100 Q&A's on HowNet -- 009. I have a question on English, I think it will be answered by a native speaker.

[xish...@gmail.com]

I have a question on English, I think it will be answered by a native speaker. My questions are:

What are the correct or accurate English questions for the following statements:

(1) I kicked him in/on the leg.  -- "Where did you kick him?" It seems inaccurate.

(2 ) He signed his name  at the right lower corner. "Where did he sign his name?"

It also seems inaccurate.

In Chinese there two different kinds of questions which can distiguish:

Where you kicked him --- in the play ground

You kicked him where -- in the leg

where he signed his name -- in the office

he signed his name where -- at the right lower corner

Or in English the questions of the kind are ambiguious themselves.

 

Our friend Thomas Yale answer my question as follows:

To answer your question, this is another way English is more ambiguous in Chinese.

 

(1) For the question "Where did you kick him?" the answer "I kicked him in/on the leg" seems the most reasonable in one's mind in English, but it could be answered with a particular place: "I kicked him in my apartment."

 

(2) The same case for "Where did he sign his name?"  The most reasonable contextual answer in English is "He signed his name at the right lower corner (of the document)" but could also be answered "He signed his name at the law office" or even "He signed his name in Quebec", although we would regard both the latter geographical places as one being within another, and the anatomical place, which is a body part, can move and be anywhere.

 

Consider this significance, however.  It appears that the verb in the question implies the kind of place that is to be understood.  Compare "Where did you kick him?", which implies which body part, with "Where did you take him?", which implies a geographical place.

 

Because, you see, the definitions (DEFs) in HowNet that "kick" is defined with the single sememe "kick", and "take" (the definition that applies with the above sentence, one translation I think is dai4 ru4) is defined as "guide".  Significantly, the two words are in different places in the Event taxonomy: "kick" is listed under "AlterForm" / "AlterAppearance" / "AlterAttribute" and "guide" is listed under "CauseToDo" / "MakeAct".

 

So perhaps this is the key to solvling this problem of translation: the fact that they do occupy different places in the taxonomy is the basis by what kind of place (anatomical, geographical, or maybe other kinds of places) expected from the answer is most reasonable, or is anticipated in the answer.

 

From your examples it appears that Chinese avoids this ambiguity in its syntax, by placing interrogative pronouns (like "where", perhaps others?) in a different place among the words in the sentence: "Where you kicked him?" as opposed to "You kicked him where?".  The same with "Where he signed his name?", as opposed "He signed his name where?".