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German: Mehrdeutige Vokabeln - einstellen | ||
Tags: Ambiguous/double meaning | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5561 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 1 of 2 09 September 2014 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are a few German words that always make me wonder why anyone says German is a
logical language. I'm glad to see the natives have a little trouble themselves (as children, anyway). Here's a short mp3 in German, 287kb. einstellen I suppose the same things exist in English. We have stall and install (or still and instill), which I suppose come from the same root, and have vaguely opposite meanings (although it is the addition of the prefix in English that changes the meaning). edit: oh, not really a "question about" but this seemed to be the best place as it is sort of more to do with vocab learning, but any commentary will be interesting and should help with memorising. Edited by schoenewaelder on 09 September 2014 at 5:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 2 of 2 09 September 2014 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | ||
IMHO, with the exception of a couple of creole/pidgin languages, no natural language can rightfully claim to be a logical language, and I've never heard anybody say that German is a logical language. As for "einstellen," it's indeed a very versatile verb. But pretty much any language has counterparts. Take for example the multiple meanings of many English phrasal verbs. To pick a random phrasal verb: to put on: to put someone on = to tease someone to put on weight = to gain weight to put on the light = to turn on the light I might as well ask you what the connection between these three phrases is. :-) As for "einstellen," a funny old fashioned expression for a date is "Stelldichein" (≈ rendez-vous), which was invented by a German language purist keen on getting rid of French words in German. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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