4 ms·
This is an interesting and somewhat orthogonal conversation (and sadly not what HN comments are designed for). The 3 examples you give in each case are not the
by gbuk2013 2y ago
This is an interesting and somewhat orthogonal conversation (and sadly not what HN comments are designed for).
The 3 examples you give in each case are not the same though - they have a different colour to them and would be “wrong” to use depending on the context. This is
precisely the sort of nuance that I mentioned in one of the other comments and like you say it’s great for poetry but also for encoding additional context in fewer words. Incidentally, I recall my dad pointing this out as another similarity to Sanskrit.
As an example: I once spent some time trying to explain to my wife the difference between «какая-то фигня» and «фигня какая-то». Same words quite different meaning. :)
Taking it further, this difference can be used as a lens to see the fundamental difference between Western and Eastern philosophy and way of thinking but that’s a whole separate rabbit hole. (This is much more my subject of interest rather than linguistics.)