TRANSLATION OF DESCARTES QUOTE

[Elena A. Arkhipova]

Well, it can be "Я мыслю, следовательно, я есмь" - but, first of all, there 
is a traditional translation, well-known in Russia, and second, "усмь" is a 
really old form of the verb "to be" so no one besides a linguist can produce 
it...
Elena.

Elena A. Arkhipova, PhD, MBA
Chair of Department of
Russian as a Foreign Language,
Program Coordinator
Nevsky Institute of  Language and Culture
27 Bolshaya Raznochinnaya
St. Petersburg, 197110, Russia
tel./fax: +7 812 230 36 98

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Dunn" <J.Dunn at SLAVONIC.ARTS.GLA.AC.UK>
To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 7:09 PM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] TRANSLATION OF DESCARTES QUOTE


>A quick look at a couple of sources (Mikhel'son's Xodjachie i metkie slova* 
>and a Soviet-era encyclopedia) suggests that the standard translation is Я 
>мыслю, следовательно (я) существую [Ja myslju, sledovatel'no (ja) 
>sushchestvuju].  I would have thought that it was possible to form a 
>grammatical utterence with a zero copula only if both subject and 
>complement were present, while it would also appear difficult to translate 
>this statement using a present-tense form of быть [byt] (есть??/есмь?????? 
>[est'/esm']).  Others, however, may know better.
>
> John Dunn.
>
> *I am using the 1994 reprint.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Langran <john at RUSLAN.CO.UK>
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 15:41:19 +0100
> Subject: [SEELANGS] TRANSLATION OF DESCARTES QUOTE
>
> This is for a grammar summary of the verb "to be" in Russian.
> I have seen the Descartes quote "I think, therefore I am" translated as "Я
> думаю, поэтому я." - "Ya dumayu, poetomu ya.". I wonder, is this a strong
> enough translation? Thanks for any suggestions?
> John Langran
> www.ruslan.co.uk
>
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>
> John Dunn
> Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
> University of Glasgow, Scotland
>
> Address:
> Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
> 40137 Bologna
> Italy
> Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
> e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
> johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it
>
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