"This is smeely"

[Elena Maslova]

A note on Russian acquisition concerning the opposition

German:
"Das schmeckt",  lit. 'This tastes', i.e. this tastes good.
"Das riecht", lit. 'This smells', i.e. this smells bad.

English:
"This is tasty", i.e. it tastes good.
"This is smelly", i.e. it smells bad.

I know a girl who used the Russian expression "Ne pahnet" <Das
riecht nicht> to describe the smell of a ROSE (when she was 3 years
old) - clearly because "pachnet" <Das riecht> is, as such,
negative. Furthermore, the meaning of the latter expression was
presumably acquired from her mother's descriptions of a grossery
nearby (which used to smell pretty awful - the whole story is 13
years old.)

Yet in the adult Russian such usage is impossible (One would say
something like 'horosho pahnet' <Das riecht gut>)

All the best,
Elena Maslova
University of Bielefeld
lena at lh.bicos.de