koe-

[Georges Adassovsky]

At 14:33 -0500 04/01/99, Alina wrote:


>But of course Bill did not describe all of the meanings of the particles in
>question.

It would be difficult : there are a lot of them, and semantic values can't
find strict equivalents in other languages.
One possible method is describing, for each combination pronoun/particle,
which way the speaker points to  objects belonging to some set.
For example :
kto-to : one of them, excluding all others, but we don't know which one (
or it doesn't matter)
koe-kto : several of them, excluding all others,  but we don't know which
ones ( or it doesn't matter)

So the difference between kto-to and koe-kto seems to be in singular/plural.
Ja priglasil koe-kogo na imininy, i kto-to zabyl svoju shapku. (kto-to iz nikh)

For kto-nibud'/kto-libo, I propose:
kto-nibud': one of them, we don't care which one
kto-libo : it may be the first, or the second, or the third, or anyone, the
result will be the same. (kto by to ni bylo)

From Paul Garde, grammaire russe, institut d'Оtudes slaves, Paris, p. 270,
271, 272:

nibud' and libo both point to one object or another ("disjonctive value")
But nibud' is used to point to objects inside a given set defined by the
situation ("limitative value")
While libo points to objects with no limitation ("no limitative value")

From Roger Comtet, grammaire du Russe contemporain, presses universitaires
du Mirail, p.192 :

libo is the plural for nibud'
"voz'mite kogo-libo s vami"

Georges.