koe-

[Edward M Dumanis]

Georges Adassovsky wrote:

> 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)
>

Not so. See below.

> 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)
>

Here is the very example when "koe-kogo" could be singular!

Ja priglasil koe-kogo na imeniny. Prihodi, ne pozhalejesh.
(Our boss will show up, but so far it is a secret)
Ja priglasil kogo-to na imeniny
(same as before but when bragging or in attempt to increase someone's interest
 to
this fact)

Edward Dumanis <dumanis at acsu.buffalo.edu>