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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35579 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022

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I'm trying to wrap my head around what you are saying about the last sentence, you're saying that there is one word which expresses "switching channels will get you in trouble"? Or is the "switching channels" part just implied from context in the original Russian phrasing?

There is such a word. I don't remember this anecdote, but am inferring from @JarJarJedi's telling that it's "Допереключаешься" (doperekliuchaesh'sya). I have never used this word myself, but it's reconstructable from first principles.

Russian, line some other languages, allows for easily composing words. The prefix Do (literally the connotation of getting "to" some point) means, especially in the context of the rest of the word, that further/excessive performance of this action will lead to bad outcomes; prefix pere means changing (for example, "переходить улицу" is "changing sides/crossing the street", literally cross-go); kliuch[ать] is literally "key", usually included in words like "включить/выключить" ("turn on/off"), the 'esh' indicates that it's second person singular i.e. addressed to the listener and concerns his actions, and sya turns it to passive voice (...does it though?) and stresses that the consequences will be to himself. So the literal meaning of the word is, perhaps, "You will get in trouble from all that clicking/tuning to channel after channel". And it sounds rude.

Some extra humorous effect comes from this word being similar to the much more common doviyobivaeysh'sya, which is an obscene way to say... uhhh.... «keep swaggering/fucking around/acting like you're cool shit and you'll find out», I guess. Or something.

Naturally almost any verb root can be plugged into this construction to much the same effect.

you're saying that there is one word which expresses "switching channels will get you in trouble"

Yes.

Strictly speaking, the "channels" part is implied, but since the Russian word used in this context is pretty specific to what you do with the channels, the implication is clear.

Basically, he's right except he translator added "one day" and "comrade". (an example where translations go longer and feature meanings which original didn't have)

The word is допереключаешься.

-ся is the reflective suffix/ending (offtopic: cringe spelling, compare e.g. Polish cognate is written się, more letters and diacritic, so it must be better)

-аешь is the ending for verb 2nd person singular. The future time rather than present is obtained by that complete word is a finite verb by virtue of its first prefix

ключ is the root for key/switch. Needs both prefix and ending to become a verb (some nouns don't need a prefix to become a noun, but this does).

пере- is prefix, one of many which could produce switching verbs; unlike English "switch on" Russian uses prefixes

до ???

PROFIT

I don't know much about Quechua but I think Quechua has more grammatical categories for intent and completness of information, apparently Incas liked Quechua so much so they shifted from their native language to Quechua.

Would probably be допереключаетесь, unless the man had already допереключался and is now in the KGB torture room where he is addressed more rudely and informally.

No, допереключаешься is more frequent by far margin

Thanks for the detailed breakdown! I'm still not seeing where the sense of "getting in trouble" is coming from in your explanation though.

It's coming from the "до" part. Literally, this prefix implies arrival to a destination (like доехать = to arrive from до + ехать to go or to drive). However, when used with words that do not mean literal movement, especially when combined with the reflexive suffix ся, this prefix often means "there would be bad consequences if you keep doing this" - e.g. доиграешься (от играть - to play) means if you keep playing like that (or in general, acting like that) something bad will happen (the implication is it will happen to you, though you can also say it meaning it would happen to somebody else, but still will be your fault).

So what would be the literal translation of "допереключаешься"?

The future time rather than future is obtained by that complete word is a finite verb being finite by its first prefix

What does this mean? Did you accidentally a word here?

Literally it means something like "if you keep switching [implied: the channels] there would be bad consequences for you", or maybe "keep switching and find out". It's hard to say it in English any shorter because I don't know any constructs that do the same thing in English.

No idea, my command of English isn't that good, I helped with what I could.Maybe "you continue switching [and something happens] to you"

Yes, fixed that, s/than future/than present/

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