Tach, |
because they're (a)live rather than plastic, for instance. Edit: "living" would be wrong here because, while these plants certainly are living at that very moment, they will hopefully continue to live tomorrow and next week and maybe even for years to come, provided they are placed in water, which is where they normally live. But for your context, "live plants" would be correct, sort of like a "live show" would be correct, rather than a "living show." |
Vielen Dank. |
Na ja, so streng muss man das auch nicht sehen. Wie sagte doch einst Dr. Frankenstein von seinem Monster? "It's alive!" Es werden ja auch beispielsweise Menschen oft als "living, breathing beings" beschreiben, und dabei atmen und leben sie hoffentlich auch länger als nur gerade in dem Moment. Penguins Unterscheidung zwischen "lebendig" und "lebend" könnte ziemlich gut hinkommen, aber selbst da überschneidet sich so einiges. |
so how would you explain to Speireata that her aquatic plants are live and not living (except by saying that it's a collocation)? |
I tried (but apparently failed) to explain it already: "live" simply separates the plants from plastic ones, which are also very popular these days. The same (but different) thing goes for, say, a circus or a zoo that features live animals rather than a museum that may feature dead ones or some made from clay or other materials. Of course live animals are living, breathing beings, but they're "live" in terms of how they're advertised or announced. Maybe someone smarter than myself can come up with a feasible, scientific explanation. |
Danke Penguin. Das mit der Kollokation ist natürlich tatsächlich eine gute Erklärung. Trotzdem versuche ich noch, ein Gefühl für die feinen Bedeutungsunterschiede zu bekommen, was gar nicht so einfach ist. |
Well, perhaps to confuse matters a bit: even inanimate objects are often said to be "live": a live wire, for instance, or live explosives, live ammunition, etc. |
#2 halte ich, was die deutsche Seite angeht, für wenig hilfreich. Man spricht im Deutschen nämlich gerade von "lebenden Pflanzen", nicht von "lebendigen Pflanzen". Tante G. meint: |
dirk, du hast völlig recht, das meinte ich auch ("Warum hast du es dann nicht geschrieben?" - weil ich mich geirrt habe …) Aber der Unterschied "lebend - lebendig" ist nach den Definitionen und Kontextbeispielen zu urteilen der springende Punkt und die beste Möglichkeit, ihn im Deutschen annähernd rüberzubringen. |
Bleibt festzuhalten, dass auch dies eher eine Frage der kontextbezogenen Idiomatik ist als von festen, allgemeingültigen "Regeln" ... Auch die Unterscheidung "lebend - lebendig" greift da zu kurz - siehe #8. Die semantischen Grenzen zweier Sprachen sind wohl nur in den seltensten Fällen absolut deckungsgleich. |
I can't offer much help either except to say it has to do with collocations. Some examples: live animals/plants living kin/relatives/survivors Not sure if that's much use or not. |
When it specifically means 'not dead' or 'not artificial' the usual word is 'live' (as you will see from the list of collocations). |
"Live animals" steht auch immer auf den Hundetransportkästen, nicht "living". |
Mit anderen Worten, Speireata, wirst du nicht umhin kommen, Kollokationen zu lernen. |
While my #14 is generally true, if one applies it in certain situations, the result is comic/curious: live poets v. living poets (Incidentally, hm -- us, is 'living survivors' not tautologous?) Edit: no, it's not. 'There are no more living survivors of the Titanic disaster' |
… and wouldn't "alive and breathing" be more idiomatic than "living and breathing"? |
Vielen lieben Dank für eure Hilfe. |
#18. Not necessarily. I would have to see examples in context. They aren't really substitutes for each other. It doesn't surprise me that "As I live and breathe" gets 45 million Google hits. Almost everyone here probably knows that: If live is an adjective (The band played for a live audience, or Live from New York City), the i is pronounced the same as the i in five. Alive also has this pronunciation. It is never pronounced life, as in Denglish. |
It is never pronounced life, as in Denglish. |
#18: wouldn't "alive and breathing" be more idiomatic than "living and breathing"? Were you thinking of "alive and kicking"? I prefer "living and breathing" to "alive and breathing" (presumably because the repetition of "ing" sounds better in this example). |