SEMANTICS: FREQUENCY ADVERBS AND LINKERS

1. Interrogator

>    Quantes vegades (=how many times)

>    Amb quina freqüència (=how often)

quantes vegades has vingut per ací?	how often have you come around?
amb quina freqüència et fan les proves a l’hospital	how often do you take the tests at hospital?

2. Adverbs

>    sovint (=often, frequently)

viatjo sovint a Galícia	I often travel to Galicia
no els veig sovint	I don’t see them frequently

>    de vegades (=at time, sometimes)

de vegades pareixes imbècil	at times you look like stupid
el periòdic només el compro de vegades	I just buy the newspaper from time to time

>    sempre

sempre he usat aquesta marca	I’ve always used this mark
espero que siguis sempre feliç	I expect you’ll always be happy

>    mai

mai no em llevo abans les 10	I never get up before 10
no els he vist mai	I’ve never seen them

3. The expression of frequency may be represented by means of a table:

+	sempre	always
	quasi sempre	almost always
	(molt) sovint	(very) often
	de vegades	at times, ever
	poc sovint	not very often
	algunes vegades	some times
	quasi mai	almost never
–	mai	never

SEMANTICS: DIRECTION ADVERBS AND LINKERS

1. Interrogator

>    On (=where)

on vius?	where do you live?
cap a on vas?	where are going?
d’on véns?	where do you come from?

2. Adverbs

>    ací >< allí/allà

ací no hi ha ningú	there’s nobody here
anem cap allà	let’s go there
i allí no hi tenim família	we have no family there

There is one more adverb, aquí, which is often mistaken with ací. Actually in some geolects the three-degree deixis distinction is kept: ací, aquí, allí/allà.

3. Prepositions expressing time

>    a (=in, at).

vaig a casa	I’m going home
no m’agrada anar amb cotxe a la platja	I don’t like driving to the beach
hem arribat a un lloc fantàstic	we’ve arrived at a wonderful place

>    cap a (= to, towards, into).

gira cap a la dreta	turn right
anaven cap a la frontera	they were driving into the border

>    de (=of, from)

vinc de Terrassa	I’m coming from Terrassa
el cotxe ha sortit de Girona fa una hora	the car left from Girona an hour ago

> (des) de (= from)

(des) de Barcelona a València hi ha tres hores de cotxe	it takes three hours driving from Barcelona to Valencia
venim del mar	we’re coming from the seaside

> per (=through, along)

la carretera no passa per la ciutat	the road doesn’t go along the town
passem pel túnel	let’s go through the tunnel

SEMANTICS: CAUSE ADVERBS AND LINKERS

1. Interrogator

>    Per què (=why)

>    Per quin motiu/quina raó (= for what reason)

per què no has vingut?	why didn’t you come?
per quin motiu/quina raó sou ací	for what reason are you here?

2. Linkers (conjunctions and prepositions) expressing cause

>    perquè (=because).

+ per què està mullat el terra? – perquè ha plogut	+ why is the floor wet? – because it’s rained
no ha arribat perquè ha perdut el tren	(s)he didn’t come, because (s)he’s missed the train

>    per (=for, because).

no ho va fer per por	(s)he didn’t do it for fear
ho vaig dir

>    a causa de (=because of)

han tallat el tràfic a causa de l’accident	the traffic has been stopped because of the accident
hi ha vaga a causa de les retallades	there’s a strike because of the (budget) cuts

WORD CLASS: PREPOSITIONS

1. Prepositions are used to set relationship with semantic features (direction, place, time, topic, reason, etc.) or just the syntactic relationship between the verb and its complements. Catalan, like all Romance languages (except Romanian) does not possess case mark for nouns, which forces it to express syntactic relationships by means of prepositions.

2. Most prepositions may have more than one value, not only semantic, but also syntactic, as it can be seen in the following examples referring to the preposition a:

> Direction

vaig al mercat	I’m going to the market
vaig a la platja	I’m going to the beach

> Place

viuen a Roma	they live in Rome
se m’ha oblidat al carrer	I’ve forgotten it on the street

> Indirect object

el gos lladra a tothom	the dog barks at everybody
telefona al teu germà	make a call to your brother

> Time

al gener tindrem un fill	next January we’ll have a baby
dinarem a tres quarts de dues	we’ll have lunch at a quarter to two

> Prepositional regime

aquesta sopa sardina	this soup tastes like sardines
el document es refereix a vostè	the document refers to you

3. One-word prepositions cohabit with compound prepositions, i.e., word clusters working out as prepositions:

al voltant de la casa hi ha un jardí	there’s a garden around the house
a partir de les nou, la biblioteca està tancada	from nine on, the library is closed
de dilluns ençà no tenim aigua	we’ve been without water since last Monday
se n’han anat cap al nord	they’ve left northwards

4. This is a basic list of Catalan prepositions with their English equivalents

PREP.	VALUE	EXAMPLE	EQUIVALENT
a	place	sóc a casa	I’m home
	direction	anem a la platja	let’s go to the beach
	indirect object	dona les claus a la Júlia	give the keys to Julia
	regime object	em refereixo al quadre	I’m referring to the picture
	time	ens veiem a les quatre	we’ll meet up at four
amb	means	ho faig amb les mans	I do it with my hands
	company	visc amb la meva xicota	I live with my girlfriend
	means of transport	amb l’autobús	by bus
cap a	direction	cap allà	let’s go that way
	approximation	vindrà cap a les dues	he’ll come up at about two
de	genitive	el quadern del Joan	John’s notebook
	origin	venim de la platja	we’re coming from the beach
		són de Dinamarca	they come from Denmark
	stuff	els mobles són de fusta	the furniture is made up of wood
	time	de petit, encara no parlava alemany	as a child, I didn’t speak German yet
	partitive structures	vols un tros de pa?	do you want a piece of bread?
		d’amics, en tenim molts	we’ve got a lot of friends
	starting point	de casa meva a l’oficina hi ha 10 km	my house is 10 km away from my office
	topic	parlàvem de tu	we were talking about you
contra	opposition	estem contra la violència	we are against violence
de... ençà	starting point	no treballo de l’any 2005 ençà	I don’t work since 2005
en	place	en el bany	in the bathroom
		en aquestes circumstàncies	under these circumstances
	way	en teoria	theoretically
	mode	en bona forma	in good shape
		en condicions	in good conditions
	regime object	parlar en francès	to speak in French
		basar-se en	to be based on
entre	place, time	entre tots dos ho farem	we’ll do it between you and me (> together)
fins (a)	goal, limit	no sortiré fins diumenge	I won’t go out until Sunday
per (a)	goal	he comprat un regal per a tu	I’ve bought a present for you
	finality, usually with infinitive	és bon moment per comprar cases	it’s a good moment to buy houses
	direction	per ací	this way
	cause	el critiquen pel seu mode de vida	he’s criticised because of his way of life
	movement through	hem de passar per França	we must go along France
sense	lack	han vingut sense maletes	they’ve come without their suitcases