Yet another question about 'yet'

aleCcowaN

March 12, 2012 05:42 PM

Yet another question about 'yet'

I've just heard Antiques Roadshow's expert Geoffrey Munn describing an piece of jewellery in a positive way but describing the revolting contents such pieces used to have inside in the past, and while doing this he said to the owner "Are you worried yet?".

My question is about that "yet" and how in may modify somehow the tense. I mean, does that "yet" imply that the worry is 100% there ("¿Ya está preocupada?") or does it rather indicate that it's an incipient process ("¿Ya se está preocupando?")?

chileno

March 12, 2012 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN (Post 123161)

I've just heard Antiques Roadshow's expert Geoffrey Munn describing an piece of jewellery in a positive way but describing the revolting contents such pieces used to have inside in the past, and while doing this he said to the owner "Are you worried yet?".

My question is about that "yet" and how in may modify somehow the tense. I mean, does that "yet" imply that the worry is 100% there ("¿Ya está preocupada?"):good: or does it rather indicate that it's an incipient process ("¿Ya se está preocupando?")?

Para mí significa la primera.

poli	March 12, 2012 09:54 PM

Just to clarify:
Are you worried yet?= ¿has llegado al punto de preoccupacion?

Are you still worried= ¿todavía estás preocudado?

aleCcowaN

March 13, 2012 03:04 PM

Thank you. So it's more like "¿Ya se ha preocupado?" in the sense of "su inquietud ha ido creciendo y acaba de convertirse en preocupación", isn't it?

chileno

March 13, 2012 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN (Post 123187)

Thank you. So it's more like "¿Ya se ha preocupado?" in the sense of "su inquietud ha ido creciendo y acaba de convertirse en preocupación", isn't it?

Correct.

aleCcowaN

March 14, 2012 05:21 PM

Thank you. I think this is the kind of phrase a translator tailor according to context: "¿Comenzó a preocuparse?", "Lo noto preocupado", "Ya se me está preocupando", and many more.

chileno

March 14, 2012 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN (Post 123216)

Thank you. I think this is the kind of phrase a translator tailor according to context: "¿Comenzó a preocuparse?", "Lo noto preocupado", "Ya se me está preocupando", and many more.

Yes and no.

Are you/we worried yet = ¿Comenzó a preocuparse?

You seem worried = Parece precupado, Creo que se preocupó etc.

Todas las demás tienen traducción literal que bien calzan con situaciones X.

aleCcowaN

March 16, 2012 04:08 PM

¡Ah! ¡Gracias! Entonces mi "ya se está preocupando" estaría bien, porque además de present continuous esta perífrasis verbal representa el comienzo reciente o incipiente de la acción del verbo.

bellatter

April 11, 2012 04:36 PM

To me "yet" means exactly the same thing in these two sentences:

"Has he arrived yet?" "No, he hasn't arrived yet."

So I never really understood why you can say something like "aun no ha llegado" and "aun" basically means "yet," but the closest thing to "has he arrived yet?" is "¿ya ha llegado?". I guess there are subtle differences that I didn't realize were there.

wrholt

April 11, 2012 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bellatter (Post 123842)

Your guess about subtle differences in meaning for the word "yet" is correct, although the subtlety exists only in the minds of native speakers of English. Consider:

"Has he arrived yet?" = "Has he arrived already?" ("yet" = "already" = "ya"). Saying "Has he arrived still?" or "Has he still arrived?" makes no sense.

"No, he hasn't arrived yet." = "No, he still hasn't arrived." ("yet" = "still" = "aún" or "todavía"). Saying "No, he hasn't arrived already." makes no sense.

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