eido wrote:So is it like with Spanish...
“¿Qué es lo que es cara, esta gorra?”
“Es que te estoy hablando claramente, ¿no?”
Something like that? I never understood the nuance fully between “qué es lo que es” and “qué es” although there /are/ differences. I know there’s differences between the two languages here, obviously and I’m probably wrong but I’m curious.
And “IC” is probably “CI” — “comprehensible input.”
There's not much of a difference between
¿Qué es [adj.]? and
¿Qué es lo que es [adj.]?, the latter is simply a lot less common. The situation is different in French, as French doesn't really have an equivalent of
¿Qué es [adj.]?, it only uses its equivalent of
¿Qué es lo que es [adj.]? (
Qu'est-ce qui est [adj.] ?).
When it comes to content questions in general (who? why? where? how? how many?), in French, it's perfectly normal to add
est-ce que, as it doesn't add any particular connotations; but in Spanish, adding
es que emphasizes the emotional dimension of the question. Compare
Où est-ce que tu les as laissés ? 'Where did you leave them?' vs.
¿Dónde es que los dejaste? 'Where on Earth did you leave them!?' (connotation of exhasperation, frustration, anger, etc.);
Comment est-ce que vous l'avez fini ? 'How did you guys finish it?' vs.
¿Cómo es que lo terminaron? 'How on Earth did you guys finish it!?' (connotation of surprise, indignation, etc.).
Something similar to the last bit can be observed in polar (yes/no) questions. In French it's perfectly normal and unremarkable to make them by adding
est-ce que (as in my last post in this thread). In Spanish though,
es que typically adds a connotation of frustration and is often followed by
acaso:
¿Es que acaso no me explico? 'Am I really not being clear?',
¿Es que no te entiende o qué? 'Does she really not understand you, or what?'.
By the way, when I say "Spanish" I actually mean "Latin American Spanish" here. I'm confident that a lot of people in Spain would find all this
es que business unacceptable.
This also goes for the related Latin American clefting (
partimiento) construction using
es que: Latin American
a la tienda es que voy 'it's to the store that I'm going to' vs. Spaniard
a la tienda es adonde voy, Latin American
de esta forma es que lo logró 'this is how he achieved it' vs. Spaniard
de esta forma es como lo logró.
So... IC = "input comprehension"?
ZH was so easy to learn by reading because there is just so many resources out there.