Not exactly a very serious note

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

They say that Russian language is the only language where a meaningful sentence that consists of five verbs, four of them in infinitive form, is possible: "Решили послать сходить купить выпить"...

Comments

[vovse-ne.livejournal.com]

And what do you think about this?

- Хочешь пить?
- Да нет, наверно...

[guzel-23.livejournal.com]

=)))))))))))))))))))) велик и могуч=)))))

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, it is proven that Russian language can express a negation by using three expressions of affirmation in a row:
- Ну да, конечно!

:)

[lovimoment.livejournal.com]

That means "no"?!!!? [bangs head against keyboard]

[malim-praedari.livejournal.com]

Only if said very sarcastically (like "Yeah, right!").

[vovse-ne.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know this joke (in Russian of course).

Учитель:
- Во многих языках отрицание можно выразить двумя отрицаниями: "Нет, никогда". Или отрицанием и утверждением: "Да нет". Но ни в одном языке мира отрицание нельзя выразить тремя утверждениями.
Голос с задней парты:
- Ну да, конечно!..

[rjray.livejournal.com]

I suppose this would be the Russian equivalent of "Two wrongs don't make a right, but three rights will make a left."

:-)

Interestingly, I recently wrote about a tricky saying that consists of 5 consecutive negatives (http://rjray.livejournal.com/7817.html), that I got from my Russian teacher. (Please ignore and/or forgive the simplistic pronunciation tips I included for my friends.)

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Actually, all-infinitive version is also completely valid. As a description of an act of terminal stupidity. ^_^

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Exactly, but this way it's just plain stupid, while 4-infinitive version is just very colloquial, but reflects a very lively situation :)

[shlema.livejournal.com]

I heard version "Пойти найти купить выпить".

[dasbot.livejournal.com]

Decided to order to go to buy to drink :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, not exactly - it's rather "[we] decided to send [somebody] to go [out] to buy [something] to drink" :)

[dasbot.livejournal.com]

Мы решили послать Серегу сходить в магазин купить пивка выпить.

где разница?

[asklepij.livejournal.com]

There was a discussion (http://forum.exler.ru/arc/index.php?s=0&showtopic=98125&view=findpost&p=7221808) about the sentence. They managed to continue it until it became about 20 words long :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

In their version, there is a logical gap between "встать" and "собраться" :)

[ashalynd.livejournal.com]

In Dutch, there could be a meaningful sentence with 16 verbs in a row (not that funny, of course):

Ik zou liever in plaats van ik zou jou wel eens willen hebben zien blijven staan kijken hebben willen zien durven blijven staan kijken hebben willen zeggen.

Translation (clumsy as it goes with my English):
I would rather prefer to have said "(I'd) have wanted to see you dare to stay further and watch" instead of "I would want to have seen you once to stay further and watch"

[igornavitja.livejournal.com]

But what does it mean (the sentence in the original message?) if you translate every word directly?

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Something along the lines of "[we] decided to send [somebody] to go to buy [something] to drink" - "we decided to send somebody to buy some booze," in another words :)

[yelbota.livejournal.com]

and that:
косой косой косил Косой - Kosoy ( it a name ) was mowed with crooked scythe

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

How is this related with a valid sentence constituted by infinitive verb forms?

[parislife.livejournal.com]

7 verbs
решили собраться одеться встать пойти купить выпить
maybe can more :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

No, it's not valid - there's a logical gap between одеться and встать (the latter does not depends on the former) and a smaller logical gap between встать and пойти (the latter very slightly depends of the former.)

[parislife.livejournal.com]

решили собраться встать пойти купить выпить покурить

встать mean by to get out of bed
пойти mean by go shopping

[spiritrc.livejournal.com]

In English, however, a gramatically correct sentence made of 8 identical words is possible:

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

:) So every language has its quirks.

[lynda22222.livejournal.com]

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