to do x back

[Terra]

In the same vein as my 'to run out of x' thread, here's another thing that I doubt translates well between languages. Again, how do other languages do it? What's the etymology of their equivalent (if any) of "back"?

[----]

Like "to hit him back" for example? Navajo has a special construction for this kind of thing. It uses the momentaneous aspect + the prefix ná-.

naa ní'ą́.
I gave it to you.
naa náásht'ą́
I gave it back to you.

This prefix is usually referred to as the reversative, and it's associated with circular movement--it's the same morpheme that appears in the word ná'oolkiłí 'clock'.

EDIT: it's also similar to the morpheme that usually is translated as again: nááná. I could see them possibly being related but there's also the issue of there being like 10 different prefixes of the form na~ni.

[sirdanilot]

^Learn to gloss properly, dude. It is still unclear to me what the actual prefix is here.

[----]

I have already "learned how to gloss properly", but I'm sure what you mean to say is 'your example would be more helpful with a gloss'. It's difficult to provide an entirely transparent example of this prefix in the sense that Terra asked for, since things like aspect and mood are often indicated by several morphemes at once in Navajo. To break the sentences I've already used into their relevant parts:

naa ní-'ą́
to.you completed.action.1S.PERF-handle.solid.obj
naa ná-sh-t'ą́
to.you "back"-1s-handle.solid.obj
the -t- that shows up in the second one is just a little quirk of the "back" prefix, it usually indicates passives and things like that.

Are things more clear now?

[din]

Dutch uses the prefix terug-, which basically means 'returning, (going) back'.

So you get verbs such as 'teruggeven' (give back), 'teruggaan' (go back), 'terugslaan' (hit back), 'terugkeren' (return), etc.

German has a similar prefix.

[Thry]

In Spanish we prefer separate lexical items, if possible:

I gave it to him. Se lo di a él.
He gave it back. Él me lo devolvió.

I hit him. Yo le pegué.
He hit me back. Él me respondió.

Tho you may use the original verb with "de vuelta"

[Astraios]

Hebrew's like Spanish:

Natati lo oto. I gave it to him.
Hexzarti lo oto. I gave it back ('returned') it to him.

And there's also Natati lo oto baxazara. I gave it to him 'in return'.

[Thry]

oh I forgot to say, "responder" means to answer. When you hit somebody back, you can say you "answer" them.

[Yng]

Arabic likewise:

عطيته ياه
ʿaṭēto yāh
ʿaṭā-t=o yāh
give/PAST-1sg=3sg.MASC 3sg.MASC.DIS
I gave him it

رجعتله ياه
rajjaʿtəllo yāh
rajjaʿ-t=əllo yāh
return/PAST-1sg=3sg.MASC.DAT 3sg.MASC.DIS
I returned it to him

[sirdanilot]

I have already "learned how to gloss properly", but I'm sure what you mean to say is 'your example would be more helpful with a gloss'. It's difficult to provide an entirely transparent example of this prefix in the sense that Terra asked for, since things like aspect and mood are often indicated by several morphemes at once in Navajo. To break the sentences I've already used into their relevant parts:

naa ní-'ą́
to.you completed.action.1S.PERF-handle.solid.obj
naa ná-sh-t'ą́
to.you "back"-1s-handle.solid.obj
the -t- that shows up in the second one is just a little quirk of the "back" prefix, it usually indicates passives and things like that.

Are things more clear now?

Yes, that's more clear

[Yng]

Oh, also with some verbs a serial verb construction is used:

نمت
nəmət
nām-t
sleep/PAST-1sg
I went to sleep

رجعت نمت
rjəʿət nəmət
rəjəʿ-t nām-t
return/PAST-1sg sleep/PAST-1sg
I went back to sleep

[sirdanilot]

What kind of Arabic is that, Egyptian?

I would guess using a masDar is the more correct form (at least in MSA)?

[Yng]

No, Syrian. I couldn't tell you what the equivalent Egyptian forms are but the merger of /u/ and /i/ in stressed syllables to a weird vowel with loads of allophones (represented here by <ə>) and the appearance of that same vowel in all sorts of affixes and as an epenthete are characteristic of Syrian/Lebanese. As is the clitic -əllo and its inability to coexist with normal pronoun suffixes on verbs. Also I would probably have transcribed ج as <g> if it'd been Egyptian.

I'm not sure what the equivalent would be in MSA, but it wouldn't surprise me if they preferred some other construction - MSA generally doesn't like serial verb constructions like this. arabiCorpus has عاد إلى النوم and no examples for any of the obvious serialish constructions (e.g. *عاد ونام or *عاد ينوم).

[Wqtraz]

In French, we would add re- to the verb

Je le lui ai redonné

1s.nom 3s.acc 3s.dat aux.prf re-give-part

I gave it back to him

or we would add en retour, the french equivalent of "in turn" or "in return"

Je l'ai frappé en retour

1s.nom 3s.dat aux.prf hit-part in return

I hit him in turn

[Magb]

Norwegian works like English, with tilbake (or att in some dialects):

I gave it to him Jeg ga ham den; or Jeg ga den til ham.
He gave it back. Han ga den tilbake.

He hit me. Han slo meg.
I hit him back. Jeg slo ham tilbake.

[clawgrip]

Japanese just compounds the main verb with the verb 返す "to return/to give back"

言う iu "to say"
言い返す iikaesu "to talk back; to repeat back"

叩く tataku "to hit; to strike"
叩き返す tatakikaesu "to hit back"

"give back" has its own root word, 戻す modosu.

This also gets used instead of kaesu sometimes, e.g.

払う harau "to pay"
払い戻す haraimodosu "to pay back"

買う kau "to buy"
買い戻す kaimodosu "to buy back"

The difference is lexical, but it is possible (just my guess here) that modosu is used when there's an actual physical object being returned.

There's no special word or formation for "go back to sleep". You can just say "sleep again" or just "sleep" in the right context.