Re: semantics question
| From: | Rob Haden <magwich78@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, July 11, 2003, 14:00 |
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On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 07:26:19 -0500, Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
wrote:
>What's '(Ryan 2000)'?
I was listing Patrick C. Ryan, from whose 'Proto-Language' I am deriving
OurTongue, as the source for the momentary vs. durative distinction. The
specific source is: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/IE-
VerbalInflection.htm.
>This reminds me of the pairs of imperfective vs. perfective
>verbs in Russian, e.g. _kupit'_ 'buy something' _pokupit'_
>'go about buying'. Is that the inspiration, or did you stumble
>upon this?
No, that wasn't the inspiration. I was researching PIE some more
yesterday, and a common PIE root was *gwem- 'go, come.' So I decided to
see if Mr. Ryan had figured out its origin in the Proto-Language, and he
had (*xa-mho 'press-together+wander > get ready and go'). From the initial
meaning 'get ready and go,' I felt that 'set out' was a logical development
(almost synonymous in meaning, really). The durative variation would
be 'setting out (for a while)' > 'travel' or perhaps 'come (to do
something).' I'm not sure which is better. The momentary variation would
be 'set out (once)' > 'go (out),' I think.
- Rob
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