Re: THEORY: Question: Bound Morphemes

Nik Taylor wrote:

>Charles wrote:
>> Even in the sense of being "bound" by not occuring alone,
>> "the" is just a form of "this/that", and "a/an" equal "one",
>> which do stand alone. So in my dialect, they are liberated.
>
>I disagree.  It's not uncommon for clitics to have "free" forms.  For
>instance, in French, _je_ is a clitic, but has the free form _moi_.
>Also, I don't see "this/that" as being equivalent to "the".  They are
>bound.  The forms "the", "a", and "an" can NEVER occur outside the noun
>phrase.  They are incontestably clitics.  "A/an" has a free form "one",
>but "the" has no free form.
Don't be too quick, Nik. Charles did say that they are free forms in=20
his dialect - or at least that's how I understand it. I must admit, I=20
never thought that such a conservative dialect actually existed.

-kristian- 8)