Re: More on the Hermetic Language

Nik Taylor scripsit:

> Punctual (marked by zero affix): An action that occured or will occur in
>    an instant, or a brief period that can be thought of as an aspect,
>    e.g., "he fell"; when used in present tense, indicates an action
>    in the immediate past, e.g., "he just fell"; with stative verbs
>    and verbalized adjectives, it indicates "became", e.g., "it became
>    red"
Punctuals in general can take a long period of time, provided the
speaker sees them as a single event without parts.  In English, this is
often done with a nominalization:  "Pheidippides' run from Marathon to
Athens", e.g.; it took hours, but here is treated as a unanalyzable
point event.  Similarly in "William Blake lived from 1757 to 1827."

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There
are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language
that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
        --_The Hobbit_

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