Re: OT: sorta OT: cases: please help...
| From: | Christopher Wright <faceloran@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, December 7, 2001, 14:38 |
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[clack, squeal, I should oil these shears]
>>However, "to be" is a verb, and when there is a matter of grammar, it
>>usually doesn't care about meaning. You wouldn't distinguish the
>>conjugation of verbs of motion from the conjugation of sensory verbs, for
>>instance.
>
>Actually it's an important difference, called dynamic vs. stative verbs.
Look
>at these:
>Question: What are you doing?
>Incorrect Answer: *I write.
>Correct Answer: I'm writing.
In that, "am" is a helping verb; it hasn't anything to do with the verb, to
write. "I am a student" means "I currently exist as a student". "I am
writing" doesn't mean "I currently exist as writing".
>Q: What's China?
>IA: *It's being a country.
>CA: It's a country.
>
>You generally use the progressive form in English for dynamic verbs, and
the
>simple present for stative ones (to contrast, Spanish, even though it has
>both types of verb tenses, generally uses the latter, reserving the former
>for the case listed below, or so I was taught). Of course there are
>exceptions, namely:
>Progressive: also used for expressing being in the middle of something, or
>the transitory nature of it, such as "I'm feeling sick" rather than "I feel
>sick"
>Simple: also used to express that something, even if it's not happening
right
>now, happens in general, e.g., "I work a lot"
I think I understand dynamic versus stative (static?) verbs, though I
haven't heard of them until now. Static verbs usually require a helping
verb, akin to Welsh constructions with "bod"* to be, and describe an
ongoing process. That's the continuative form of verbs, as opposed to the
regular forms. The helping / linking / action verb distinction is much more
basic and seems more important.
*Bod splits into five different verbs with various functions; for instance,
one is negative and another is for questions; and each has six different
present tense conjugations for a total of 30 conjugations in the present
tense, many of which require particles after the subject (it's a VSO
language). (Whimper. Whine. Licks hand. Chris yells at dog to get away from
keyboard and realizes what an odd sentence that is but is disinclined to
change it.) Combine that with an inability to pronounce it, and I stopped
learning Welsh, though I still remember it fondly.
>I think some other natlangs make much bigger distinctions (help me out
here,
>people, if you want). Kar Marinam, a conlang, certainly does.
Quenya (Tolkein, if you didn't know) has special continuative conjugations—
or rather, the normal present tense is best translated as a continuative
form. Tolkein included an aorist tense for forms such as "I write",
describing habitual, permanent, or chronic actions.
Christopher Wright
http://tureklago.tripod.com
"A sail! A sail!"
"Two! Two! A shirt and a smock!"