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Re: Grammatical Summary of Kemata

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Thursday, December 13, 2001, 23:10
Maarten wrote:


>In elementary school, Dutch children learn the nine copula verbs of the >dutch language.Some of them are archaic, but they all express some form of >equality between the two subjects. In Dutch, they are: > >-zijn (to be) >-worden (to become, i.e. to be in the future) >-blijven (to remain, i.e. to be now and in the future) >-blijken (turn out to be, i.e. two things were alreayd the same, but it
only
>shows now) >-lijken (seem to be, the facts seem to indicate that two things are equal) >-schijnen (seem to be, the rest of the world seems to think the things are >equal) > >More archaic forms: > >-heten (are said to be, the rest of the world says the two things are
equal)
>-dunken (are thought to be, the speaker has concluded the two things are >equal, usually also with a direct object) >-voorkomen (seem to be, the appearance suggests that the two things are >equal)
A very useful list, and kudos to the Dutch language for making all these useful distinctions. In my reading (19th and early 20th C Indonesianists) I think I've encountered all but heten and dunken. Perhaps that's why Kash has many of the same as distinct lexical items-- though all the "seem" words are conflated into one form. (so far). Thinking about Span. ser/estar-- I suspect it's impossible to use estar with a noun complement. Any counterexamples? (And I've always wondered why Span. has no simple way to say 'become'.....)

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Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>