Re: Playing with dialect variations

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 17:48, Logan Kearsley <chronosurfer@...> wrote:
> Second- verbs as a closed class.
>
> Take the afro-american dialect example "I done gone" for "I left" or
> "I am gone", or "I done went to the store" for "I went to the store,
> but now I'm back again". "Done" is actually being used as an aspect
> particle, rather than as a verb, but what if I re-analyze "done" as
> the verb and "gone" or "went" as its object?
> You get a situation where most everything that is expressed as a verb
> in English becomes a noun for the action of that verb, and verbs
> become a fairly small closed class (to be, to do, to become, probably
> a few others).
>
> "I go" becomes "I do go" / "I do going"
> "I work" becomes "I do work"- same as in normal English, since "work"
> is both a noun and a verb.
Looks a lot like Basque to me.

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>