Re: Nouns with arguments, verbs without arguments
From: | Roger Mills <romilly@...> |
Date: | Friday, April 11, 2003, 20:17 |
Mathias wrote:
> (A French linguistic book I have considers an impersonal verb system with
no
> verbal voice as "présentatif" ("here is X") or "existenciel" (there is X")
> and "attributif" ("Y's X") by contrast to the usual "active" verbal system
> ("X is/does/has Y (to Z)".)
>
Interesting. Does it give any examples of a présentatif or an attributif?
Existenciel I can understand-- that would be most weather-verbs (to rain,
snow, thunder; windy, sunny etc.), all of which would require _yale_ 'there
is' in Kash, and could optionally take _ada_ in Indonesian.
Spanish is curious in this respect--
Tengo/tienes/tiene frio 'I'm/ you're/he's cold' (*estar/hacer)
Hace frío 'It (the weather) is cold' (*tiene/está)
(La sopa) está fría '(The soup) is cold' (*tiene/hace)
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