Re: Artyom Kouzminykh: Answers & proposal
| From: | Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, August 23, 1999, 8:57 |
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> Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 16:45:24 +0100
> From: Fabian <rhialto@...>
> I have been beaten - the unspoken agent is in a state of owning a
> beating of 'I'.
Hmmm.
The usual story is that the perfect tense construction with 'have'
originates in sentences like 'I have cooked meat' (original sense only
'I possess meat that is cooked'). Once reanalysed, grammaticalized and
generalized, there is no longer any sense of possesion attached to the
construction, or necessary for its explanation.
Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)