Sinthrax=> Lingu Frakas...question re: TMA (tenses,mood & aspects)
From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
Date: | Saturday, May 13, 2000, 23:57 |
Jonathan Chang wrote:
> _mito-xi_ - "remote/mythological perfective past tense"
> _anci-xi_ - "ancient historical or distant perfective past " "
> _xi_ - perfective past tense (combinable with words denoting
> seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc.)
> _xe-xi_ - incomplete/unfinished past tense
> _s'xa_ - progressive
> _xa_ continuative
> _xe_ potential or irrealis
I could see this happening if the substrate language used those tenses,
but the forms seem implausible (particularly, mito- and anci-), IMO.
First, where does _xi_ come from? My suggestion would be something like
(using English words):
very-long-time-finish
long-time-finish
finish
was (?)
be
[what exactly is the distinction between "progressive" and
"continuative"?]
maybe
From what I understand of creoles, gramatical markers tend to be taken
from the lexifier, so whatever the lexifier is, you could take the
equivalents of.
--
"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men
believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of
the city of God!" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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