Re: L1 learning question

Tom Wier wrote:
> The Latin grammarians explained their language essentially in a similar
> way:  certain forms of the verbs were based on certain stems (the present
> stem, the perfect stem, so forth).  This is the reason that if you go buy
> the book "501 English Verbs" (yes, there really is such a thing), it will
> list the four English principle parts for every verb.
I'm reading _The World's Major Languages_, and here's what it says in
the Spanish section, about stem-changing verbs:

"Some linguists, arguing that so common an alternation must be produced
by regular rule, have postulated underlying vowels /E/ and /O/ for
radical-changing verbs and thus claim the synchronic process is
identical to the historic change.  Others reject this abstract analysis,
but point out that the alternation is 99 per cent predicable if a form
like puede is taken as basic rather than the infinitive [altho I'd like
to point out that the infinitive + that form would be needed to predict
forms like podemos as opposed to *podimos].  Yet others believe that
Spanish speakers cannot predict these alternations at all, and must
learn them as inherent features of the individual verb (rather like
learning the gender of a noun).  This last group point to two pieces of
evidence.  Firstly, derivational processes have destroyed the earlier
phonological regularity of diphthongisation: _deshuesar_ 'to remove the
bones/pits' is a verb coined from the noun _hueso_, but the diphthong
which regularly occurs under stress in the noun is irregular in the
infinitive, where it is unstressed.  Parallel examples are _ahuecar_ 'to
hollow out' from _hueco_ ... Secondly, speakers of some varieties
stigmatised as non-standard, especially Chicano, regularly keep the
diphthongalised stem throughout a paradigm regardless of stress
placement, saying despiertamos, despierta'is for standard despertamos,
desperta'is, 'we/you awaken'.  All told, it looks as though a process
which at first was phonologically regular has passed through a stage of
morphological conditioning and is now giving way to lexical marking on
individual words."

Related question: where did the _sentir_/_morir_ type (which changes the
-e-/-o- to -ie-/-ue- or -i-/-u- depending on place), and _pedir_ type
(which changes -e- to -i-) come from?

--
If God had meant for us to use the metric system, there would've been 10
disciples - anonymous
http://www.crosswinds.net/orlando/~nik/
ICQ #: 18656696
AOL screen-name: NikTailor