Re: Question about supines, gerunds, and the like

Quoting Garth Wallace <gwalla@...>:

> I've seen the word "supine" come up a few times lately. I know (I think)
> that it's a type of verbal noun, but how is it different from a gerund?
>
> On that note, what's the difference between a participle and a
> gerundive? Is there any?
I believe I used that with reference to Swedish yesterday?

In Swedish, it refers to the verb form that combines with an auxiliary to form
the perfect and pluperfect - unlike in well-behaved Germanic languages, this
form is not always identical to the past participle. IIRC, the difference arose
as a systematicization of a dialectal difference - some 'lects perseved -it,
others weakened it to -et, and then the later got adopted as the participial
ending, while the former became the supine in the Standard language. I think
it's safe to say the distinction wouldn't have catched on without the help of
standardized orthography, and plenty of people don't uphold it.

                                                          Andreas