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Re: isolating is equivalent to inflected

From:caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
Date:Monday, December 5, 2005, 18:20
--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, João Ricardo de Mendonça
<somnicorvus@G...> wrote:

>So, for example, English "played" cannot be broken down into two >words play + did. You can't have words between them (compare: "He >will _probably_ play with us", but not * "He play probably did"). >The fact that sometime in the past people actually spoke "He play >did" instead of "He played" does not affect the way current English >speakers analise their language.
Are there some who believe that the past tense in English was formed in this way, _verb_ + _did_? IIRC, a dental bound morpheme used to indicate past time is as old as PIE. English: played, slept Latin: laudatus Charlie http://wiki.frath.net/user:caeruleancentaur

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Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>