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Re: comment: four-participants (on-topic, even! but long)

From:Doug Dee <amateurlinguist@...>
Date:Wednesday, July 10, 2002, 23:57
It goes on past where I quoted (I got tired of typing) and gives examples of
the actual forms from Turkish, Lhasa Tibetan, and Panare.

Perhaps that's what you were thinking of after all?

Doug

In a message dated 7/10/2002 5:22:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
alrivera@ALUMNI.SOUTHERN.EDU writes:


> Doug Dee wrote: > >> Well, I was reading more of Describing Morphosyntax, and I'm almost sure > I > >> read a bit about a language grammaticalizing "contrary to expectations" > and > >> "according to expectations" as verbal inflections, and not just verbs on > their > >> own. > >> > >>But now I can't find it. I thought I saw it near the section on > miratives, > but > >>it appears to have vanished entirely. > > > >It's on page 255, in section 9.6: > > > >". . . in many languages there is a distinction between the expression of > >information that is surprising versus that which is unsurprising or > expected." > > No, that's not the bit I remember... I read, appended to an example, > something > like what I wrote, but it had the name of the language that did it, and it > may > have listed the actual morphemes. > > It's entirely possible it could be an invention of my unfevered brain... > (Like > the time my teacher asked us why the Mariner shot the Albatross, which left > me > confused, because I had read in at least an entire extra stanza about > that...) > > > *Muke! > -- > http://www.frath.net/ >