Re: Ong Rokbeigalmki (A Rokbeigalmki Chant)
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <grandsir@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Friday, October 1, 1999, 6:35 |
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Thomas R. Wier wrote:
>
> Don Blaheta wrote:
>
> > I wonder in what way (if at all) this development is related to the loss
> > of "ne" in spoken French; could it be that as the pronouns made their
> > way into conjugations on the verb, the human brain resisted having a
> > third paradigm axis for negation?
>
> >From the human brain? I doubt it. There are plenty of languages
> that make negation an integral part of the verb morphology. The
> language I'm studying right now, Atkan Aleut, has a whole series
> of paradigms for negation on the verb itself. I believe Japanese
> has similar inflections.
>
Kind of. For the informal conjugation, Japanese verbs take their first
form (called form in -a because it ends with an -a for regular verbs)
and suffix it with conjugated forms of 'nai', which is the verb "not to
be". In more polite conjugation, the use the negative form of the polite
suffix 'masu': 'masen' in present and 'masendeshita' in the past.
> =======================================================
> Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
> ICQ#: 4315704 AIM: Deuterotom
> Website: <
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
> "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
>
> Denn wo Begriffe fehlen,
> Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein.
> -- Mephistopheles, in Goethe's _Faust_
> ========================================================