Re: Genitive relationships (WAS: Construct States)

   Date:         Wed, 10 Mar 1999 10:46:24 -0800
   From: Sally Caves <scaves@...>

   Sprecende furnished the form for what we know of as the
   gerund.Isn't it -end that is cognate with MnG -ung? In Middle
   English you have a wide variety of this -end ending: -and, -ung,
   -yng... all over England

I read somewhere that the MnE verb form in -ing conflates _three_
derived nominals, which are still kept apart in other Germanic
languages, e.g., MnG and Danish. In the latter, we have (as a slightly
contrived example)

        (at ride -- to ride a horse)
        riden    -- some riding around, as an event that happens
        ridning  -- riding in general, e.g., as a hobby
        ridende  -- present participle, as in "riding policeman"

The first of these is obsolescent in Danish, but not in German AFAIK.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)