Re: Participles in Natlangs and in Conlangs

Henrik Theiling wrote:
> Hi!
>
> R A Brown <ray@...> writes:
>
>>...
>>It will be seen that they are passive in meaning. At school we had it
>>drummed into us: "The gerundIVE is a passIVE adjectIVE."    :)
>>...
>
>
> I wonder why such stuff actually works in helping learners.  Why does
> one not mix it up with, say:
'cos of the constant repetition.

> The gerundIVE is an actIVE substantIVE. :-P
gerundIVE ... adjectIVE is OK, as I suspect very few (if any but me) of
my schoolmates would've known what a substantive was. We always called
the critters 'nouns'.

And we did also have drummed into us: "The gerund is an active noun."

But you're right about the active~ passive business. I noticed that even
as a schoolkid  :)

But it's constant repetition that does it.
=====================================

Eldin Raigmore wrote:
[snip]
 >
 > Thanks, Ray.

You're welcome. The Latin gerundive and gerund (aka substantivized
neuter gerund) sure make most ordinary participles look pretty tame   :)

[snip]
 >>=========================================================================
 >
 > On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:06:44 +0200, Jean-François Colson
 > <fa597525@...> wrote:
[snip]
 >
 >>BTW what's the difference between mode and mood on a grammatical level?
 >
 >
 > I am afraid I don't know whether "mode" and "mood" and "modality"
actually
 > _do_ mean anything different from each other when used by linguists.

They are more or less synonymous. I quote from Trask under each heading:

[Mood]
"1. A grammatical category which expresses the degree or kind of reality
of a proposition, as presented by the speaker ........
  2. any one of the particular distinctions of mood occurring in a
particular language. Among the more widely attested mood categories are
*declarative, interrogative, imperative, jussive, subjunctive,
conditional, hortative, desiderative, dubitative* and *nessitative*,
though many others occur in one language or another.
_Adj._ *modal.* "

[Mode]
"See *mood* (especially sense 2)"

[Modality]
"1. A synonym for *mood*, often preferred for expressions of mood
distinctions by lexical means or as a superordinate term when 'mood' is
restricted to the expression of this category by verbal inflection.
  2. A specific range of mood distinctions concerned with the speaker's
estimate of the relationship between the actor and the accomplishment of
  some event."

--
Ray
==================================
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http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
"A mind which thinks at its own expense will always
interfere with language."         J.G. Hamann, 1760