Re: Góquim

Quoting Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>:

> Quoting Peter Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...>:
>
> > Staving Thomas Wier:
> > >Quoting Christian Thalmann <cinga@...>:
> > >
> > > > One of the verb affixes is called "infinite".  Is that a
> > > > typo for "infinitive", or is it some kind of tense used for
> > > > general truths and timeless static situations?  The latter
> > > > would be cool, but I somewhat doubt it was the intention.
> > >
> > >If so, the traditional name for such a tense is "gnomic".
> >
> > What a wonderful name for a tense! Presumably, an elvish language should
> > always include a gnomic tense.
>
> Hm, unfortunately, Quenya uses a tense called "aorist" for that. And if I
> recall my Greek correctly (fat chance!), that means etymologically much the
> same as "infinite".
Yes, precisely so:  Greek has a gnomic aorist. In Greek (and other
languages with it, like Georgian), a gnomic aorist is not a formal
morphological category, but simply a descriptor of one use of the
aorist.  The Greek aorist has other uses as well.

(In English, gnomics are usually in the simple present: "God
helps them who help themselves.")

> My Elvish lang uses the uninflected verb for that. Given its most common
> function, a traditionalist western philologist would undoubtedly named
> it "imperfect".
I doubt it.  "Imperfect" typically describes on-going actions which
in principle have beginnings and ends.  Gnomic aorists refer precisely
to circumstances which have no beginning or end.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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