Re: Verb/Noun Combos?

Hello,

> As I understand it, they are nominal formations on a verbal
> stem which are
> used where other languages use an infinitive. One interesting
> aspect of
> this is that instead of an "accusative and infinitive"
> construction, the
> Celtic languages (the only I-E languages with  verb-nouns,
> AFAIK) have a
> "genitive and verb-noun" construction, to wantonly paraphrase Latinate
> grammar. For example, "You think me to be stupid" or "credes
> me stultum esse" is "wyt ti'n meddwl fy mod i'n twp" or, literally
"You
> think my being stupid".
Better 'Rwyt ti'n meddwl fy mod i'n dwp' - 'wyt' is used in questions,
and unlike 'wi' is rarely found in affirmatives. And you forgot the
lenition after 'yn' predicative.

And even more literally, the example translates as 'You are in thinking
of my being stupid' (so it's a genitive).

Also in Irish, the object in a verbnoun construction is in the genitive,
so 'tá bhur gcailín ag ithe ár n-arain' "your girl is eating our bread'
(lit. 'by the eating of our bread'), where 'arain' is genitive (the nom.
is 'aran'), or 'táim ag foghlaim Ghaeilge' ("I'm learning Irish"), not
*_... foghlaim Gaeilge_ (the genitive of proper nouns is expressed by
leniting them).

Pavel
--
Pavel Iosad               pavel_iosad@mail.ru

Is mall a mharcaicheas am fear a bheachdaicheas
                 --Scottish proverb

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