Re: USAGE: Circumfixes

En réponse à Stephen Mulraney :


>Yes. I believe that there were once a number of other negatives, evolved
>from nouns other than "pas" ("step"), like "miette" ("crumb"?) and
>"goutte" ("drop", I suppose).
Exactly. Another one, which survived long enough to be still found in 
literature (although it sounds archaic) is "point": "point, dot". At a time 
(about 2 centuries ago) it was even more common than "pas". It can still be 
found today in some country-side dialects.

>  I suppose for a brief, rather amusing,
>period in French history, these were linked to specific verbs by their
>meanings, so that we had "je ne vais pas" and "je ne mange miette", but
>not the of course completely meaningless "je ne vais miette" :).
It's *exactly* how they came into being. Note though that sometimes the 
association was rather symbolic. "goutte", which you are correct in 
assuming it means "drop", has traditionnally been associated with "voir": 
"to see". "On n'y voit goutte" is still used as a set phrase to mean "it's 
very dark", although people younger than me would probably find it a 
strange expression.


>Ah, I didn't realise the demarkation was so precise. Handy, if a bit
>boring ;).
Well, that's what happens when the language makes determinative prefixes 
mandatory on nouns ;)) .

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang. 

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