Re: Mir ist kalt -- How to analyze this sentence?

--- Jeff Rollin <jeff.rollin@...> wrote:
>
> (non-)finite = (ir-)realis? Is that your usage? It
> would seem to be odd to
> conflate the usual meaning of "(not) expressing
> tense or aspect" with that
> of "expressing reality or non-reality of action".
>
> Jeff.
>
Indeed, this is a strange meaning of 'non-finite' -
however, it is not, apparently, a strange conceptual
leap between non-finiteness and non-reality. It is
known that non-finite clauses frequently compete with
irrealis clauses. For example, in the history of
English, the frequency of usage for the to-infinitive
(as opposed to the bare infinitive) rose as the usage
of subjunctives dropped. This may have been the case
in Irish as well, where a large portion of verbal noun
clauses (with the particle 'a' plus VN) are used in
exactly the contexts where subjunctives would have
been used in Old Irish.

 -Elliott




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