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Re: CHAT: subtitles

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Monday, March 29, 2004, 18:01
Henrik Theiling wrote:

>Hi! > >John Cowan <cowan@...> writes: > > >>ObRant: It's a mystery to me how the verb _bow_ 'bend the body' and its >>derived noun _bow_ (both /bau/) got separated from the noun _bow_ 'missile >>weapon; viol implement' and its derived verb (both /bou/), since a bow >>is transparently "that which is bent" (as in _rainbow_, very plainly). >>But it was already so in OE: bugan, boga respectively. >> >> > >Maybe it is a help that in German, one is the perfect and preterite of >the other: > >beugen = OE bugan >Bogen = OE boga > >The verb 'beugen' has pret. 'wir bogen', and PPP 'gebogen', i.e. > > 'Der Bogen ist gebogen.' 'The bow is bowed.' > 'Ich beuge den Bogen.' 'I bow the bow.' > 'Wir bogen den Bogen.' 'We bowed the bow.' > >Thus the reason for separation is ablaut: bow /bou/ is derived from >bow /bau/. > > >
I'm not sure, but I think the construction you refer to as 'preterite', despite being just that, is, in fact, normally called the imperfect. Or at least, that's how I'm taught it.