Re: Ungrammaticalization?
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, July 19, 1999, 22:39 |
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Patrick Dunn wrote:
> I just finished studying this for a year. I can't believe how much I
> remember:
>
> Behold! We from the spear-danes in days of yore
Hmm, the translation I'm familiar with is:
Lo! We have heard the Spear-Danes' Lays
> and more strong verbs than you can throw a Klaeber at.
Yeah, English verbs have gotten so wimpy! We need to toughen them back
up! Love live (past tense "love") strong verbs!
Does anyone know the reason for the strong/weak terminology? I'd heard
it was because German had so many, and the early linguists, mostly
German, wanted to emphasize German's "strength and manliness". Sounds
apocryphal to me, but that's the story I've heard.
--
"[H]e axed after eggys: And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude not
speke no Frenshe ... And then at last a nother sayd that he woulde haue
hadde eyren: then the goode wyf sayd that she vnderstood hym wel." --
William Caxton
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