Re: Decomposed verbs (OOP-ish but applies to any lang)

Tim May scripsit:

>  > There's some evidence that "kill", at least in English, is not
>  > "cause to die".  If I shoot you on Sunday and you linger till
>  > Monday in extreme agony, then I can say "I caused you to die on
>  > Monday", but "I killed you on Monday" is infelicitous.
>  >
>
> No, you killed him on Sunday, because it was on Sunday that you caused
> him to die.
In fact, I think "I killed you on Sunday" is almost as infelicitous as
"I killed you on Monday" in this case.  In the 19th century, people
could say "I've been killed", meaning "I have suffered a mortal injury",
but that would be paradoxical nowadays, I think.

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