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THEORY: Meanings of Verbal Accidents.

From:Eldin Raigmore <eldin_raigmore@...>
Date:Friday, August 10, 2007, 20:13
How common is it for inflections on a verb to mean one thing for one form and
something else for another?

For instance, in English, the "-ing" suffix on most finite verbs means
progressive aspect or continuing aspect or habitual aspect; and the "-ed"
suffix on most finite verbs means past tense or perfective or completive
aspect.

But on most participles, "-ing" means active voice and "-ed" means passive
voice.

Example: if the Volkswagen passes the Ferrari, the VW is "the passing car" and
the Ferrari is "the passed car".

But sometimes even on participles "-ing" means imperfective or present and "-
ed" (or "-n" if that's an allomorph) means perfective or past.

For example if I have two children, a 10-y/o and a 20-y/o, one might be
my "growing" child and the other my "grown" child.

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Is it common among languages for a particular marking of one accident on the
finite verbs to be used to mark a different accident on some non-finite verbals,
for instance on participles?

In cases where that doesn't apply to every verb, what conditions
that? "Aktionsart" or "aspectual class" or "inherent aspect" or "lexical aspect"?
Or something else?

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Thanks for any and all answers.