Re: Attached Verbs
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, February 21, 2001, 1:37 |
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Ed Heil wrote:
> But we have things like English "it's him!" French "L'etat, c'est moi,"
> and presumably whatever Arabic example Nik is thinking of mucking up the
> works...
According to the article on Arabic (discussing Classical Arabic, at any
rate) in _The World's Major Languages_:
"The verb 'to be', _kâna_ in the perfect, _yakûna_ in the imperfect,
occurs in the past and future and governs, like any other verb, the
accusative case."
...
"To illustrate, consider that _kâna tâj^iran_ 'he was a merchant' has
_tâj^iran_ in the indefinite accusative singular ... _Kâna tâj^irun_
[i.e., with the nominative] means 'there was a merchant'"
--
Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon
A nation without a language is a nation without a heart - Welsh proverb
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