Re: Passive to intransitive ...
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, April 30, 2001, 2:32 |
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Roger Mills wrote:
> Nice idea, which I may have to sneak into Proto Kash and its
> developments. At present Kash has no good way to express passive
Uatakassí has no passive either, being ergative, but Common Kassí did,
with the prefix që-. Because of the changes that lead to Uatakassí, që-
completely disappeared (in the standard dialect, some dialects would
change it to k(a)- or k(i)- ... perhaps some dialects might have verbs
with fossilized passives, which could be reborrowed into the standard
dialect). However, there are a few words which begin with the prefix
na- "that which", in which it actually represents Common Kassí naqë-
"that which (passive)", such as _uanaláu_ "food", not *"eater".
> IIRC couldn't the passive of Lat. video be used to mean "seem"? in
> particular videtur?
Interesting. I would think that a passive of "to see" would come to be
a stative verb meaning "be visible"
--
Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon
A nation without a language is a nation without a heart - Welsh proverb
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