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Re: Infinitives

From:BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 28, 2000, 9:00
 >On Mon, 27 Mar 2000 18:32:29 +0200, Mangiat <mangiat@...> wrote:
 >
 >>Hello everyone!
 >>I'd like to eliminate the infinitive in my Vaiysi, but I don't know how
 >>precisely. I've heard that modern Greek has this feature (is it true?),

In Vedic Sanskrit the formation that later became an infinitive was still a
fully inflected noun, much like an _-ing_ noun (gerund) in English; cf.
"they like dancing" and "they like to dance", which mean pretty much the
same thing.  Even in Classical Sanskrit the non-inflecting infinitive is
very seldom used, various deverbal noun formations being preferred
instead.  But maybe that's too close to an ordinary infinitive for your
taste...

/BP

"Doubt grows with knowledge" -Goethe