Re: Not applicatives, but...?

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 5:59 PM, Douglas Koller <laokou@...> wrote:
> From: Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
>
>  > (And also "versprechen", which can either be "mis-speak"
>  > or "promise".)
>
>  My dictionary says that in the meaning of the former, the verb is reflexive. Is this so?
>
>  sich versprechen = make a slip of the tongue
>  versprechen = promise
Yes, that's right.

And even for a reflexive "promise" meaning, there'll typically be an
indirect object argument that won't be there for the "mis-speak"
meaning, e.g. "Sie hat sich mir versprochen" = "She promised herself
to me" vs. "Sie hat sich versprochen" = "She mis-spoke".

>  Making it a little easier to distinguish than just by context.
True.

The nominalised forms are also different: "das Versprechen" = the
promise, "der Versprecher" = the act of mis-speaking. (Technically,
the homophonous form "das Versprechen" can also be the nominalised
infinitive, meaning "the act of mis-speaking/promising", but that form
won't be as frequent IMO as the two I listed.)

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>