Re: [tied] Re: Ablaut, hi-conjugation, stress alternation, etc

----- Original Message -----

From: squilluncus

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 12:31 AM

Subject: [tied] Re: Ablaut, hi-conjugation, stress alternation, etc

--- In cybalist@... s.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@ ...>
wrote:
>
> I think a part of the problem we are having is with your
>understanding of what the English equivalent phrase means.
>
> I have no problem believing that Russian perfectives have no
present; and certainly, proc^itayu is perfective.
>
> But I do have a problem with believing that English 'I shall read'
is punctual.
>
> Could you furnish a sentence and a context in which it would be
punctual?

> Patrick

In my vernacular I am visualizing protchitaio as "jag får läst brevet"

Can't you (at a pitch) visualize it as something like "(When)I get
that letter read (I will answer him)"; or in a similar sentence:
"I shall get that paper written (and then I can have a holyday)".

Perhaps not very current English, but visualizsble.

Lars

***

If someone said to me:

"I shall read the paper, and then I can have a holiday."

my first question would be:

"How long do you think it will take?"

That suggests to me durative rather than punctual.

 

Patrick

***