I dont really thing it's a discussion theme on this
list, but
>The gerund(ive) form is tabete
'eat-ing.' To say 'I am eating,' you
would say "(watashi ga)
tabeteimasu," I believe.
The -masu forms are the
modern standard ("plain" or "polite") for "non past" (imperfective) forms
(-ru) and they are constructed from one of the root forms ending in -(void)
or -i.
So, "tabe(ru)" renders
-> tabe-masu while "ik(u)" renders -> iki-masu
Thus, the
actual durative form is -TE IRU > I'm eating = "Boku wa
tabete iru (no da)"
>The form 'taberu' is from the root tabe- and the suffix -u, with
/r/
as an epenthetic consonant.
Right. But -ru forms ARE "non past" (non
finished) actions, not verbal infinitives. They are used as the "dictionary
form" as well, so we tend to think of them as "infinitives". Infinitives are the
nominal form of verbs, and Japanese responds to that nominalizing this -ru form
like this: taberu-koto or just taberu-no. This construction from -ru forms also
contributes to confusion, of course, but we have to take it as a sole
construction -ru-koto/no.
> Neither the term "present participle" nor the form {tabende}
Of course it's not. They don't exist. "Present
participle doesn't mean anything in Japanese, and taberu is a -(void) verb and
thus it renders "tabeTE".
are
> mentioned. Forms ending in {-nde} are usually the gerund forms
of n-
,
> m-, and b- stems, e.g. {sinu - sinde, nomu - nonde, yobu -
yonde}.
Sin-u : sin-te :: nom-u : nom-te :: yob-u : yob-te
[Actually I prefer standard Romaji, you should get
a newer/non American book]
SHInu -> SHInde ; nomu -> nonde ; yomu
-> yonde >It appears that *wa was a topic marker in
Nostratic -- cf. Semitic
nominative *-u, PIE pronominal nominative *-u, PU
reflexive > medio-
passive *-u.
Modern Japanese "wa" is just an oral form. Written
form still preserves ancient "ha". It is a topic marker, not an agent
introducer, which is "ga".
Regards.