On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 01:52:52 +0000, Ray <
ray28238317@...> wrote:
>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
><richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
>
>> Its web site is http://www.academie-francaise.fr . The Académie
>> Française is charged with regulating the usage of French.
>>
>
>Did you suggest that moder-day French shows verb-object agreement?
>I think so because yout said 'the past participle in avoir perfects
>agree with a direct preceding object to this day'
The rule in French is that there's no agreement when the object follows the
verb, but there should be when the noun comes first:
a) il a ceint son épée
b) l'épée qu'il a ceinte
In spoken French, there is no difference in pronunciation in most verbs
(aimé, aimés, aimée, aimées all sound alike), and when there is, the rule
does not seem to be adhered to, as a rule.
Standard Italian can but need not show agreement:
<Ho scritto una lettera> is much more frequent than <Ho scritta una
lettera> (the latter form may be exlusively literary), but, as in French,
things are different when the participle follows the noun: La lettera che
ho scritta/scritto are both acceptable. (I don't know which one is more
common in spoken Italian).
In Catalan, there is usually no agreement in the modern language, except
when a third person direct object pronoun (el/la/els/les, en) is present:
Has tancat la porta? Sí, l'he tancada.
He menjat dues taronges. / D'aquestes taronges, n'he menjades dues.
Castilian lost the agreement in the XVth century.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...