Re: [tied] Re: Utility of Articles (was: Rise of the Feminine)

Jens:

> One function of thematicising (sic?) which is plain to see is that
> of appurtenance: Ordinals are formed by the addition of *-e/o- to
> the cardinals (plus a shipload of analogy, but not enough to fool
> Szemerényi), as 'belonging to seven' or 'characterized by the number
> seven' is 'seventh'. And the to-participle makes excellent sense as
> the possessive counterpart of a "root noun" with empty t-extension,
> as Vedic -kr.-t- 'making -' => kr.tá- 'made': what "a making one"
> has is what he has "made". I have made a case of the subjunctive
> being in origin exactly the same, but that is a suggestion ratyher
> than a description. The idea was that the subjunctive was originally
> the form of dependent-clause verbs, and as dependent clauses
> characterise main clauses just as adjectives characterise nouns, the
> subjunctive was the mood of ancillary messages belonging to the
> central message. That would of course make the subjunctive very old,
> but I think that would have to be assumed anyway.

And it seems that I agree with all of the above!


= gLeN