> Am I right to think that you analyse 'lykkedes' in the
> expression "det er ikke 'lykkedes' Lykketoft at ..." as some sort
of
> quotation of a shortened phrase containing the preterite of the
verb?
> Something like: "It is not '(sth) managed' for Lykketoft to ..."
>
That's not the way I feel it to be. The feeling to the native speaker
(me, at least) is that this is a stop-gap solution; there is no
supine or even a ppp available, therefore you take what's closest at
hand, namely the past tense form, although it's a finite form, and
use that instead (on the principle known in Danish as 'det
forhåndenværende søms princip' "the principle of nails available"
(supposedly describing a certain type of arrangement of paintings on
a wall). Cf. substandard American English "I have took". But I've
even heard Danes say 'Der har fundets ...', but they had above-
average exposure to Swedish.
> If so, this might open new ways of Sprachgefuehl when
reconstructing
> language evolutions. Take for instance: secutus sum, locuta sum.
> They were perhaps once felt like: "I am a (male) having followed",
> "I am a (female) having spoken".
I just checked up on 'habeo' in Meillet's Etymological Dictionary. It
seems the periphrastic past, habeo + ppp is even older that Cicero.
On the other hand, Basque has the exact same construction, which is
interesting for those that believe in substrate influence.
> Deponens is not a verb having 'laid off' its passive meaning but is
> really a middle form preceding passives of active verbs in
> evolution.
> So Latin periphrastic perfect of deponentia is perhaps not a mere
> calque of passives of active verbs.
If your first observation is true, yes.
> This is perhaps something to consider? If so ...
> Til 'lykke'
Well thanks!
I have a question about Swedish.
Danish has a progressive tense construction 'Jeg er ved at skrive'
literally "I am at to write". Apart from the infinitive taking the
place of the verbal noun or gerund this is identical to the English,
Dutch and Northwest German 'I am writing', 'Ik ben aan het
schrijven', 'Ich bin am Schreiben'. As far as I know Swedish does not
have such a 'locativic' progressive construction; am I right?
Torsten