Re: [tied] Stative Verbs, or Perfect Tense

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 19:07:35 +0000, elmeras2000
<jer@...> wrote:

>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
>
>> More importantly, the *-s in the 3rd. person preterite is
>> also a feature of Tocharian. The paradigm *-h2a, *-tha,
>> *-0-s, 3pl. *-r.-s can surely be reconstructed for PIE, as
>> it wouldn't have arisen twice independently in Anatolian and
>> in Tocharian (or to quote Jasanoff: "the chances of the same
>> scenario having played itself out twice, once in Anatolian
>> and once in Tocharian, are virtually nil").
>
>My thoughts about that doctrine are a follows:
>
>Is the fact that the preterite of the hi-conjugation and the
>Tocharian preterite III agree in showing an -s- in the 3sg only
>really so important that we have to change the classical doctrine of
>the IE verbal system for that reason?

I think so. Especially since there is *-s in the 3pl. as
well.

>I do not think so. For one
>thing, the two languages disagree fundamentally in the middle voice
>which has a pervasive -s- in Tocharian, but nothing of the sort in
>Anatolian.

There is no -s- in Anatolian. Tocharian has non-sigmatic
o-grade middles in the _intransitives_ that make an
"s-preterit" (Toch A. nakät, tsakät, etc.). Tocharian B has
sigmatized these, but with retained o-grade. The
_transitives_ are sigmatic in Toch. A & B. Vedic has
s-middles, with e-grade, everywhere. The original situation
is thus preserved in Anatolian.

>All we need is to find a way for a 3sg ending of the s-
>aorist

There was no s-aorist.

The s-aorist is derived from the Anatolian/Tocharian
s-preterite by replacing the stative endings *-h2a, *-th2a
by *-m, *-s from the active aorist (root aorist), and adding
*-t to the 3rd. person.

We then have:

*-m
*-s
*-s-t
..
*-rs

which becomes by a simple analogy:

*-s-m
*-s-(s)
*-s-t
..
*-s-rs

This scenario was played out once, in the core IE languages
that have an s-aorist.


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...