>
> And with the imperfect? The imperfect is supposed to not be
changing
> the situation. I find this hard to fit together, though I am
> relatively sure it *is* part of the truth.
>
> Jens
I visualize a situation similar to romance change passé imparfait
originating from story-telling as Pjotr suggests (an important part
of life when gathering at night around the megaron-fire):
the unmarked verbroot without i describing the scene (imparfait)
and when something new is added a stressed *H1e is provided by the
narrator (passé).
It was later that this augment became a general marker of past time
and imported to presentformations (e-ablaut, i-reduplicated, in- or
suffixed by *-n- or *-sk-, ...) creating the verbform imperfect.
Lars