--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
wrote:
> Thank you for a most thorough, informative, and fascinating answer
to my questions. What you say sounds quite plausible, although the
idea of an old aorist subjunctive becoming thematic present raises
the question to me of how a perfective idea (future "will come" <
aorist subjunctive) could become an imperfective idea ("is coming") -
though I recognize that in colloquial English "is coming" can often
be translated as "will come presently".
I have wondered about that myself. Perhaps it is a side-effect of
the pragmatic reference to the present moment that causes the
switch. The system just does not allow aorist stems to form present-
tense forms, so if they do they are automatically reclassified as
duratives, and their past tense changes from aorist to imperfect.
Slavic languages also switch to the imperfective verb when the
actual time meant is the present.
Jens