Piotr:
> Who says that there's only one source of PIE *o?
I know I didn't. _Non-alternating_ *o normally
comes from eLIE *a via Vowel Shift, while
post-tonic *o alternating with *e in paradigms is
derived from eLIE *&. In the case of the causative,
the vowel is pretonic and so likely comes from eLIE
*a, implying a form based on a stative.
> The *o of thematic deverbative adjectives is
> normally unaccented. On the other hand, the
> durative-forming suffix *-je/o- is normally
> accented, [...]
One can make an interesting semantic parallel between
the usages of *-yo- and that of Mandarin /de/. In
both cases, it is used as both a relative pronoun
and apparently a genitive function. In Mandarin,
/wo3 de/ means "mine" but /Nei4-ge pao4 le zai
tu3shu1guan3 de ren2/ means "That person _who_ ran
to the library", making a relative clause.
In IE, this parallel can help us understand why
the confirmed relative pronoun *yo- was tacked on to
the thematic genitive and yet at the same gives us
insight into its incorporation in derivative verb
stems to form the causative.
So, basically, I'm saying that maybe you were right
about the idea of a denominal origin of the causative
from an *o-grade thematic stem. In fact, if we again
interpret *-ye/o- as possessive, *mon-eye- can be
understood as coming from earlier verb stem *mané-y&-
(derived by accent displacement from the noun phrase
*man&-y&- "one having [-y&] (something) thought of
[man&-]". That sounds like a causative to me.
> But the causatives have *-je/o- as the stem-forming
> element; that's different from the bare thematic
> vowel *-e/o-, [...]
Yes, I had been thinking that maybe this was an
extension of the inherited MIE system I thought of,
but that doesn't make as much sense. Here's a new
idea.
Let's say in early Late IE that we have a thematic
passive noun in *a-grade like *bHar&- "(something)
carried" and an active *e-grade noun of the form
*bHer&- "carrying". Then, as up above, the causative
is simply based on the "passive" thematic form.
Now, I wonder if the duratives could in fact be
derived from nouns like *bHer&-. It would be perfect,
no?
= gLeN
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