On a strict division of isolating/non-isol. lgs,
I say:
> Let go of this conviction of yours.
Torsten:
> I will let go of my conviction that Chinese is
> isolating at the earliest possible opportunity.
Good :)
On genitive *-osyo-, I said:
>> But I never said that this had anything to do
>> with Nostratic! ??
Torsten:
> But you said using the resulting genitive as a
> verbal stem without further modifying suffixes was
> OK, [...]
No I didn't. I didn't mention genitives in connection
with pre-IE noun incorporation in verb stems. I was
using the thematic genitive *-osyo as an example of
a fossilized locative-inflected relative pronoun
*ya (> **yo) denoting possession. Since I hardly
think there is another adequate semantic explanation
for the addition of *-yo here, it can be easily
hypothesized that denominal verb stems in *-ye- were
also originally incorporated possessive phrases,
likewise ending in mLIE *ya.
To use a genitive in a verb stem, one would
theoretically have to incorporate an existing phrase
with that genitive in it and so it would be unlikely
that a genitive noun alone would be used as a verb
stem. A nominative noun without further marking
though? Sure, that happens all the time.
= gLeN
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