[tied] Re: IE thematic presents and the origin of their thematic vo

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> So true, yes. However, I was talking morphology, you replied with
> semantics. In other words, if someone had created the word *bHo:r-
> meaning "thief at this occasion" it would almost immediately have
> slipped semantically into the "habitual thief" sense. The thing
> that bugs me is your "resultative, iterative" category. Those two
> are mutually exclusive. Another thing, why should a thief be
> a "carrier"? And why a "habitual carrier" at that? Were carriers
> notorious for unreliability in PIE times? And why does Russian have
> the very similar 'vor' "thief" (BTW in the comment to this, please
> leave out the sentence "the two are completely unrelated"; I have a
> copy of Pokorny too)?

Shouldn't IE *bho:r give Russian _bar_, all other things being equal?

Concerning the semantics, I think there's another possible
explanation. We begin from the same starting point: normally, when
someone steals something, he literally carries it off. So, one could
ask "Who carried it?" (cf. idiomatic English "Who lifted it?"). A
ready answer to the question would be "So-and-so is the carrier".
From there, it only takes a stigmatic association with the
old "carrier" word for it to shift semantically to "thief".

- Rob