Re: [tied] Re: o-grade thoughts

On 2006-08-30 01:53, tgpedersen wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>> What is your evidence for original plurality rather than the
>> duration and/or intensity that the usage now conveys?
>>
>
> Partly logical: the idea is that a reduplicated verb stem
> (and its nominal derivates) would designate several
> occurrences of the type of event the root of the reduplicated
> stem designates. Duration and intensity are logically, as far
> as I can tell, derivative concepts of plurality (via the concept
> of repetition).

Brian and I asked for _evidence_, not for a preconceived opinion. It's
the idea of serial repetition/continuality, not simultaneous plurality,
that seems to have underlain PIE reduplication. In my "rode and rode"
example you have _one_ agent riding away, and the repetition of the verb
may express one prolonged, monotonous action, not multiple stages
thereof. If I say "we rode and rode", I repeat the verb not because two
or more people are involved but because of the nature of the activity.
Give me a single example of reduplication distinguishing singular from
plural forms in an IE verb or noun.

> Partly linguistic: reduplication is used in general in the
> world's languages to designate plurality,

But there are also other uses of reduplication, and there are other ways
of marking grammatical number. Typological considerations don't carry
any weight if there's no shred of evidence to support them.

Piotr