[tied] Re: o-grade thoughts

> > I don't get it. What is this claim about languages you think
> > I made?
>
> Specifically, in the case of English, this claim from
> message 45893:
>
> > Reduplication may also express intensity, repetition and
> > the like ("It rained and rained as he rode and rode").
>
> And originally that meant: it rained, then it rained; he
> rode, then he rode. Plurality of rains spells, plurality
> of riding stages.
>

OK, now I see what you are objecting to: it's not the idea
that iterative verbs refer to several consecutive occasions,
but the claim that iterative is the origin of intensive and
durative. Yes?

> More generally, in message 45896 you extended the claim to
> reduplication in PIE:
>
> > 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.
>
> You've offered no evidence for either claim: the way the
> concepts fit together in your conceptual universe isn't
> evidence.

Well, yes, the idea is that reduplicated verbs stems first
stood for repetion before they stood for duration and intensity.
I think the pair Ch.Sl. bojati se, "sich fürchten" vs. OHG bibe:n
"tremble" is a good example of having one or several spasms of
fear, respectively (I interpret the *bhe- root as punctual,
because I think it is somehow related to Pokorny *bhei(&)-,
*bhi:- "schlagen", ie you are struck by fear, but I can't yet
formalize it).


Torsten