Re: [tied] Re: Ablaut, hi-conjugation, stress alternation, etc

----- Original Message -----

From: Piotr Gasiorowski

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2006 9:07 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Ablaut, hi-conjugation, stress alternation, etc

On 2006-12-23 04:34, Patrick Ryan wrote:

> Well, I guess Neville Forbes, author of _The Russian Verb_,
> published by Oxford University (1974), is wrong then, for he
> translates proc^itayu as 'I shall read through' on p. 7 of that book.

It isn't a particularly felicitous translation. 'I shall read' is
perfectly adequate. If you use the form in question, the event is viewed
as having no internal structure -- i.e. punctual.

> Does not budu c^itat mean 'I shall read'?

Now _this_ is durative: 'I shall be reading'.
>
> If what you were saying were true, Piotr, then Russian would not
> have a perfective but only a punctual.

It has perfective and imperfective ASPECTS with, respectively,
punctual/inchoative /resultative and durative/stative/ iterative
AKTIONSART interpretations (plus some extra functions: a perfective verb
has no present tense, because the relevant forms are interpreted as
futures).

Piotr

***

I think a part of the problem we are having is with your understanding of what the English equivalent phrase means.

I have no problem believing that Russian perfectives have no present; and certainly, proc^itayu is perfective.

But I do have a problem with believing that English 'I shall read' is punctual.

Could you furnish a sentence and a context in which it would be punctual?

Patrick

***