----- Original Message -----From: Piotr GasiorowskiSent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 3:39 PMSubject: Re: Re: [tied] Re: Ablaut, hi-conjugation, stress alternation, etcOn 2006-12-24 05:57, Patrick Ryan wrote:
> 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?
I have no problem understanding English verb forms. What makes
translation difficult is that English does not consistently distinguish
between perfective and imperfective verbs, so <I shall read> is actually
ambiguous and could be translated as <ja proc^itaju> or <ja budu
c^itat>, depending on the situational context. <I shall be reading> is
explicitly imperfective, but the use of the English future progressive
is more restricted than the use of the corresponding imperfective future
in Russian or Polish.
***I have tried hard to think of a sentence in which I would consider "I shall read" as punctual.
I repeat my request that you do so with the situational context that you believe justifies that interpretation.
Patrick
***