Yeah, it isn't a really good time...Stephen Carlson wrote:I realize it is Thanksgiving in the US, but could you expand / expound on this when you get the time? This is very condensed and I'm not sure I'm understanding it.MAubrey wrote:This was my preferred view until I began looking at grammatical contrasts between present middles and perfect middles. It sounds reasonable when contrasting present and perfect actives. It's a harder point to make with middles. Only the present middles will be imperfective. The perfects will be purely existential--no internal temporal constituency. Consider, for example: γέγραπται, 'it is written,' vs. γράφεται, 'it is being written.'RandallButh wrote:{+perfective, followed with a +imperfective}
I might have a moment when I get to the weekend.
I'd also like to see what Randall's going to write, too, since I've found that he, you, and myself tend to have generally similar views expressed in quite different ways. In this case, I have a feeling part of the issue here is that I'm really not at all a fan of distinctive features. They have a kind of practical usefulness, but I think that they're theoretically problematic--they're a mathematical metaphor that breaks down rather quickly. So I think I want to wait until Randall himself has articulated a less condensed position.