On Thu, 27 Sep 2001 20:23:03 EDT David Peterson <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
> 14.) I will've eaten (properfect): "Don't worry, Ma.  By the time
> your asleep
> I will've eaten."  (This
>     seems to be a common phrase from me to my mother.  Oh, and
> "properfect" is something I     made up.  Makes sense, don't it? ;) )
-

That's "i'll've eaten" for me... no [wI], just a double contraction :-)

> modals and experiencer verbs.  The present is, in fact, just pronoun
> + verb
> in present tense.  You say "I can", not "I'm canning" (unless you
> mean
> putting things into cans or firing someone).  You can say things
> like "I'm
> loving", but it's odd to think of it as an emotion and not an
> action.  One
> example I've seen of emotion though is in Led Zeppelin's "Thank
> You": "If the
> sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you".  Yet I found it
> odd the
> first time I heard it.  So, if you go through that list and delete
-

I keep thinking in terms like these all the time, since my main conlang
Rokbeigalmki doesn't have a 'simple' present tense in anything but the
"equals" form of 'be' - which is zero-copula, anyway!  So it has AZOI-IIP
"i love (generally, all the time, routinely)" and AZA-IIP "i am loving
(right now)", but no simple "i love."  However, thanks to compound tenses
you can say the incredibly romantic verb AZOIZOIZA-IIP, which translates
roughly to something like "my eternal love for you is always immediate in
my awareness".


-Stephen (Steg)
 "mew.
  mew hast.
  mew hast meep.
  mew hast meep get frog.
  mew hast meep get frog.
  mew hast meep get frog and a smelly sock!"
     ~ those silly binghamton people, based on the song 'du hast'