[b-hebrew] Verb Inflection & Tense

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Sat Sep 17 20:23:41 EDT 2005


Dear Jack,

>Taking verb root ? aral ? which means ? study ? you can add
>a prefix mag to make the infinitive ? mag-aral.  The verb
>can be then conjugated in the active voice (or Subject
>Focus as is sometimes called) to nag-aral, nag-a-aral, and
>nag-a-aral,

HH: This looks like a typo, since the last two forms above are identical.

>  indicating respectively ? having studied
>(Perfect - action completed), studying (Imperfect - action
>in process), and intending to study (Contemplated -
>intended action).   There  is a different put parallel four
>part conjugation in the passive voice (or Object Focus)- 
>pi-nag-aral-an, pi - nag-a ? aral-an, and pag-aaral.  You
>can think of Tagalog as having two stems.
>
>I have been lead to believe that other, if not all, of the
>Austronesian languages are inflected in terms of aspect but
>not tense but certainly Tagalog is.


				Yours,
				Harold Holmyard




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