Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>]

been consulting with typlogist gurus about the presence of
consecutives around the world. interesting gap where languages have
verb forms where the stem can be a well-formed word, especially
isolating languages like Mandarin, etc.  now here's the interesting
suggestion: such languages are using zero-forms for consecutives,
consistent with the modal patterning, etc.  if such an analysis could
be justified, consecutives would be found all over the place.

from Yoruba to Mandarin, modal forms coincide with bare stems. so a
common narrative sequence in Mandarin might go (with -le as
past/perfect):

V-le,   and V-0,        and V-0,        and V-0

where zero-forms interpreted as le-forms. nice.

interesting prospect for your weekend musings.
V 
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Dr Vincent DeCaen     <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>
c/o Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, 4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor
University of Toronto, Toronto ON, CANADA, M5S 1A1

Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative, www.chass.utoronto.ca/~decaen/hsei/
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The mind takes to a new idea the way the body takes to microbe:
It rejects it.  --P.D. Medawar