LINGUIST List 11.2395

Sun Nov 5 2000

Qs: Sound-denotative Affixes, Unusual Spanish Form

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. RM, Sound-denotative affixes
2. Colin Whiteley, Unusual Spanish construction

Topic: Sound-denotative affixes

There is evidence that in Old Spanish the nominalizing suffix IDO had a
special usage which meant roughly 'noisy' (e.g. ladrar 'to bark' -->
ladrido 'barking noise). Does anyone know of any other language which
might have a similar affix, i.e. one whose primary or secondary function
was to indicate 'the sound of ___'?


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Richard E. Morris
Assistant Professor of Spanish (Linguistics)
Department of Foreign Languages
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, TN 37130
phone: (615) 898-5902
email: rmorrismtsu.edu
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I have just come across a construction in Spanish which I had never seen
before. The very well read native speaker who gave it to me assures me it is
unusual but correct. It is:

"Se le habiamos olvidado", in the sense of "(Ella) se habia olvidado de
nosotros".

As a fluent, non-native speaker of Spanish, I immediately judged this to be
ungrammatical, but my informant insists it is acceptable, though very
unusual. I should like to know the opinion of other native speakers on the
Linguist list. If you find it acceptable, please suggest how it should be
analysed, e.g. whether the verb is 1st person plural or 3rd person singular
+ a suffixed pronoun "-mos".

I will post a summary if the results are worthwhile.

Colin Whiteley
Barcelona, Spain