LINGUIST List 3.264

Wed 18 Mar 1992

Disc: V and V

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Moshe Taube, V & V
2. Jorge Hankamer, Re: 3.247 V and V
3. , Re: 3.232 V and V
4. "FRANK R. BRANDON", Re: 3.247 V and V
5. Michael Henderson, Re: 3.247 V and V

This construction seems to be a Semitism which came into European and other
languages through New Testament Greek.
 Just take a look in any language at Matthew chpt. 6, (Sermon on the
Mount): Seek and you shall find (or some similar wording).
 For an extensive review of the construction, see H.J.Polotsky, Etudes
de Syntaxe Copte. Cairo 1944 (Reprinted in his Collected Papers, Jerusalem 1977
, 1st study).

 Best, Moshe Taube

Message 2: Re: 3.247 V and V

On "root hog or die": as a native speaker of a dialect of English where this
expression is also indubitably native, it is perfectly clear to me that 'hog'
is a vocative, and I don't see what punctuation has to do with it. I have
known that expression since I was born, and I don't think I ever before
saw it written.

Jorge Hankamer
hankling.ucsc.edu

Message 3: Re: 3.232 V and V

I was interested to note some French examples in the latest discussion
of "imperative-or-not", and also the "gnomic" category suggested for
some of the examples in English. I have another example to propose for
the gnomic category, which I think cannot be classified as an imperative,
since one presumably cannot order someone to love them-
 Aime moi, aime mon chien.
usually given as a proverb, meaning something like take me as I am, accept
my prejudices, family, etc.
Here the sentence seems to be a type of conditional?

Leslie Morgan (Loyola in Md.)

Message 4: Re: 3.247 V and V

Re: Prof. Nyman's assertion that if one becomes a formal linguist, one will
understand the problems with these conjoined sentences. I still fail to see
why there is a problem. Perhaps I am unaware of this particular brand of
'formal' linguistics or perhaps I am an off-the-cuff linguist, but why is it
a problem if the "underlying" tenses of the conjuncts are different? Isn't
this a non-syntactic question on a par with the interpretation of syntactic
present tenses as having future or conditional meanings (e.g. Bill leaves on
Thursday [spoken on Wednesday], When he drinks, he cries, etc.)? In some
registers of Portguese, present tense verb forms are replacing subjunctives,
even in the imperative use. Is this a major formal problem?! Infinitives are
also used in formal Portuguese 'imperatives' (e.g. Favor (nao) estacionar ...
Please do (not) park ...). Then what about 'Go there and ask for your money
back', 'Go ask for your money back' in English which in Portuguese are equiva-
lent to 'Va la e peca seu dinheiro de volta' and 'Va pedir...' [Imagine dia-
critics] which are respectively conjoined subjunctives/imperatives and a
subjunctive followed by an infinitive? Perhaps these sentences don't need to
be related in either language, although (if my memory serves me) I think I've
seen this done in English. Further elucidation?

Message 5: Re: 3.247 V and V

'Feed a cold and starve a fever': Is this an example of V and V?

Michael M. T. Henderson
Linguistics Department
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045-2140
(913)864-3450
Bitnet: mmthukanvm
Internet:mmthukanvm.cc.ukans.edu