LINGUIST List 5.99

Fri 28 Jan 1994

Qs: 2nd person pronouns, Redundant suffixation, Greek, Clitics

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1. , Query: 2nd person pronouns
2. "George Fowler h(, Seeking examples of redundant suffixation
3. Chloe Mills, QUERY: machine readable Koine Greek
4. , CLITICS

I am interested in possible origins of 2nd person pronouns, esp.
singular, but not necessarily. Specifically, I am looking for
examples of such pronouns coming from (a) 3rd person or demonstrative
forms and (b) from 1st person plural. I am, of course, aware of
the many European examples of (a) such as German Sie and such
and so I am looking for examples from other parts of the world
(especially preagricultural societies). I am also aware of such
usages under (b) as 'How are we today?', but I am really looking
for examples where the 1st plural has really become the 2nd sg.

Can anybody suggest some good examples, preferably in English, of redundant
suffixation which doesn't (measurably) affect meaning or change part of speech?
A good example is ironic/ironical, in which, according to my Sprachgefuhl, the
addition of -al is redundant. This is in contrast to such pairs as historic/
historical, where both adjectives exist with a distinction in meaning. I would
like to find some more examples, if possible. In particular, can anybody
suggest something like the following abstract example? It is well known that
nouns in -ation correspond to verbs both with and without -ate, e.g.,
irrigate/irrigation or condense/condensation. But are there examples in which a
verb like condense develops a variant verb like *condensate under the influence
of the other pattern? I am not interested in back formations in which no
primary verb exists, such as the jocular neologism "dissertate". This is the
best idea I've had as to a place to look for this sort of process, but I'd be
very interested if anybody has any other suggestions.

If I get any interesting responses, I'll post a summary to the list.

George Fowler
Dept. of Slavic Languages
Indiana University
GFowlerIndiana.Edu

Does anyone out there in linguist-land know of any ASCII
New Testament Greek texts?

I'm interested in historical changes in Greek negation and
I currently have an ASCII homeric corpus.

Thanks in advance,
Chloe P. Mills
cmillsreed.edu

Reed College Box 919
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.
Portland, OR 97202

In "The Semantic Structure of Spanish" by Larry D. King, there is a footnote on
page 191 that suggests the author may be researching further the systematic
semantics of clitics in Spanish. Might someone on the Linguist list know of
works, either by Dr. King or others, dealing with the semantics of clitics in
Spanish? I could summarize for the list all references that are received, for
others interested in this area. Thank you.

Phillip Elliott
SLAT Program
University of Arizona
pelliottccit.arizona.edu