accusative and ergative languages

[Patrick C. Ryan]

Dear Peter and IEists:

 ----- Original Message -----
From: petegray <petegray at btinternet.com>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 1999 1:30 PM

>> Pat said:
>> .... Why not list two or three additional elements that function in
>> Chinese equivalent to inflectional affixes?

Peter wrote:

> The most obvious omission from your list is the "directional" affixes,
> simple and complex, e.g.: lai (come); qi3-lai; etc
> And you can add zhe, guo, zheng4zai4, yao4, ...etc etc all showing different
> limitations to the action.

> Whether you count these as "inflexions" or as "affixes" or as common second
> elements in compound verbs, is probably a matter of taste.

> There are books of Chinese verbs that list all these things for you, but
> alas, I have none handy.

Pat responds:

I can only refer you to the definition of 'inflection' in Larry's _A
Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics_.

Pat

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