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<DIV><FONT face=Arial> In the title of my last message (23-03), I
announced indefinite ordinals, but I forgot them on the way! Before tackling
this matter to-day, I wanted to suggest that, if I don't
misinterpret Max's (12-02) words, to wit ""Romance languages generally lack
an interrogative degree word", it is useful to recall, among other cases,
Spanish ?cuanto,a?, as in ?cuantos anos (I cannot write the correct upset
? nor the correct "tilded" n) tienes?, or ?cuantas palabras ha
dicho?, etc.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> I call indefinite ordinal a word like
colloquial English umpteenth, meaning "der(die,das)-ich-weiss-nicht-wievielte",
as in I am telling him so for the umpteenth time. It would be interesting to
look for indefinite ordinals in other languages. It might turn out
that such words, used in "affective" contexts, are to be assigned to a
category between indefinite and exclamative, or exclamative-interrogative,
ordinals, in contexts implying a sense like
"wo-the-hell-knows-der-wievielte!!"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <FONT size=3>And finally, a query: are
there many languages having an indefinite verb? This would be, in metalinguistic
English, to something, either intransitive, as in he somethinged (="was, did,
etc. something)", or transitive, as in she somethinged (="did something to")
him.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> Best, Claude.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Claude Hagège, Collège de France, Chaire de Théorie
linguistique<BR><A
href="mailto:claude.hagege@free.fr">claude.hagege@free.fr</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>