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At 14:36 18.08.2003 -0700, Dan I. Slobin wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>English <i>re- </i>is exceptionally
productive, but I don't know if anyone has figured out the constraints.
The example of <i>*rewent</i> suggests that intransitive verbs may be
excluded. But there seems to be no end to examples using transitive verbs
such as: <br>
reheat the coffee, reanalyze the data, replay the song, retrim the hedge,
restart the computer, retie the package, resweep the floor, rewash the
shirt, repaint the room, reroof the house, repolish the floor, recount
the money, rediaper the baby...<br>
Note that English <i>re-</i> is neutral with regard to the number of
repetitions; it can take a range of adverbial modifications (e.g.,<br>
rewash the shirt three times, again and again, dozens of times, until it
wears out, etc.). Note, too, that all of these examples<br>
involve repetition of a completed process. For example,
"reread the book" implies that the book was read to
completion<br>
each time. Even if you say "I reread part of the book three
times" it implies that a specific section was completely three<br>
times.<br><br>
Dan Slobin<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite></blockquote></blockquote><br>
From the examples that Dan cites it seems that re- may be productive
with transitive verbs only. Admittedly, I am a non-native speaker of
English, but I think native speakers also will have problems with
*reslept, *refell, *rewept, *recried (except perhaps '?recried wolf').
Note also that even if you can say 'reread the book', you can hardly use
'reread' in the intranstive sense: I went back to my room to reread *(the
book).<br><br>
Jan Terje<br><br>
<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Professor Jan Terje Faarlund<br>
Universitetet i Oslo<br>
Institutt for nordistikk og litteraturvitskap<br>
Postboks 1013 Blindern<br>
N-0315 Oslo (Norway)<br><br>
Tel. (+47) 22 85 69 49 (office)<br>
(+47) 22 12 39 66 (home)<br>
Fax (+47) 22 85 71 00</html>