Augment (was Re: German ge- ptcpl cognates?)

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

"Vidhyanath Rao" <rao.3 at osu.edu> wrote:

>>> There is an interesting typological problem here. According to Bybee et al
>>> (The evolution of grammar), unmarked past vs marked present is unknown in
>>> extant languages. This makes the usual classification of forms in Hittite
>>> (and PIE) quite unusual.

Come to think of it, Hittite (unlike Akkadian) is quite clear.
The forms without -i are past tense, those with -i present.
There is no way around that.  Bybee et al. are wrong (or rather,
their universal is merely a tendency).

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl