collective/perfective

[KULIKOV at RULLET.LEIDENUNIV.NL]

From:	IN%"plu at plu.mccme.ru"  "Vladimir Plungian"     8-APR-1998 18:32
[via]:	IN%"kulikov at rullet.LeidenUniv.nl"
CC:	
Subj:	Davis's query


     Concerning Garry Davis' question I can remind of several
cases of "preverbal" languages and one morphologically different
(though semantically roughly the same) phenomenon.
     (a) Preverbal languages which display the diachronic
development and/or synchronic polysemy of the type Garry Davis is
looking for are at least Latin, Slavic and Georgian. In Latin,
the prefix CON- has Associative, Perfective and (which is
especially interesting) Intensive meanings; similarly, the prefix
PER- has both Completive and Intensive meanings. In Russian, the
prefix OT- has, among its numerous meanings, an Intensive and a
Completive one. Finally, Georgian prefix DA- may be both
Completive and Intensive.
     (b) I think, the case of Indonesian is of some interest
here. Indonesian has a circumfixal marker ber-...-an with (at least)
the following inventory of meanings: Associative, Reciprocal,
Resultative and Intensive (see, for example, "Typology of resulative
constructions" ed. by V.Nedjalkov, Benjamins, 1988, pp. 307 ff.).
Given the cases like that of Indonesian, one can agree with
Matthew Dryer: it is not so crucial whether the marker in question is
really "preverb" or something else; each inflectional or
derivational verbal affix is worth considering, if it displays an
appropriate development.
     Best,
     Vladimir PLungian

     *********************************
     Dr. Vladimir A.Plungian
     Institute of Linguistics, Moscow
     103009 Moscow - Russia
     plungian at iling.msk.su
     *********************************