owe/must
Nigel Vincent
nigel.vincent at MANCHESTER.AC.UK
Sat Feb 13 21:48:14 UTC 2010
In many of the Romance languages the same verb means both 'owe' and
'must' (cf Italian debere, French devoir, Portuguese dever, etc). In
English 'ought' is etymologically the past tense of 'owe'. I would be
grateful for further instances of languages in which, either
synchronically or diachronically, the same verb covers both the modal
and the 'owe' meanings.
Nigel Vincent
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