[Lingtyp] languages where 'able, can' and 'until, up to' are polysemous/homophonous

[JOO, Ian [Student]]

Dear Ellen,

in Mandarin (and many other Sinitic languages):
dào 到 `to, until, up to; to arrive, to be able to (similarly to French arriver à faire qqch)’

Example:

(1) 到 今 天
dào jīn tiān
until this day
`until today'

(2) 看 得 到
kàn de dào
see degree arrive
`able to see (something)'

I hope this helps.

From Hong Kong,
Ian
On 5 Jan 2021, 8:12 PM +0800, Smith-Dennis, Ellen <E.Smith-Dennis at warwick.ac.uk>, wrote:
Happy New Year all!

Could you help?

I'm looking for languages where the word for 'able, can' is polysemous/homophonous with 'until, up to, for (X amount of time)'. This is the case in Papapana (Austronesian, Papua New Guinea) and Tok Pisin (pidgin/creole, PNG) so I'm especially (but not only!) interested in languages of the Pacific region.

Many thanks in advance,
Ellen
E.Smith-Dennis at warwick.ac.uk

Dr. Ellen Smith-Dennis, FHEA
Assistant Professor
Widening Participation/Schools Liaison Officer
Centre for Applied Linguistics, The University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL
Email: E.Smith-Dennis at warwick.ac.uk OR E.L.Smith at uon.edu.au
Tel: (+44) (0)24 76 575912 (internal: 75912)

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