Languages and cultures self-repair the way ecosystems do, by selective replication of novel components that manage to find a job.
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Replying to @pseudoerasmus
@sarahdoingthing Germ. & Rom. langs have what is called in French 'passé simple' [preterite] and 'passé composé'; Latin did not have these1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @pseudoerasmus
@sarahdoingthing (I did = simple past or preterite, I have done = present perfect or "composite past"); Romance got these from Germanic1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @pseudoerasmus
@sarahdoingthing Old English used to use 'simple past' (did) more often than 'composite past' but they appeared to mean the same thing;1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @pseudoerasmus
@sarahdoingthing in French 'passé simple' became literary version of passé composé; but in modern English, composite past changed meaning1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @pseudoerasmus
@sarahdoingthing so that "I did" ≠ "I have done"; this is the change from Old English1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @pseudoerasmus
Pseudoerasmus Retweeted Sister Sarah
@sarahdoingthing anyway the point is the 'perfective' in Engl verbs was never affected by the loss of the ge- prefixhttps://twitter.com/sarahdoingthing/status/671536336793276416 …Pseudoerasmus added,
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Replying to @pseudoerasmus
@pseudoerasmus so what causes the changes in demonstrative, quantifier and article use around 12001 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
@pseudoerasmus she also says quantifiers are used to express perfectivity in arabic
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