Traditional theory about the origin of the Latin imperfect
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/linguistica.43.1.13-24Keywords:
Latin, imperfectAbstract
The imperfect tense expresses a continuous past action which is unfinished, as the name itself indicates - im-perfectum. This characteristic accounts for its three uses:
a) pure, durative imperfect
b) iterative imperfect and
c) imperfect de conatu. These uses are best preserved in Greek but were also used in Latin, where the forms of the old imperfect disappeared. In Proto-Germanic, the IE imperfect, the aorist and the perfect continue partly in the old perfect and partly in its counterpart, the preterite, while, in Proto-Slavonic, the old imperfect for non momentary actions was replaced by forms ending in *-ahb.lIn Italic languages, the functions of the IE imperfect passed on into the compounds with *bh7Jam.
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