next up previous
Next: Use of aspect Up: Modal auxiliaries Previous: Modal auxiliaries

Homonymy with lexical verbs.

Note that some of the modals in § 3.5 as well as some of the aspect markers in § 3.6 ff. seem to resemble certain `lexical' or `main' verbs. An example above is هـ mudi (II v.i.) `be finished'. It is best to consider these modals and aspect markers to be separate from the lexical verbs they resemble, as their meanings and their use are quite different. Historically, the may be derived from or related to lexical verbs, but in the modern language, equating them causes more problems than it solves.



Vasu Renganathan
Sat Nov 2 21:16:08 EST 1996