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Remarks on Indo-European infinitives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Robert J. Jeffers
Robert J. Jeffers*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
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Abstract

Indo-European offers a wide variety of infinitive formations, many of which are shared by several of the dialects, and all of which appear to reflect earlier verbal nouns. The literature includes considerable discussion on the etymological origins of individual infinitive endings, but little on intermediate developments which may account for the disparate systems of the historical languages. This paper suggests that at least two separate classes of infinitives are to be noted among the infinitive types which occur cross-dialectally, and that these two classes reflect chronologically distinct occurrences in the history of IE infinitival development. This distinction is most clearly demonstrable in Vedic, but parallel evidence exists in several other dialects.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 133 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 by Linguistic Society of America

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