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Carpal Tunnel
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In the aftermath of some unproductive discussions resulting from my contention on another board that the concept of case is moribund in English I have done some thinking about the matter. For starters, case can be defined as the relationship between a noun and other words in a sentence or as the markers on the nouns that indicate those relationships. As an example of the latter we have the Latin 2nd declension masculine nouns in which the cases and their endings can be summarized as follows: Code:
case sing plural
nominative -us -i
genitive -i -orum
dative -o -is
accusative -um -os
ablative -o -is
If we interpret this in the context of the first definition things aren't quite so easy. E.g., the Latin ablative can be used to indicate separation, agency, means, cause, etc. These could all be considered different cases. As another example some languages are what is known as ergative languages, i.e., in the simplest form, e.g., Basque there is one case for the subject of a sentence with a transitive verb and another for the subject of a sentence with an intransitive verb. When you stop and think about it, it makes sense. The relationship between the I in "I grew two inches in May of 1956" and the I in "I grew corn last year" and the other concepts in their respective sentences is quite different. Then you toss in another language that has a case called ergative, Georgian, you get a whole nother bucket of fish. I particularly like this comment on the nominative case from that site: Quote:
Nominative
This case is used for the subjects of intransitive verbs in all screeves, for the subjects of transitive verbs in the present series, for the direct objects of transitive verbs in the other series, and for the direct objects of indirect verbs. It is also the case in which nouns are cited.
which gets me to my real question:
What does "screeve" mean in this context??
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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screeve
Now why would you want to go and waste a perfectly good candidate for hogwash like that?
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Carpal Tunnel
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has four meanings in the OED. The first is to exude something from a wound. Second: to write, and says the proximate source is unknown, but refers to Latin scribere, to write. Third: to draw pictues on pavement or sidewalk with colored chalk, to be such an artist Fourth: of horses, to have legs split apart while running on ice. I suspect someone tried to noun a verb on you. Either or else it's a term of art that the writer understood and used to the exclusion of most others.  A prescriptivist might wonder why someone would try to communicate with a word that no one else understood, but then thinks of the antics of William F. Buckley, Jr., who had no problem showing off his command of exceedingly obscure words for no reason other than to be a showoff. Nah, never mind. 
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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And then I went and looked in Wikipedia:
A screeve is a combination of tense, aspect and mood, used when describing a verb paradigm (a list of forms of a verb). The most common name used in linguistics studies for this concept is TAM or TMA. Screeve is used almost exclusively in descriptions of Georgian grammar; it derives from the Georgian word mts'k'rivi, which means "row".
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Row?
a verb row (to move through water with paddles or oars?)
or a noun row (a valley or the space betweens lines? (
or row (a fight?)
I am sorry but i don't know what you (or wikipedia ) means by row in this contects.
screeve makes mores sense.
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Carpal Tunnel
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row = line, I guess, ot, in the sense of "a linguistic group of ~" (but just my wag)
As for the meaning(s) of screeve... Even though it apparently has that narrow application in the example Fong questioned, isn’t the basic sense an interesting range of words? Ted, my OED quotes roughly the groups you mention, but separated into a noun and 3 verb forms. It may be worth quoting more fully, since they apparently derive from no fewer than 3 different roots and are all listed as dialect or slang words!
N
Sc. and slang.
Also scrieve, scrive. [f. screeve v.2]
a. A piece of writing; †b. spec. a banknote, = screen n.2 (obs.); c. a begging letter (now the usual sense)
now dial.
V1
OF. escreve-r (usually said of wounds):—L. *excrepåre:
V2
slang.
Also scrieve. [Ultimately from L. scrWbSre to write; the proximate source is uncertain; possibly It. scrivere.
Cf. Sc. (Ayrshire) scrieve, ‘to read or write quickly or continuously’ (Jam.); but connexion of the slang word with this is very doubtful.]
1. trans. To write.
2. intr. To draw pictures on the pavement with coloured chalks; to be a ‘pavement artist’.
V3
dial.
[app. a. ON. skrefa to stride (Norw. skreva, Da. skræve, Sw. skrefva to open one's legs wide, straddle.]
pass. Of horses: To have the legs split apart in running on ice.
© Awksfahd Inglish Dikshonnree
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Carpal Tunnel
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Row of a paradigm? Seeing verbal forms as the rank and file? I see it as a row of verbal forms, just like in Faldo's example of Latin declension above.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
And then I went and looked in Wikipedia:
A screeve is a combination of tense, aspect and mood, used when describing a verb paradigm (a list of forms of a verb). The most common name used in linguistics studies for this concept is TAM or TMA. Screeve is used almost exclusively in descriptions of Georgian grammar; it derives from the Georgian word mts'k'rivi, which means "row".
TEd, I E-mailed this to Faldage at work and he is beside himself (as it were). Thanks for finding it!
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Carpal Tunnel
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This screeve is interesting, because it's one of the only English words I know that is of Georgian origin. I need to brush up on my Circassian linguistics.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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> brush up on my Circassian linguistics. oh, nuncle, in anyone else I might suggest getting a life but! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
TEd, I E-mailed this to Faldage at work and he is beside himself (as it were). Thanks for finding it!
My GOD! There are two of him now?
Does that make you a bigamist?
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
This screeve is interesting, because it's one of the only English words I know that is of Georgian origin. I need to brush up on my Circassian linguistics.
I know lots of Georgian words:
Sheeit.
Dawg.
Pickemup.
Rahfle.
Brewski.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
Quote:
TEd, I E-mailed this to Faldage at work and he is beside himself (as it were). Thanks for finding it!
My GOD! There are two of him now?
Does that make you a bigamist?
Just the act of marrying him was mighty bigamy [/eyebrows].
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Pooh-Bah
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You folks are aware, I presume, of the punishment for bigamy? Two wives.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Or as Bierce said, two wives is one too many, just as one is.
I guess I shoulda referred to one Asp plus two Faldages as polyandry. Seems to me we went through this once before and may never have reached a conclusion about biandry.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
Or as Bierce said, two wives is one too many, just as one is.
I guess I shoulda referred to one Asp plus two Faldages as polyandry. Seems to me we went through this once before and may never have reached a conclusion about biandry.
Bigamy (or polygamy) is the generic term. (Poly/bi)andry is the term for one wife with two (or more) husbands and (poly/bi)gyny for one husband with two (or more) wives.
Meanwhile, I remain in awe of your discovery of the relevant meaning of screeve.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
screeve
Now why would you want to go and waste a perfectly good candidate for hogwash like that?
Tell ya what, Alex. I'll offer it as a hogwash word and if I don't get any definitions before I've finished writing this post I'll just go ahead and post what I've got. [/harrumph!®] 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Quote:
Tell ya what, Alex. I'll offer it as a hogwash word and if I don't get any definitions before I've finished writing this post I'll just go ahead and post what I've got. [/harrumph!®]
Your point is taken.
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