The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[Jorge_Stolfi]

This polysemic use [of qo]

In the mind of an Arabic speaker, the wa- in lists and the wa- at the start of a sentence are not different senses.  They are the same logical conjunction marker.  Like in English "Take the book and the pen" and "Take the book and read it"

To an English speaker, the "is" words in the the sentences "The car is red" and "The car is parked" have the same sense.  To a Spanish speaker, they are two very different senses: "El coche es rojo" and "El coche está aparcado". 

All the best, --stolfi