Abstract
The aim of this research was to establish and describe the most important phonemic patterns of Lithuanian verb morphemes. The investigation was based on a corpus of 30,000 verb types (verbs and their forms). All words in the corpus were stressed and phonetically transcribed. A computer program was developed to extract statistics out of this corpus. The results indicate that monosyllabic morphemes dominate in Lithuanian. They comprise 97%, 99%, 98%, and 97% of all verb roots, prefixes, derivational suffixes, and endings respectively. Inflectional suffixes and the reflexive affix are exclusively monosyllabic. Pronominal inflection endings are either disyllabic (97%) or trisyllabic. There is a high variety of vowelconsonant patterns among verbs: the verb root is represented by 91 patterns, prefixes by 8 patterns, derivational suffixes by 18 patterns, inflectional suffixes by 7 patterns, inflectional endings by 9 patterns, endings of pronominal participles by 7 patterns, and the reflexive affix by 3 different patterns. The consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) pattern appeared to be the most frequent among verb roots (45%), the CV pattern was the most frequent among prefixes (59%), the VC pattern was the most frequent among derivational suffixes (46%), and V pattern was the most frequent among inflectional endings of Lithuanian verbs (76%). In many cases, the root of a verb contains both initial and final consonants (82%). Because of this and because of the tendency to avoid hiatus in Lithuanian, the root can be adjoined by vowel-final prefixes and vowel-initial suffixes or inflectional endings. This appears to be the case, as prefixes are mostly open (80%), and both derivational suffixes (90%) and all inflectional endings begin with vowels. Inflectional suffixes do not follow this regularity. Only one-third of them start with a vowel. The hypothesis that the phonemic structure of a verb root might determine the corresponding patterns of its adjoining affixes seems to be supported by this investigation.
Highlights
The investigation was based on a corpus of 30,000 verb types
The results indicate that monosyllabic morphemes dominate in Lithuanian
The root of a verb contains both initial and final consonants (82%). Because of this and because of the tendency to avoid hiatus in Lithuanian, the root can be adjoined by vowel-final prefixes and vowel-initial suffixes or inflectional endings
Summary
MOKSLINIST ĘS TINISLEIDINYS Leidžia Vilniaus universiteto Kauno humanitarinis fakultetas ir Jano Kochanovskio universiteto Humanitarinis fakultetas Kielcuose du kartus per metus (balandžio 25 d. ir spalio 25 d.). MOKSLINIST ĘS TINISLEIDINYS Leidžia Vilniaus universiteto Kauno humanitarinis fakultetas ir Jano Kochanovskio universiteto Humanitarinis fakultetas Kielcuose du kartus per metus Mokslo sritys: gramatika, semantika, semiotika, sintaksė (H 352), bendroji ir lyginamoji literatūra, literatūros kritika, literatūros teorija (H 390). CZASOPISMO NAUKOWE Wydawcy: Uniwersytet Wileński – Wydział Humanistyczny w Kownie oraz Uniwersytet Jana Kochanowskiego – Wydział Humanistyczny w Kielcach. Dyscypliny naukowe: gramatyka, semiotyka, semantyka, syntaktyka (H 352), literatura ogólna i porównawcza, krytyka literacka, teoria literatury (H 390). Podstawowe języki: polski, litewski, angielski i rosyjski. Research areas: grammar, semantics, semiotics, syntax (H 352), general and comparative literature, literary criticism, literary theory (H 390). The journal accepts articles and correspondence written in English, Lithuanian, Polish and Russian. Frei zugängliche E-Journals Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg Naukowe i branżowe polskie czasopisma elektroniczne Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Śląskiego Russian Language, Literature and Cultural Studies
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