Survey of the Pie Verb System

Abstract

Abstract Verb Systems Generally Considered. The verb system of most languages is a complicated affair. This has nothing to do with elaborate paradigms, but with functional categories however they are marked. The formal categories of a language in fact cannot be depended upon to mark functional categories straightforwardly. First, functional categories are commonly combined in various ways: in PIE you could not specify a subject’s person without also specifying number, and vice-versa. Second, functional categories are often expressed by formally inconsistent means. A few examples from English will make these points clearly, since English is usually regarded as elementary in these regards compared to the luxuriance of G, L, and Skt. But the relationships between form and function in English are anything but elementary, as we shall see, and have little congruence with the terminology of the school grammars. In English the present tense is usually regarded as self-explanatory; in the words of a dictionary, s.v. present: ‘Gramm. Denoting, or pertaining to, time that now is; as the present tense. To the contrary: the ‘present tense’ of English turns out to have very little in the way of reference to ‘time that now is’. The four principal functions of the NE ‘present tense’ are: (1) it is used of future events; (2) it is used of reiterated or habitual events; (3) it is used of a state, which has no tense; (4) it is used with a special class of verbs known as performatives, such as say, declare, promise.