The reflexes of Latin desinentialrVin Romanian conjugation as examples of exaptive change

Abstract

AbstractThis paper attempts to motivate the distribution of the stringr(V)in the forms of contemporary Romanian conjugation, which attests it in other than the distribution we expect proceeding from desinentialrV, its origin in Latin conjugation, e.g.,răin the plural of the contemporary preterit (i.e., the paradigm traditionally designatedperfectul simpluoriginating in the Latinperfect) and thus occurring in forms like contemporaryvăzură‘they saw’.Such forms should attest finalrarising via apocope ofu, in this instance in Late Latinvideru(nt)yielding Romanian *veder, the unattested immediate origin ofvăzurăvia both phonetic and morphological innovation. The analytic focus of my treatment isexaptive changeorexaptation, an innovation predicated on the assumption that phonemic substance made available by compromised paradigms or parts thereof (i.e., paradigms partly or wholly in the process of being eliminated reflecting the systemic loss of their grammatical content) may remain and be re-assigned to instantiate systemically relevant grammatical meaning not already instantiated. As part of my analysis, I will suggest clarifications of our present understanding of exaptive change which I believe to be justified by the Romanian data.