Thematic Vowel Research Articles

O naglasku e-glagolâ u zapadnoj Posavini

U članku se donosi građa e-glagolâ skupljena na terenskom istraživanju izčetiri zapadnoposavska staroštokavska sela – ponajprije iz Orubice te, u manjojmjeri, iz Sičâ, Magić Male i Davora. Posebna je pozornost posvećena nekimarhaičnim osobinama kao što je čuvanje naglasnoga tipa pı̄jȅš, kūjȅš. Također seukratko razmatraju još neki problemi vezani uz e-glagole, kao što je kračina/duljinatematskoga samoglasnika -e- i naglasak tipa pıla, dala u glagolskom pridjevuradnom, a sve to u okviru šireg posavskoga, štokavskoga i hrvatskoga konteksta.

Athematic participles in Brazilian Portuguese: A syncretism in the making

Some Portuguese verbs have two different past participles, such as, e.g., aceitar ‘accept’, with participles aceitado and aceito ; and limpar ‘clean’, with limpado and limpo . The first one in each pair mentioned is thematic, whereas the second one is athematic. While regular thematic participles all bear stress on the theme vowel, these athematic participles all bear the primary stress on the athematic stem. As the morphosyntactic category first person singular present indicative (1spi) is realized by {-o}, it normally coincides the masculine form of this athematic participle, giving rise to a syncretism between 1spi and the participle. The aim of this paper is to track the appearance of this kind of participle and the resulting syncretism in Portuguese and the changes making it possible for new participles to be formed in this way in colloquial Brazilian Portuguese.

The role of phonology in the inflection of Italian verbs

We investigated the performance of two connectionist neural networks with different architectures to explore the degree of learning in generating the past participle form of Italian verbs on the basis of phonological characteristics. The networks were trained to generate the past participle form of verbs from different inflected input forms. We examined the degree of learning relative to the type of inflection given as input, the type of suffix produced, the classification of each verb according to the thematic vowel, the regularity of the stem and of the suffix. The networks were able to learn both regular and irregular forms, but the effect of regularity depended on the distributional properties of the conjugation to which a verb belongs, and on information provided by the input.

The causative infix in Spanish verbs

In accordance with studies of modern Linguistics Typology regarding the infix, it has been recognized in many ancient and existing languages as an important derivation tool particularly applied to verbs. However, the Spanish infix has been morphologically ignored, if not mistaken with the interfix or the suffix. Against this general trend of thought, reflected in the existing literature, the author has developed arguments for the acceptance of the infix in Spanish. Space limitations recommend concentrating the efforts of the present study only on the -iz- Spanish causative infix, generally misinterpreted as suffix. Since -iz- is often placed inside the base of an original verb, between the root and the thematic vowel, its nature will be fundamental to determine the morphological value granted to the -iz- affix. Consequently a thorough analysis of the verbal thematic vowel is required within this paper to complete the theoretical analysis for the existence of the causative infixation in Spanish.

Dissociation in Italian Conjugations: A Single-Route Account

Say and Clahsen (S&C) report an experiment involving assignment of past participle suffixes to nonce words in Italian. Their evidence suggests a dual-route model that assigns the theme vowel of the 1st conjugation, while storing it lexically in other conjugations. However, these nonce words were assigned suffixes by a computer algorithm that determined the past participle of the nonce items on the basis of phonological similarity to existing inflected forms. The outcome of the simulation mirrors that of the subjects closely, suggesting that the dissociations found by S&C are not adequate evidence for a dual-route model of Italian stem formation.

Sobre a formação de diminutivo do português brasileiro

Diminutive formations are very productive in BrazilianPortuguese (BP). There are two ways to derive diminutive formsout of nominal words (i.e. nouns and adjectives/adverbs): -inho(a)suffixation e -zinho(a) suffixation. The latter is attached at thestem with the thematic vowel (-a, -o, -e, which represent themorphological class in nominal words, like gender and number)and the former is attached at the stem without the thematic vowel.There are many divergences in the literature to explain thediminutive formations which are treated: i) as derivational suffixes;ii) as phonological words; iii) -inho suffixation as derivation,-zinho suffixation as (phonological) compounding, etc.In this paper, I will argue that diminutive formation inBrazilian Portuguese (BP) is treated differently from the derivation/compound formation and the inflection in the process of wordformation – that is, diminutive formation has independent status.

The Origin of the Thematic Vowel

The Origin of the Thematic Vowel

The Germanic First Class of Weak Verbs

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On representations in morphology case, agreement and inversion in Georgian

On representations in morphology case, agreement and inversion in Georgian

Perfect, middle voice and Indoeuropean verbal endings

A review of new theories on the origin of perfect and middle voice. The author criticizes theories explaining the origin of perfect from nominal forms and attributing to thematic vowel an original value of middle voice. On the contrary, perfect as well as middle voice originated from forms older than these categories and independent from them. This is precisely the case of the thematic vowel. The author believes this is only a part of the general development of Indo-European verb which stems from a monothematic system toward a polythematic one. Actually, perfect and middle voice belong to the oldest stage in this process. This is a further step on the base of ideas exposed by the author in his Evolucion y estructura del verbo indoeuropeo and other works.

The Functional Role of the Indo-European Theme Vowel

The Functional Role of the Indo-European Theme Vowel

Is it Notker's "Anlautgesetz" or "Anlautsgesetz?"

George O. Curme discovered that a most valuable source for his Grammar of the German Language was the usage of scholars concerned theoretically with the nature and growth of the German language; he produced what is still the most complete descriptive grammar of Modern German (or at least of German ca. 1900). Linguistic scholars might still be useful informants regarding disputed areas of German grammar. Hence we might consider whether philologists prefer to speak of Notker's Anlautsgesetz or of Notker's Anlautgesetz. his Deutsche Granmnatik Jacob Grimm distinguishes between two different types of compounds, the eigentliche and the uneigentliche zusamnnensetzung.1 The former is the older of the two types and is characterized by the fact that the first word is bound to the second by a comtpositionsvokal, or thematic vowel, which is not to be confused with an inflectional vowel. Later there developed a compound in which the first part showed an inflectional ending, as tages-licht meaning das licht des tages. According to Grimm, this latter type had become more and more widespread, especially in proper names, and the -s ending had frequently even been attached to feminine nouns that were the first element of the compound, as in liebes-dienst and vorstellungs-vermongen. M. Trautmann denounced this practice of adding -s or -es indiscriminately to the first element of a compound and called upon everyone to stem the tide of such abominations.2 Trautmann points out that the -s compoufids were not common to Old High German or Middle High German, and even in Early New High German they do not occur as frequently as they do today. He attributes their popularity to Low German influence. He had support in his opposition to this practice from an important contemporary, Gustav Wustmann, who wrote: In unertraglicher Weise greift jetzt in einzelnen Gegenden Deutschlands ein Fehler um sich, der sich bisher in gewissen Schranken gehalten hat: das unorganische eingeschobene s in zusammengesetzten W6rtern.3 And again he says: das falsche s einmal festsitzt, da ist natiirlich jeder Kampf vergeblich ... Wo sichs aber noch nicht festgesetzt hat, wo es erst einzudringen versucht, da midsste doch der Unterricht alles aufbieten, es fernzuhalten, das SprachgefUhl fiir den Fehler wieder zu schirfen.4 Nevertheless, the tendency to increase the number of -s compounds continues into the present. The uncertainty and ambivalence regarding the use of the compound -s is perhaps nowhere more apparent than with the word Anlaut(s)gesetz in reference to Notker der Deutsche (952-1022).5 his writings Notker followed the practice of

Rule Ordering in Baltic and Slavic Nominal Accentuation

There are obvious similarities in Baltic and Slavic nominal accentuation. Although the modern languages have undergone considerable changes, both can be reconstructed as having three types of accented syllables: a short accented vowel, a long vowel with rising intonation termed acute, and a long vowel with falling (nonrising) intonation termed circumflex. In modem Lithuanian the original circumflex is now a rising accent, as in va~nas 'raven,' while the original acute is a falling accent, as in vdrna 'crow.' In Slavic, which went through a stage where neither accent was rising, original intonation was recoded as length. In Serbo-Croatian, which will be used for most of the examples in this paper, length was preserved under circumflex accent, e.g., vrdn 'raven' (long falling accent), while the acute was shortened, e.g., vratna (short falling accent). In Russian the original acute accent is reflected in polnoglasie groups as stress on the second vowel (vor6na 'crow'), and the original circumflex is reflected as stress on the first (v6ron 'raven'). Both Baltic and Slavic had fixed and mobile accentual paradigms. In Slavic the accent could be fixed on any syllable of the word, although a fixed accent on the theme vowel (oxytonic accent) was in general limited to derived stems. In late Baltic the accent could be fixed on any vowel of the stem except the theme vowel. Kurylowicz suggests that at one time Baltic also had theme-vowel accent but that the accent in this class was retracted one syllable.- As evidence he cites cognate suffixes which have suffixal accent in Lithuanian but had theme-vowel accent in Slavic: Lith. -ic-as, -tk-as, -im-as, -at-4 (from *-dt-a); Slavic *-sc*, *-.k, *-smd, *-otd. Exact cognates are Lith. siuvikas, R Xvec 'tailor'; Lith. piesimas 'writing,' R pis'm6 'letter'; Lith. nuogat~, R nagotd 'nakedness. In the mobile paradigm the alternation in both Baltic and Slavic is basically between the first syllable of the stem and the last syllable of the desinence. Following Roman Jakobson,3 we represent stems of this paradigm as morphophonemically unaccented. Desinences are either accented or unaccented, and it is the co-occurrence of an accented desinence with an unaccented stem which accounts for desinential accent.4 In the case of the co-occurrence of an accented desinence with an accented stem, the accent

Towards a New Classification of Czech Verbs

In Czech as in Russian and the other Slavic languages the verb differs from other inflected categories in that its inflectional patterns are highly dependent upon the derivational structure of the verb stem. By contrast, the theme vowel which marked the various substantival declensions at some early stage of Proto-Slavic merged with either the declensional endings or the stem, so Slavic nouns are composed of only a single stem (containing all derivational affixes) and the inflectional endings. In the verbs, however, although certain derivational affixes are incorporated into the leftmost portion of the stem, for each verb there is a single derivational suffix (which may be zero) occurring between the left-hand portion of the stem and the ending. Since differences between these derivational suffixes may be used to represent differences in the inflectional patterns of the verbs, we may follow Isa'enko in calling this suffix a verbal classifier. When the verbal classifier is zero, we will term the verb NONSUFFIXED; when it is not zero, we will term it SUFFIXED. A classification which does not distinguish between suffixed and nonsuffixed verbs is still used in the Czech handbooks, where verbs are traditionally divided into five groups on the basis of the 3rd sg. form, e.g., (1) nese, (2) tiskne, (3) kryje, (4) prosi, (5) de'ld.1 Note that classes 1-3 correspond to the -et verbs of Russian and class 4 to the -it verbs, while Russian does not have verbs corresponding to those with contracted endings (class 5). In the classification which follows, this traditional ordering of verb classes is changed. This is to capture certain regularities and productive tendencies operating within contemporary standard Czech. Furthermore, we indicate places in the system which are at present subject to phonological or morphological analogy. These, incidentally, are the places where the student may hear so-called colloquial or even substandard forms. It might be helpful to begin with some phonological rules in Czech which have contributed to differences between Czech and Russian verbal types, specifically vowel contraction and so-called pfehlaska (the shift of a and u to 6 and i after palatal consonants). Note for example the homophonous -dt of the following Czech infinitives (3rd sg. form in parentheses)

The Serbo-Croatian Verb

Every Serbo-Croatian verb form' consists of the constituents listed in Table 1.2 While prefixes are optional, every verb form has a stem and at least one inflectional element. The stem consists of at least a root.3 Every verb paradigm has a thematic vowel in some or all of its forms, though some forms of some paradigms are without this. The remaining stem constituents are optional. The constituents always occur in the order given in Table 1. A given Serbo-Croatian verb has the following sets of forms, which constitute

The Baltic thematic vowel reconsidered

The Baltic thematic vowel reconsidered

The Inflection of the Germanic o-Presents

In these forms, only the 1st singular indicatives differ significantly: Gothic -o points to Proto-Germanic *-o, but Old High German -om points to *-omi, and Old Icelandic -a could come from either. Less uniform is the optative where a mode sign is involved in addition to stem vowel and personal endings. The Gothic set, lako, lapos, lako, lakoma, lakop, laiona, shows only verb stem and personal endings, with no overt optative morpheme (hence the 1st singular and second person of the active are identical in form with the indicative). Old Icelandic laka, laper, lake, lakem, lakek, lake has the same endings as the optative of ordinary thematic verbs, with no trace of a stem final *o. In Old High German there is a set lado, lados, lado, ladom, ladot, ladon, exactly like the Gothic, and also a longer type, lado(g)e, lado(g)es, lado(g)e, lado(g)em, lado(g)et, lado(g)en, in which the stem vowel o' is followed (sometimes with an intervening /j/, mostly written g) by the optative morpheme e of simple thematic presents. The longer forms are the usual ones in Alemannic, less frequent than the shorter set in Bavarian, and all but unknown in Frankish; the intervening g or i is typically Bavarian and late Alemannic.2 2. Anglo-Frisian has a quite different pattern. Here the only presential forms made on the stem ending in o are the 2d and 3d singular indicative and the 2d singular imperative, the forms which in simple thematic presents have a reflex of PIE e (Gmc. i) as thematic vowel; elsewhere, in forms where the thematic

The thematic novel in Baltic

In the Baltic languages the thematic vowel - a- (IE ∗-o- ) has generalized throughout the paradigm of the etymological - e/o-verbs at the expense of the vowel - e-. The cause for this generalization is found in the coincidence of etymological ∗ Cje and ∗ Ce and the passage of ∗ Cja to ∗ Ce creating a new phonemic contrast Ce versus Ce. When ∗ Cje and ∗ Ce fell together the etymological ∗- je/o- and ∗- e/o-verbs could no longer be distinguished in the 3d sg., ed. pl. etc. and the - a- ( ∗-o-) was generalized in the ∗- e/o- verbs as a matter of polarization. In the - je/o- verbs the stem consonant ∗C was generalized wherever phonemically possible.

The Relation to Hittite Verbs in -a(i)- to the Thematic Vowel Class

For the Hittite verbs with stems in -a(i)-, e.g. hatr-a-mi 'I write' 3 sg. hatraizzi, or handami, handaizzi 'establish', what is perhaps an acceptable explanation was found by G*tze, Madduwattas 97 (Hetitische Texte in Umschrift, herausgeg. v. F. Sommer, Heft 3) and Sturtevant, LANG. 5.9 f. Starting from the fact established by the former, that the ai-forms occur only where the IE thematic vowel was e, and that those forms which had the o-grade always have -a-, the latter concluded that the a(i)-class represented the IE denominatives in -d-jo-. In hatranzi < *hatrayanti IE *-a-jo-nti, for instance, the y dropped between two vowels of the same quality, while the ending of hatraizzi comes from IE *-da-e-ti. While none of the objections which might be urged against this theory are in themselves insurmountable, another explanation which avoids these difficulties may appear more convincing, and consequently, with due reservations, I suggest below an alternative which seems to me to be beset with fewer difficulties.