Verb Stem Research Articles

Latin Conjugation: The Stem Vowel Speaks

This article offers an alternative grouping of Latin verbs that is more informative than the traditional four conjugations. By considering the “behavior” of the stem vowel in the present, perfect and supine systems as a coherent unit, four “inflectional profiles” emerge that cut across the conjugations. In the three-part structure of a verb form—a stem plus a tense-mood-aspect marker plus a personal or declensional ending, summarized as S-T-E— the main grammatical “action” takes place in the verb stem as it “crosses the border” into the tense markers. 0A few notions of basic phonetics account for whatever changes take place in the stem at that point. The familiar infinitive equipped with a superscript serves as a single “smart” principal part to encapsulate a verb’s complete inflection at a glance. This holistic endeavor redefines “regular” to include more of the facts and to highlight useful relationships that textbooks leave unspoken. If one accepts a slight step into abstraction, apparent exceptions and irregularities turn out to be completely regular.

Rescaffolding the bundle in Afroasiatic inflection

Abstract Person, number and gender features in the Afroasiatic verbal system are sometimes prefixes, sometimes suffixes and sometimes both. This paper attempts to derive the Tamazight and Hebrew systems using syntactic tools and eschewing postsyntactic or morphological linearization rules. My point of departure is that syntactic heads contain a single feature and that features can be assembled into bundles and placed to the left or to the right of a stem by syntactic movement alone. In the simplest case, a feature is prefixal when it is merged above the verbal stem and the verbal stem remains below it and is c-commanded by it and it is a suffix when the verbal stem moves above it. The often-complex combination of prefixes and suffixes in the languages studied arises from the combination of multiple steps of movement which can target the stem alone or a category it pied pipes or is pied piped by. Allomorphy is expressed in terms of selectional restrictions and an alternative to impoverishment is proposed to handle neutralization.

On the Source of U-Shape Learning in Interlanguage Processing: A Pilot Study on the L2 Acquisition of Number Agreement in French by Jordanian Arabic Learners

This paper investigates the L2 acquisition of the morphosyntax of number agreement of French by L1 learners. The study is based on a pilot study that investigates learners’ knowledge of number agreement of two paradigms of subject-verb number agreement in French: the so-called matching paradigm in which agreement in number is expressed audibly via an alternation of the verb stem between a singular and plural forms and the mismatching paradigm in which the number agreement is not audible realized via singular vs. plural alternation. We discussed our sample’s proficiency in (de-)normalizing number agreement and the implications it has for the theory of corrective feedback and linguistic input in L2 processing in Language acquisition.

Subject-verb agreement marking by Ghanaian learners of French

In learning French as a foreign language, mastery of agreement marking is indicative of learner progression. In this article, I focus on how subject-verb agreement markers are acquired by Ghanaian learners of French. Based on written data collected from examination scripts, I attempt to present a coherent explanation for the trends noted. The results show that allomorphy that characterises the verb stem influences the production of agreement markers. While verbs with a single stem are strongly associated with first person singular marking, verbs without an identifiable stem are more strongly associated with third person singular marking. Interpreting this within the item-learning/rule-learning dichotomy, it is argued that both strategies are simultaneously deployed. Consequently, it is suggested that the dichotomy between rule-based versus item-based learning can be impacted by the modality of language.

The Interaction of Nominalisation and Compounding in Polish: On the Analysis of Listonosz ‘Mail Carrier’ and Korkociąg ‘Corkscrew’ in Construction Morphology

This paper compares two analyses of interfixal-paradigmatic formations in Polish, such as listonosz ‘mail carrier’ and korkociąg ‘corkscrew’. They are often interpreted as exocentric compounds consisting of a noun stem and a verb stem connected by a linking vowel, i.e. as [N+LV+V]N formations (Kurzowa; Booij, “Morphology”). The proposal defended here is the treatment of such lexemes as [N+LV+[V]N]N compounds, in which the right-hand verb stems are assumed to undergo conversion into nouns. Semantic arguments are presented in support of such an assumption. Moreover, differences are emphasised between properties of the interfixal-paradigmatic formations in question and features of exocentric compounds in which the verb stem stands in the initial position, e.g. moczymorda ‘drunkard’. The analysis adopted here in the framework of Construction Morphology involves the simultaneous application of two morphological operations, namely compounding and nominalisation (i.e. verb-to-noun conversion), in the formation of interfixal-paradigmatic lexemes. Such an assumption allows for the explanation of the phenomenon of “embedded productivity” (Booij, Construction Morphology).

On affixation in Shupamem

This paper describes the morphological process of affixation in Shupamem, an SVO and noun class systemic Grassfield Bantu language spoken in the West Region of Cameroon. Basically, affixation is a morphological process whereby affixes (prefix, infix or suffix) are attached to a word’s stem to form a new word or encode some grammatical properties. Based on a sample of corpus collected from native speakers of this language, the study identified two basic types of affixes which correspond to the two main types of bound morphemes: inflectional and derivational affixes. The formers occur most often with verbs to encode the infinitive mood (|jìn-|), tenses (|pé-|, |pí-|, |kàpí-|, etc.), and the iterative verbal aspect (|-kět|, |-ʃə̌|, and |-tə|). Concretely, jìndǎp “hit” is made up of the verbal stem |-lǎp-| to which the infinitive prefix |jìn-| is attached. Similarly, jìndǎpʃə̌ “hit repeatedly” is made up of the verbal stem |-lǎp-| to which the prefix |jìn-| (infinitive) and the suffix |-ʃə̌| (iterative aspect) are attached. On the other hand, Shupamem displays some derivational affixes used to create new words in the language. In effect, some nouns can be derived from other nouns, some qualifying adjectives from nouns, as well as some manner adverbs from qualifying adjectives using derivational affixes. This can be illustrated with the noun pín “dance” from which ŋgà:pín “dancer” is derived, and the adjective pý:két “bad” from which the adverb pýkérí “badly” is derived. In conclusion, this language provides some insightful data that contribute to the appraisal of affixation in Bantu language.

Hittite ānt- and related lexemes

There are two terms designating “equal” in cuneiform texts from Ḫattuša-Boğazköy, namely annauli- and ānt-. The lexeme ānt- has been connected with the Luwian terms ayawala- and ayal(a/i)-. The first one is a hapax in Hittite cuneiform corpus found in the so-called Tawagalawa letter (CTH 181), while the second one appears several times in the royal hieroglyphic inscriptions from Masuwari (Tell Ahmar). Although the meanings and etymologies of all these terms were discussed in recent scholarship, they have never been analyzed as part of a lexical system. The present article focuses on the contextual study of these terms. The author comes to the conclusion that Hitt. annauli- is to be interpreted as “of equal status”, while Hitt. ānt- means “equal by appointment”. Thus, the lexeme annauli- describes the balance of powers in the Ancient Near East of the 2nd millennium BCE, when all the Great Kings were supposed to be equal to each other. The term ānt- designates a substitute, who becomes equal to the ritual patron in the course of the ritual, while the term annauli- is mentioned in texts as the antonym of the ritual substitute. The Luwian terms ayawala- and ayal(a/i)- are ultimately derived from the Luwian verbal stem aya- “to do”, while Hitt. ānt- is possibly cognate with Latin aequus “equal”. The term ayal(a/i)- is a title linked to the performance of certain duties by the heir apparent, and ayawala- is connected with the ability of a prince or high official to act as king’s deputy.

“Finnish”-Saami Flood in the Toponymy of Karelia and Russian North

The article analyzes four toponymic stems with the meaning of ‘flood, overflow of water’ that have Balto-Fennic and — more broadly — Finno-Ugric origins and are attested in the toponymy of Karelia, as well as beyond its southeastern borders — in the Russian North. The materials were retrieved from of the Card index of toponyms of Karelia and adjacent regions, as well as the Toponymic card index of the Ural University (data related to Russian North). By virtue of semantics, the toponymic stems under consideration primarily occur in the names of water bodies, as well as flood lands. The analysis shows that all stems have verbal nature and thus are deverbal names. For two of them (Tulv- and Pais-/Paiž-) etymons (tulva, paise) are found in modern Balto-Fennic languages. For the third stem — Kost- (Kosht-, Kust-, Kusht-), which is traditionally associated with Balto-Fennic adjective kostea ‘wet,’ the author suggests the possibility of a ‘flood’-related interpretation. This proceeds, on the one hand, from the fact that the waterlogged places during the flood can be characterized as damp, wet, on the other hand, from the meaning of return movement inherent in the verbal stem kosta-. The latter reflects the characteristic movement of water back and forth. Finally, the fourth toponymic stem is based on the Saami linguistic data and their proto-linguistic reconstruction *pēnte- ‘overflow, rise (about the water level)’ which is presumably present in a number of place names. The analysis makes it possible to revise or at least offer new possibilities for the etymological interpretation of some landscape terms (e.g. pendus), as well as toponymic stems that are substratal for the Russian North and toponyms formed from them (Kushta, Pazha, Pindusha). It ultimately advances us in our search for the origins of the substrate toponymy of the Russian North.

Forming Derivatives in Hindko Language: A Morpho-Syntactic Analysis

Hindko is an Indo-Aryan Language. The current study aims to investigate the formation of nominative derivatives in Hindko by doing a multi-level analysis in the light of a contemporary etymological perspective. The study categorizes these derivatives in terms of syntactic and semantic aspects. The study employs a multi-level approach to analyzing the derivatives by analyzing prosodic phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantic levels. The study uses the historical literature of the language, the daily conversations of the native speakers, and note-taking techniques to record the data. The study categorizes the verb forms of Hindko into 18 classes, from which nominal derivatives are derived. The verbs are classified into different categories according to their semantic and syntactic behavior. The study shows that, semantically, the verbs share meanings with each other and are also similar in their semantic functions. The study finds that a morphological stem-based approach is used for the derivatives. Prosodically, the study discovers the effects on the stem of the derivatives. Moreover, the study concludes that in Hindko there are six types of nominal derivatives: the active participle, the passive participle, the form of exaggeration, the instrumental noun, the qualificative adjective, and the locative noun. The research reflects the Form I verb stem as input for forming the six types of nominal derivative (the output). The study recommends a further in-depth analysis from syntactic perspective.

Modelling polysemy and categorial ambiguity in a constructional family

Abstract In this paper we analyse a family of compound constructions in Persian that show two interesting properties: (1) they split into two semantic patterns, human agent noun and instrument noun, and (2) they display categorial ambiguity between noun and adjective. The compounds in question, which are formed with the verbal stem -yāb ‘find’, are collected from diachronic and synchronic corpora and analysed in the framework of Construction Morphology (Booij 2010). We argue that the instrumental pattern is an innovation under the influence of loan-translated English instrument nouns. This pattern dovetailed with a much older morphological construction for human agent nouns. This raises questions about the relation between the two constructions in the contemporary speaker’s lexicon. For the dual functionality of the words as nouns and adjectives, we argue that it can be understood as a second order schema (Booij & Masini 2015) or sister construction (Jackendoff & Audring 2019, 2020), whereby no precedence is ascribed to either of the two patterns.

Typology of Ukrainian Verb Stems: Word-Forming and Morphonological Aspects

The description of word-forming morphology of deverbatives of the modern Ukrainian language in view of its functional character, dynamic processes in the language, shifts that have taken place in its corpus in recent times, provides good grounds for determining new classification principles of morphological analysis of deverbatives. The article identifies morphonological types of basic verbs of word-forming units in the Ukrainian language. The word-forming units play a dominant role in the systematization of Ukrainian word-formation, as it clearly traces the patterns of the internal mechanism, which is characterized by hierarchical connections between other complex units of the word-formation system (word-forming pairs, chains, series and word-forming paradigms). Reconstruction of the basic verbs of word-forming units makes it possible to correctly determine the direction of word-forming motivation, morphonological type and to establish a morphonological model. Their properties are clarified by the nature of the basic verb stem, morphonological transformations into morphonologically marked derivatives at different degrees of derivation. The spectrum of morphonological types of basic verbs of word-forming units in the Ukrainian language covers word-forming units of morphonological types of indivisible and divisible basic verbs of word-forming units. With indivisible basic verbs there are 5 morphological classes, with divisible basic verbs – 7.

Models of verbal stems combinations in modern armenian language

Consequently, while summarizing the effects of study of compositions word-building patterns, formed by verbal stems, one can state that the verbal stems have quite flexible word-building opportunities for formation of compound words and the new nouns and adjectives formed by them considerably enrich the word-stock of the Armenian language.As research showed the considerable part of stems, taking part in the word-building of the modern Armenian language were inherited to us from the ancient Armenian language (grabar). As for the verb stems of those morphological components in which the verb stem is a derivative, then It should be noted that the verb stem in most cases isa compound stem, since verbs in rare cases serve as a complement to other parts of speech. There are also compound words in the Armenian language, the first component which are the verb stem or participle . The models noun+verb, adjective+verb, adverb+verb, verb+noun are predominantly effective in the morphological models of the verbal stems. Compositions formed by these models in the process of transformation into syntactical combination can express subject and predicate, attributive-definite, object and circumstantial relations. In objective relations, many semantic groups can be distinguished. Compound words, the first components of which are the names of products or objects: winemaker, butcher, lumberjack seller, etc. Compound words, the first components of which are the names of various animals: shepherd, cowshed, cattle breeder, beekeeper and others. Compound words, the first components of which are the names of celestial bodies: sunmeter, lunar rover, astronaut, etc. Complications, the first components of which are concepts related to different areas of art: duduk player, singer, theater-goer, pianist, singer, actor, etc.

A Study on the Verb ‘to marry’ in Khitan Scripts

By sorting and comparing 18 verb forms in Khitan Small Script and 7 verb forms in Khitan Large Script that denote ‘to marry, to be given as wife’, the current study deals with the relation between the Khitan Large Script and Khitan Small Script forms. Further, it analyzes problems connected with their orthography, morphological and grammatical structure, with the grammatical cases governed by the verb and considers possible etymologies of the verbal stem.

Passive Construction in Basketo

This paper deals with the passive construction in Basketo, a North Omotic language predominantly spoken in Basketo Special Woreda in Southern Nation Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, Ethiopia. The passive suffix - int- is also morphologically involved in reciprocal, reflexive, and spontaneous constructions. So, it can be regarded as a valency-reducing suffix having a de-transitivizing effect on the transitive. From the viewpoint of information structure, the passive construction is a strategy foregrounding the patient while backgrounding the agent. For this effect, OSV word order is used because the initial noun phrase of a sentence becomes a topic. On the other hand, in the interpretation of sentences with trivalent verbs, the noun phrase immediately preceding the verb is taken as focus. If this noun phrase is marked by instrumental (comitative) case -bara, the morpheme -int- of derived, verb stems must be interpreted as reciprocal, if accusative case (object), then passive. The passive form is also used in resultative constructions of telic verbs, i.e. those referring to a state that has happened as the result of a previous event. The object of the previous event is promoted to nominative, and the verbal noun of the derived verb stem with-int- is followed by the present auxiliary verb woɗe ‘exist’. Finally, the impersonal passive expresses a state of habitual or generic activity.

Quantifying the importance of morphomic structure, semantic values, and frequency of use in Romance stem alternations

AbstractStem alternations in Romance have recently been argued to be regulated largely by autonomously morphological (aka morphomic) organizational principles. Here, I assess the relative contribution of morphomic structures vis à vis alternative principles, namely semantic structure, and token frequency. Results confirm the exceptional importance of autonomously morphological domains on Romance verb stem alternations; however, inherent inflectional values and token frequency also play a decisive role in the overall stem-morphological similarity of different paradigm cells.

Origin of the Ethiosemitic Verb hlw ‘to be present’


 
 
 The Ethiosemitic verb hlw ‘to be present’ is strange in three regards: it shows an unusual alternation between -o and -awa in Classical Ethiopic; it is formally Perfect, but used in the present tense; and it has no verbal cognates in other branches of Semitic. This is because it is originally not a Perfect, but a presentative particle, to be connected with other Semitic presentatives reflecting *hallaw. Due to the leveling of the second-person object suffixes to the Perfect endings in Ethiosemitic, suffixed presentative forms like hallo-ka could be reanalyzed as consisting of a verbal stem hallo- and a subject ending -ka. Other forms of the paradigm, including the 3M.SG Perfect hallaw-a, were then created by analogy with III-w 02-stem verbs like fannawa ‘to send’.
 
 

Puzzling patterns in non-finite forms

Abstract This contribution addresses the general theme of Multifunctionality and syncretism in non-finite forms. When we see a particular form in a number of different environments yielding different effects, what does it mean to say that this reflects multifunctionality rather than syncretism? As a refinement of multifunctionality the notion of ‘multi-effectuality’ is introduced: one element participates in different derivations, performing one and the same operation, but yields different interpretive effects depending on the environment. The analysis takes as a starting point the role of the affix -en in Dutch. The canonical view is that when attached to a verb stem, -en functions either as an infinitival marker or as a nominalizing affix. It is shown that this view cannot be maintained. The “functions” of -en are unified by analyzing it as projecting an ‘eventuality expression’, with different effects depending on the syntactic environment. The analysis is extended to English, focusing on the contrasts between Dutch and English infinitives and on the role of the English -ing affix in gerunds and participles. The discussion proceeds with an analysis of Frisian with its two forms of the infinitive and concludes with some reflections on the relation between syntactic and semantic categories.

Grammatical tone mapping in Ekegusii

AbstractA major issue in Bantu morphophonology is how to get the right tones in the right ‘cells’ in the verb paradigm. In many Bantu languages, grammatical tones are assigned to different positions in the verb stem depending on inflectional features of tense, aspect, mood (TAM), polarity and clause type: The same TAM may assign different tones (and different segmental allomorphs) in the affirmative vs. negative and in main vs. relative clauses. Although such ‘melodic tones’ (Odden & Bickmore 2014) are typically restricted to the verb stem (root + suffixes), often also the domain of vowel harmony and other segmental phonology, both the presence and mapping of grammatical tones within the stem cannot be determined without reference to the prefixal inflectional marking of subject, negation, TAM and object which precede the stem. In this article, we discuss three cases in Ekegusii, a Bantu language of Kenya, that require the stem-assigned grammatical tones to look ‘outward’ to morphological and phonological properties of such prefixes: (1) differential mapping according to whether the pre-stem tone-bearing unit is toneless, a derived H(igh) (from H-tone spreading), or underlyingly /H/ (Bickmore 1997, 1999); (2) presence of an object prefix in imperative and subjunctive forms and (3) initial/final tone agreement between the subject prefix and the final vowel of the verb (cf. Rolle & Bickmore (2022). We will show that Ekegusii provides extensive evidence that both the presence of grammatical Hs and their specific mapping, while targeting the stem (root + suffixes), must be ‘globally’ calculated on the basis of the entire morphosyntactic structure of the verb (including features exponed by prefixes).

A sketch grammar of Siyuewu Khroskyabs [HL Archive 9

Khroskyabs is a rGyalronic (Tibeto-Burman) language of northwestern Sichuan province in the People's Republic of China. There are an estimated 10,000 speakers of Khroskyabs living in several villages and townships in the river valleys of part of the Tibetan plateau (Huang, 2003). Khroskyabs speakers identify as ethnically Tibetan, and the language is under immense social pressure both from Amdo Tibetan (the prestige language of the community) and Mandarin Chinese (the language of schooling). There is also some lexical borrowing from both Tibetan and Sichuan Mandarin.Khroskyabs exhibits many typologically interesting characteristics, including hierarchical alignment, verb stem alternation, partial stem reduplication in reciprocal verbs, and pervasive use of directional verb prefixes which have extended uses as aspect markers. Data for this sketch was conducted in the context of a year-long graduate Field Methods seminar with a native speaker who is committed to the documentation and maintenance of her language. While it is subject to the usual limitations that come from working with a single speaker at a far geographic remove from the larger community and sociolinguistic context, Yulha’s linguistic training and personal motivation were a key advantage in this enterprise.

Romance Root Suppletion and Cumulative Exponence: Fusion, Pruning, Spanning

This paper discusses verbal stem allomorphy in Romance within the framework of Distributed Morphology (DM). We will present several technical instruments provided by the framework, applying them to an analysis of Romance verbal forms, with a particular focus on stem suppletion with the verb go. We conclude that the best solution to the problem of form–function discrepancies, as they appear in suppletion (but not only), is a spanning approach. This approach operates at Vocabulary Insertion only, without any need for the assumption of further, often critically discussed, morphological processes, such as fusion or pruning.