Rusudan Asatiani,
Georgian Academy of Sciences, Tbilisi,
Georgia
The
Georgian verb forms represent various grammatical categories.
The principle of agglutination along with inflexion builds a
string of morphemes and morphology mirrors the system of very
complex and complicated verb categories. Structurally a
Georgian verb may incorporate the following elements:
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(1) |
PREVEB(S) |
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(2) |
S/O AGREEMENT PREFIX (-v-/-m-/-g-/-gv-/-h-,-s-,-0-) |
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(3) |
VERSION VOWEL (-a-/-i-/-u-/-e-) |
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(4) |
ROOT |
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(5) |
PASSIVE FORMANT (-d-)
or CAUSATIVE SUFFIX (-in-/-evin-) |
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(6) |
THEMATIC SUFFIX (-eb-/-ob-/-av-/-am-/-op-/-i-/0) |
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(7) |
IMPERFECT MARKER (-d-/-od-) |
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(8) |
TENSE/MOOD VOWEL (-a-/-i-/-o-/-e-) |
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(9) |
SIII AGREEMENT SUFFIX (-s-/-a-/-o-) |
| (10) |
PLURAL SUFFIX (-t)
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E.g.
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da- |
g- |
a- |
c'er |
-in |
-eb |
-d |
-e |
-s |
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prev- |
OII- |
vers.- |
write |
-cause |
-them |
-imp. |
-mood |
-SIII |
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| 2. |
da- |
g- |
a- |
c'er |
-in |
-eb |
-d |
-a |
-t |
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prev- |
OII- |
vers.- |
write |
-cause |
-them |
-imp |
-SIII |
-pl(O) |
Although
the maximal positions for a theoretically possible string of
morphemes in the structural formula for one verb root are 10
(3 for prefixes and 6 for suffixes), the verb form can consist
of not more than 9 morphemes. Some implicational and/or
restrictive rules take place:
1.
Imperfect Marker (7) implies existence of Thematic Markers
(6);
2.
Plural Suffix (10) phonetically excludes appearance of the
SIII suffix -s (9);
it can co-occur only with the SIII suffixes: -a
or -o (9);
3.
The SIII suffixes (-a
or -o) phonetically
exclude the appearance of Tense-Mood
vowel suffixes (8).
Thus,
the allowed combinations are either (8)-(10), or (9)-(10) and
the string (8)-(9)-(10) is excluded. All other combinations of
positions are possible and a concrete verb form is defined by
the various combinations of verb categories.
The
paper is an attempt to clarify functional and/or conceptual
interpretation of verb categories and their correlations as
well as the cognitive ground of the processes of
grammaticalization: How is a verb form structuralized? How
does it create the comprehensive meaning of situationally
defined predication? What is the cognitive background of some
restrictive and implicational rules? Why do some categories
predict specific correlations between some functions? How do
the functions go with each other? And so on.
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