Dependent and independent verb forms

Last updated

In the Goidelic languages, dependent and independent verb forms are distinct verb forms; each tense of each verb exists in both forms. Verbs are often preceded by a particle which marks negation, or a question, or has some other force. The dependent verb forms are used after a particle, while independent forms are used when the verb is not subject to a particle. For example, in Irish, the past tense of the verb feic ("to see") has two forms: the independent form chonaic and the dependent form faca. The independent form is used when no particle precedes the verb, as in Chonaic mé Seán ("I saw John"). [n 1] The dependent form is used when a particle such as ní ("not") precedes the verb, as in Ní fhaca mé Seán ("I did not see John"). [n 2]

Contents

Old Irish

The distinction between dependent and independent forms originates with two distinct but related phenomena in Old Irish: the contrast between absolute and conjunct verb endings, and the contrast between prototonic and deuterotonic forms. [1] : 1–2 

Old Irish verbs that have no prefixes, called "simple verbs", have two sets of endings, absolute and conjunct. The conjunct endings are used after a variety of grammatical particles, including among others the negative particle ní ("not"), the interrogative particle in, and prepositions combined with the relative pronoun (e.g. lasa "with which"). Where no such "conjunct particle" is present, the absolute endings are used. For example, "he calls" is gairid (absolute), while examples of conjunct forms are ní·gair "he does not call" and lasa·ngair "with which he calls". (An interpunct "·", hyphen "-", or colon ":" is usually used to indicate conjunct forms in pedagogical and analytical works on Old Irish. Actual manuscripts do not use such punctuation marks.) When a particle is present, stress falls on the first syllable of the verb itself, i.e. the syllable after the "·" mark. [2] : 27–30, 350,   [3] : 67–68 

In most verbs, distinct absolute and conjunct endings are found in the present indicative, present subjunctive, future, and preterite, and most persons. For example, a partial paradigm of gaibid ("take") is as follows: [4] : 60–61 

Verbs that have one or more prefixes, called "compound verbs", always take conjunct endings. In this case, stress generally falls on the syllable after the first prefix. Where only one prefix is present, that means stress falls on the verb root, but where two or more prefixes are present, stress then falls on the second prefix. [1] : 2,   [3] : 72–74 

No. of
prefixes		Underlying formSurface formGloss
1/to- + gair/ [n 3] do·gair"he summons"
2/for- + com- + gair/for·congair"he commands"
3/to- + air- + com- + gair/do·airngir"he promises"

Because these verb forms are stressed on the second syllable, they are called deuterotonic (from Greek δεύτεροςdeuteros "second" + τόνοςtonos "tone, stress"). As can be seen in the above examples, the phonological effects of stress placement can be significant; for example, when the prefix com- follows the stressed syllable, it is reduced to just n. These phonological changes become even more apparent when a conjunct particle like ní ("not") is added. In this case, stress shifts to the first prefix, which has phonological consequences for the rest of the verbal complex. [1] : 2 

No. of
prefixes		Underlying formSurface formGloss
1/ní + to- + gair/ní·togair"he doesn't summon"
2/ní + for- + com- + gair/ní·forngair"he doesn't command"
3/ní + to- + air- + com- + gair/ní·tairngir"he does not promise"

Because these forms are stressed on the first syllable of the verb proper (i.e. the syllable after the particle), they are called prototonic (Greek πρῶτοςprōtos "first", proto- prefix). The relationship between prototonic and deuterotonic compound verb forms is thus analogous to that between simple verb forms with conjunct and absolute endings: the one group is used after a conjunct particle like ní, the other group without such a particle. [1] : 2 

Without particle
(independent)		With particle
(dependent)		Gloss
gairid (abs.)ní·gair (conj.)"he calls/does not call"
do·gair (deut.)ní·togair (prot.)"he summons/does not summon"
do·airngir (deut.)ní·tairngir (prot.)"he promises/does not promise"

The distinction between absolute and conjunct endings is believed to have originated with the placement of a particle *(e)s in Proto-Insular Celtic; [5] see Insular Celtic languages#Absolute and dependent verb for discussion.

In addition to the above-mentioned forms, Old Irish also has one dependent verb form that is neither a regular conjunct form nor a prototonic form: the word fil functions in many cases as the dependent equivalent of at·tá "is", e.g. nicon·fil nach rainn "there is no part", where fil follows the conjunct particle nicon "not". [2] : 479  This form survives in Modern Irish as fuil, in Gaelic as (bh)eil, and in Manx as nel/vel, all of which are used as the dependent equivalent of the verb for "is".

Scottish Gaelic

Scottish Gaelic retains traces of both the absolute/conjunct distinction and the deuterotonic/prototonic distinction. The absolute/conjunct distinction is retained in the habitual present tense (also used as, and often referred to as, the future tense) of regular and many irregular verbs. In these cases, the independent form of the verb ends in -(a)idh (cf. Old Irish gaibid above), while the dependent form drops this ending (cf. Old Irish ·gaib above). [6] : 219–29,   [7] : 49–50  For example:

IndependentDependentGloss
glacaidhglacwill grasp
òlaidhòlwill drink
cluinnidhcluinnwill hear
ruigidhruigwill reach

In other irregular verbs, the independent/dependent distinction (found in both the habitual present and in the past) is inherited from the Old Irish deuterotonic/prototonic distinction. [6] : 219–29  For example:

IndependentDependentGloss
chìfaicwill see
chunnaicfacasaw
gheibhfaighwill get
chaidhdeachaidhwent

Manx

The situation in Manx is very similar to that in Scottish Gaelic. The future tense has the ending -ee in the independent form, which in many verbs is dropped in the dependent form. In addition, dependent forms undergo various initial mutations in Manx. For example: [8] : 248–56 

IndependentDependentGloss
tilgeedilgwill throw
faageen'aag /
v'aag		will leave
eeeen'eewill eat
cluinneegluinwill hear

In Manx too, remnants of the deuterotonic/prototonic distinction of Old Irish are found in the independent/dependent distinction in some irregular verbs, for example: [9] : 1:75–92 

IndependentDependentGloss
varowwas
neejeanwill do
honnicknaik /
vaik		saw
hiejaghwent

Irish

In Early Modern Irish, the absolute/conjunct distinction was on the wane. It was less thoroughgoing than in Old Irish, but more than in the modern languages. In the conjunct of the present tense, endingless forms like Old Irish ·gair (cf. Gaelic glac and Manx dilg above [n 4] ) were gradually being replaced by forms with the ending -(e)ann. The distinction was found not only in the 3rd person singular, but also in the 1st and 3rd persons plural. Thus in Early Modern Irish, distinctions like the following were made: [10] : 396 

IndependentDependentGloss
molaidhmol /
molann		praises
molmaoidmolamwe praise
molaidmoladthey praise

The distinction was also found in the 1st and 3rd persons of the future tense: [10] : 399–400 

IndependentDependentGloss
molfadmolabhI will praise
molfaidhmolfas/he will praise
molfamaoidmolfamwe will praise
molfaidmolfadthey will praise

In Modern Irish, all of these distinctions have been lost. Sometimes it is the independent form that was generalized (e.g. molfaidh "will praise"), sometimes the dependent form (e.g. molann "praises").

However, the deuterotonic/prototonic distinction is still found in many irregular verbs, for example: [11] : 108–12 

IndependentDependentGloss
bhíraibhwas
rinnedearnamade
gheobhadhfaigheadhwould find
chonaicfacasaw
chuaighdeachaighwent

Irish has two types of relative clause: direct and indirect (see Irish syntax#Relative clauses for details). The distinction between them is shown firstly by the fact that the relative particle a triggers lenition of the following verb in direct relatives but eclipsis of the verb in indirect relatives, and secondly (where the distinction is made) it takes the independent form of the verb in direct relatives and the dependent form in indirect relatives. [11] : 143–44  For example:

Irish also has two types of conditional clause, which are introduced by two different words for "if": má introduces realis clauses, and dá introduces irrealis clauses. Realis clauses indicate conditionals with a possible fulfillment (e.g. "if he is agreeable", which leaves open the possibility that he is), while irrealis clauses indicate purely hypothetical conditionals (e.g. "if it were a nice day", but it isn't). [12] : 319–20  The realis particle má triggers lenition of the following verb and takes the independent form, while the irrealis particle dá triggers eclipsis and takes the dependent form. For example:

Footnotes

  1. ↑ As the Goidelic languages use verb–subject–object word orders, the verb chonaic ("saw") precedes the subject mé ("I").
  2. ↑ The particle ní triggers lenition of the verb, changing faca (pronounced [ˈfˠakə]) to fhaca (pronounced [ˈakə]).
  3. ↑ The prefix to- becomes do- when unstressed.
  4. ↑ The future tense of Gaelic and Manx is derived from the Old Irish present.

Related Research Articles

Consonant mutation is change in a consonant in a word according to its morphological or syntactic environment.

Insular Celtic languages are the group of Celtic languages of Brittany, Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man.

Old Irish, sometimes called Old Gaelic, is the oldest form of the Goidelic for which extensive written texts are extant. It was used from c. 600 to c. 900. The primary contemporary texts are dated c. 700–850; by 900 the language had already transitioned into early Middle Irish. Some Old Irish texts date from the 10th century, although these are presumably copies of texts composed at an earlier time period. Old Irish is thus forebear to Modern Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic.

Irish verb forms are constructed either synthetically or analytically.

Irish syntax is rather different from that of most Indo-European languages, especially because of its VSO word order.

Tunica language Extinct language isolate of the Mississippi Valley

The Tunica or Luhchi Yoroni language is a language isolate that was spoken in the Central and Lower Mississippi Valley in the United States by Native American Tunica peoples. There are no native speakers of the Tunica language, but as of 2017, there are 32 second language speakers.

Swampy Cree is a variety of the Algonquian language, Cree. It is spoken in a series of Swampy Cree communities in northern Manitoba, central northeast of Saskatchewan along the Saskatchewan River and along the Hudson Bay coast and adjacent inland areas to the south and west, and Ontario along the coast of Hudson Bay and James Bay. Within the group of dialects called "West Cree", it is referred to as an "n-dialect", as the variable phoneme common to all Cree dialects appears as "n" in this dialect.

The Ojibwe language is an Algonquian American Indian language spoken throughout the Great Lakes region and westward onto the northern plains. It is one of the largest American Indian languages north of Mexico in terms of number of speakers, and exhibits a large number of divergent dialects. For the most part, this article describes the Minnesota variety of the Southwestern dialect. The orthography used is the Fiero Double-Vowel System.

Manam is a Kairiru–Manam language spoken mainly on the volcanic Manam Island, northeast of New Guinea.

Araki is a nearly extinct language spoken in the small island of Araki, south of Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu. Araki is gradually being replaced by Tangoa, a language from a neighbouring island.

The Early Middle Japanese is a stage of the Japanese language between 794 and 1185, which is known as the Heian Period. The successor to Old Japanese, it is also known as Late Old Japanese. However, the term "Early Middle Japanese" is preferred, as it is closer to Late Middle Japanese than to Old Japanese.

Misantla Totonac, also known as Yecuatla Totonac and Southeastern Totonac, is an indigenous language of Mexico, spoken in central Veracruz in the area between Xalapa and Misantla. It belongs to the Totonacan family and is the southernmost variety of Totonac. Misantla Totonac is highly endangered, with fewer than 133 speakers, most of whom are elderly. The language has largely been replaced by Spanish.

Malecite-Passamaquoddy language Language

Malecite–Passamaquoddy is an endangered Algonquian language spoken by the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples along both sides of the border between Maine in the United States and New Brunswick, Canada. The language consists of two major dialects: Malecite, which is mainly spoken in the Saint John River Valley in New Brunswick; and Passamaquoddy, spoken mostly in the St. Croix River Valley of eastern Maine. However, the two dialects differ only slightly, mainly in accent. The indigenous people widely spoke Malecite-Passamaquoddy in these areas until around the post-World War II era when changes in the education system and increased marriage outside of the speech community caused a large decrease in the number of children who learned or regularly used the language. As a result, in both Canada and the U.S. today, there are only 600 speakers of both dialects, and most speakers are older adults. Although the majority of younger people cannot speak the language, there is growing interest in teaching the language in community classes and in some schools.

Kokota language Austronesian language spoken in the Solomon Islands

Kokota is spoken on Santa Isabel Island, which is located in the Solomon Island chain in the Pacific Ocean. Santa Isabel is one of the larger islands in the chain, but it has a very low population density. Kokota is the main language of three villages: Goveo and Sisigā on the North coast, and Hurepelo on the South coast, though there are a few speakers who reside in the capital, Honiara, and elsewhere. The language is classified as a 6b (threatened) on the Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS). To contextualize '6b', the language is not in immediate danger of extinction since children in the villages are still taught Kokota and speak it at home despite English being the language of the school system. However, Kokota is threatened by another language, Cheke Holo, as speakers of this language move, from the west of the island, closer to the Kokota-speaking villages. Kokota is one of 37 languages in the Northwestern Solomon Group, and as with other Oceanic languages, it had limited morphological complexity.

Iatmül language Ndu language spoken in Papua New Guinea

Iatmul is the language of the Iatmul people, spoken around the Sepik River in the East Sepik Province, northern Papua New Guinea. The Iatmul, however, do not refer to their language by the term Iatmul, but call it gepmakudi.

Tawala is an Oceanic language of the Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by 20,000 people who live in hamlets and small villages on the East Cape peninsula, on the shores of Milne Bay and on areas of the islands of Sideia and Basilaki. There are approximately 40 main centres of population each speaking the same dialect, although through the process of colonisation some centres have gained more prominence than others.

Neverver (Nevwervwer), also known as Lingarak, is an Oceanic language. Neverver is spoken in Malampa Province, in central Malekula, Vanuatu. The names of the villages on Malekula Island where Neverver is spoken are Lingarakh and Limap.

The grammar of the constructed Na'vi language was created for the movie Avatar by Paul Frommer. It is a tripartite, primarily affixing agglutinative language.

This article describes the grammar of the Old Irish language. The grammar of the language has been described with exhaustive detail by various authors, including Thurneysen, Binchy and Bergin, McCone, O'Connell, Stifter, among many others.

The grammar of the Manx language has much in common with related Indo-European languages, such as nouns that display gender, number and case and verbs that take endings or imploy auxiliaries to show tense, person or number. Other morphological features are typical of other Insular Celtic but atypical of other Indo-European languages, such as initial consonant mutation, inflected prepositions and verb–subject–object word order.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 McCone, Kim (1987). The Early Irish Verb. Maynooth: An Sagart. ISBN   1-870684-00-1 . Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  2. 1 2 Thurneysen, Rudolf (1993) [1946]. A Grammar of Old Irish. Translated by D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN   1-85500-161-6 . Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  3. 1 2 McCone, Kim (2005). A First Old Irish Grammar and Reader. Maynooth: Department of Old and Middle Irish, National University of Ireland. ISBN   0-901519-36-7 . Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  4. ↑ Green, Antony (1995). Old Irish Verbs and Vocabulary. Somerville, Mass.: Cascadilla Press. p. 73. ISBN   1-57473-003-7 . Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  5. ↑ Cowgill, Warren (1975). "The origins of the Insular Celtic conjunct and absolute verbal endings". In H. Rix (ed.). Flexion und Wortbildung: Akten der V. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Regensburg, 9.–14. September 1973. Wiesbaden: Reichert. pp. 40–70. ISBN   3-920153-40-5.
  6. 1 2 Calder, George (1923). A Gaelic Grammar. Glasgow: MacLaren & Sons. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  7. ↑ Mackinnon, Roderick. Gaelic. London: Teach Yourself Books. ISBN   0-340-15153-6 . Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  8. ↑ Broderick, George (1993). "Manx". In M.J. Ball; J. Fife (eds.). The Celtic Languages. London: Routledge. pp. 228–85. ISBN   0-415-01035-7 . Retrieved 2013-04-06.
  9. ↑ Broderick, George (1984–86). A Handbook of Late Spoken Manx. 1. Tübingen: Niemeyer. ISBN   3-484-42903-8 . Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  10. 1 2 McManus, Damian (1994). "An Nua-Ghaeilge Chlasaiceach". In K. McCone; D. McManus; C. Ó. Háinle; N. Williams; L. Breatnach (eds.). Stair na Gaeilge in ómós do Pádraig Ó Fiannachta (in Irish). Maynooth: Department of Old Irish, St. Patrick's College. pp. 335–445. ISBN   0-901519-90-1 . Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  11. 1 2 Christian Brothers (1994). New Irish Grammar. Dublin: C. J. Fallon. ISBN   0-7144-1298-8 . Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  12. ↑ Ó Siadhail, Mícheál (1989). Modern Irish: Grammatical structure and dialectal variation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-521-37147-3 . Retrieved 2009-03-05.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.