Classical Arithide conjugation: Difference between revisions

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==First conjugation: Consonant-stem verbs==
==First conjugation: Consonant-stem verbs==


The first conjugation, containing all consonant-stem verbs, is the most common conjugation to which verbs in Classical Arithide belong, encompassing approximately three-quarters of all verbs. The regular conjugation is illustrated by the example verbs ''sernā'' "to order (active)" and ''aurai'' "to meet" below. ''Damā'' "to carry", is also listed  
The first conjugation, containing all consonant-stem verbs, is the most common conjugation to which verbs in Classical Arithide belong, encompassing approximately three-quarters of all verbs. The regular conjugation is illustrated by the example verbs ''sernēn'' "to order (active)" and ''aurai'' "to meet" below. ''Damēn'' "to carry", is also listed  


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Revision as of 12:48, 29 October 2008


See also Classical Arithide grammar for more information


Classical Arithide verbs are divided into two conjugations based on their stems: whether they end in a vowel or a consonant. There is no infinitive, and verbs are quoted in dictionaries in their perfective finite form. The two conjugations differ in their basic finite forms, whereas additional affixes for the various aspects and moods are common; a small group of verbs are mixed-conjugation: though consonant-stem, they take vowel-stem conjugations.

Within consonant-stem verbs, nasal-stems (-m- and -n-) conjugate slightly differently from the non-nasal-stem verbs; also, vowel-stem verbs possess a second stem, with which are formed their derivatives, such as the protractive aspect and the agentive noun.

Verbs in each class are conjugated for four or five voices, three basic aspects, five derivative aspects, seven moods and one tense, on a cascading hierarchy as above. I.e., to the root form of the verb would first be appended affixes indicating voice, followed by aspect, then mood and subsequently tense. Certain aspects and moods in Classical Arithide constitute separate verbs eo ipso, but, as semi-independent verbs, are not always able to take the full range of verb conjugations.

There is a small class of antideponent verbs in Classical Arithide, i.e. verbs with an active form but a passive meaning.

Verbs are the only group of words in Classical Arithide that exhibit a significant degree of non-inflectionary morphology, namely, agglutination, which occurs in affixing aspects, moods and tenses onto individual verbs.

Voice and transitivity

Classical Arithide verbs, besides their usual classification system as consonant-stem or vowel-stem, can also be classified, in grammatical literature, according to whether the root is active or passive. Because of the conflation of voice with transitivity, "active" and "middle" voice may in fact correspond to "transitive" and "intransitive" in certain cases, though to the Areth of the Classical Age, the difference was scarcely material.

The flexible verb system of the language means that it is possible for individual verbs to cross categories, i.e. for active verbs to take on the middle voice and vice versa. By scholastic agreement, verbs can fall into either of two groups by this criterion: Group 1 (numatheros, lit. "down group") contains verbs analogous to the Germanic "weak verbs", i.e. they change voice with suffixes; Group 2 (bisatheros, lit. "up group") are the "strong verbs", which undergo ablaut to convey the same meaning. Each group is divided into two subgroups (a) and (b), the former of which consists of verbs whose roots are active, and take suffixes to middlise/intransitivise, and vice versa.

Whereas Group 1b verbs uniformly activise by taking the suffix -āthā, Group 1a verbs take various endings depending on the phonological environment:

  • Where [r] occurs in the stem (particularly in the first syllable) after the vowels [e], [i] and [y], the suffix -erai is used
  • Where it occurs with any other vowel, or with diphthongs, the suffix -arai is used
  • Where either [r] or [m] is the final consonant in the stem, the suffix used is -anai
  • All other situations employ the suffix -onai

Conjugations of an Arithide verb

The basic conjugations of an Arithide verb are given in table format as laid out in the following templates.

For verbs in the active voice or transitive verbs:

verb habitual, inceptive, frequentative, protractive, volitive
desiderative, jussive, subjunctive
imperative, cohortative

supine (I)
location (II)
instrument (V)
agent (VI)
patient (VII, VI)
perfect aspect perfect participle perfect supine
perfective aspect perfective participle perfective supine
imperfective aspect imperfective participle imperfective supine
future tense future participle future supine
potentive, causative, passive, (middlisation)

For verbs in the middle voice or intransitive verbs:

verb habitual, inceptive, frequentative, protractive, volitive
desiderative, jussive, subjunctive
imperative, cohortative

supine (I)
location (II)
instrument (V)
agent (VI)
patient (VII, VI)
perfect aspect perfect participle perfect supine
perfective aspect perfective participle perfective supine
imperfective aspect imperfective participle imperfective supine
future tense future participle future supine
potentive, causative, (activisation)

Note the (logical) presence of an extra voice, the passive voice, listed in the table for active/transitive verbs, and the absence thereof from the table for middle/intransitive verbs.

Stem & gerund

The conjugation of a verb is conducted with its stem as the basis. To find the stem of a verb, simply remove the final -i from the imperfective. From the stem is formed the second major part of a verb's conjugation, the gerund: V-verbs simply use the derivative stem, hence sebi "to hear" has the gerund form sebi; C-verbs affix an -o onto the stem, hence napsi "to hide" has the gerund napso. Most complex conjugations are formed using the gerund, as are a number of common verbal phrases and periphrastic constructions; frequently, when those conjugations require an affix beginning with a vowel, the -o of the gerund in C-verbs is elided.

Imperative & cohortative

At the top-right of the table, listed with the stem and the gerund, are the imperative ("walk!") and the cohortative ("let's walk") moods respectively. These are the only two forms of the verb that are progressively invariable (see Progressive inflection), i.e. they do not inflect further for the next level of time-flow distinction, in this case tense. The imperative is formed with V-verbs by lengthening their inherent vowel and adding -ra, and with C-verbs by adding -ēra to the stem (i.e. napsā > napsēra, kalā > kalāra, sebiā > sebīra). In colloquial speech or for purposes of scansion, the final -ra may be omitted. The cohortative is constructed in C-verbs by appending to the stem; V-verbs add to their stem.

Free derivatives

The only derivative verbs that can conjugate nearly as fully as the active verb itself, with only minimal restrictions (the "free derivatives"), number three, and are the three other verb voices in Classical Arithide: the potentive (-ētai, "able to"), causative (-āra, "make/cause to") and passive (he-, "be done something to").

To illustrate, napsētai (naps- + -ētai potentive) can take any ending that the main verb can, except the passive, because potentive verbs are intransitive by nature and thus do not have a passive; nor can henapsa (naps- + prefix he- passive), for the same reason that passive verbs are also intransitive by definition; in addition, the causative is the only derivative of the three that allows recursion: napsārāra "make to cause to hide" is semantically permissible, whereas napsētētai is illogical and hegenapsa (doubled he-; the second he- is mutated due to historical phonological sound changes) is forbidden for transitivity reasons as already discussed.

There is a third-person imperative ("let him hide") ending in -(e)sit—i.e. henapsesit

Records of earlier Arithide show the passive form as originally having been constructed -sita, which casts some light on the origins of the seemingly irregular third-person imperative, and the patientive verbal noun. The latter is attested as once regular (napsesitis, which phonetic attrition reduced), and the former of which is unattested but postulated by scholars to have been napsesitu, paralleling the imperative and cohortative. For those moods, however, no material is available to explain their distinct construction from the active.

Limited derivatives

The "limited derivative" verbs are, as opposed to the free derivatives, independent derivative verbs that may not take the full range of conjugations. Most derivatives in this category are modal: the inceptive mood (-zai "to begin to"), the frequentative (-eusai "to do repeatedly"), the protractive (-ndai "to go on and on"), the volitive (-amai "to be willing to"), the desiderative (-ssai' "to want to"), the jussive (-spai "to want the listener to") and the subjunctive (-ōnai). The first three moods take the imperfective stem; the latter three take the gerundive stem with C-verbs and the basic stem with V-verbs. None of these verbs may take a subordinate voice (as they are moods), nor recur outside literature (i.e. napsizizai, for example, is not normally permissible); all may take the inceptive and the subjunctive subordinately, and the inceptive may take the frequentative in subordination, to give the meaning of "repeatedly began (but never finished)".

Also part of the limited derivatives are the progressively invariable habitual and perfective habitual aspects, which are conjugated like tenses, by taking the imperfective stem, affixing -mnai, and conjugating it for the perfect or perfective aspect, e.g. hoirimnei "used to turn". The simple habitual (with the perfect-aspect ending) also doubles as the generic mood, to express universals, e.g. lēreu dialimnai, "the sun rises (every day as a matter of certainty/fact)". These aspects are considered unique, in that they are the only ones that may follow a mood in affixation, to give, e.g. agnizimnai "he habitually begins to do things (and leave them hanging afterwards)".

Verbal nouns

The left side of the table, shaded slightly darker, lists the main verbal nouns, of agency (doer), of patiency (done to), of instrument (tool), of location (place done at), as well as the supine (act of). The supine is a declension I noun, locative nouns are declension II, agentive nouns are of declension VI and instrumentive nouns are declension Vb, the patientive is declension VII (see Classical Arithide declension for the respective inflection patterns).

Different consonant stems take different epenthetic consonants in forming their supines and locatives, illustrated by the table below:

Voiceless plosives/fricatives Voiced plosives/fricatives
topēn, top-, topsos stebēn, steb-, stepsos
ikēn, ik-, iksos vagēn, vag-, vaksos
gatēn, gat-, gassos fidēn, fid-, fissos
pathēn, path-, passos fodhēn, fodh-, fossos
sēn, bēs-, bēssos fizēn, fiz-, fissos
Sonorants
damēn, dam-, dantos thenēn, then-, thentos
sulēn, sul-, sultos lerēn, ler-, lessos
Clusters
kompēn, komp-, kompros kambēn, kamb-, kambros
eptēn, ept-, eptros dandēn, dand-, dandros
arkēn, ark-, arksos kargēn, karg-, karksos
almēn, alm-, almbros sernēn, sern-, serndros
illēn, ill-, iltros kaplēn, kapl-, kapeltos
firrēn, firr-, firstos ēbrēn, ēbr-, ēberos

Applicative infixing

There is an applicative infix, -it-, that is appended only to first conjugation (consonant-stem) verbs, to derive nouns one degree removed semantically from the verb. Examples are:

  • segrēn "to write" > segros "the act of writing", segritos "writing (i.e. words that have been written)"
  • damēn "to carry" > damos "the act of carrying", damitos "transport, conveyance"

Aspects & tenses

Classical Arithide was an aspect-salient language; distinctions as "he eats" and "he ate" mattered far less to an Arithide-speaker then than did ones such as "he ate" and "he was eating". In this respect it bears much resemblance to the Chinese languages. The proclivity towards aspect-differentiation rather than tense persisted well into the koine era, and it was only with the rise of Modern Arithide did tenses begin to play a greater role.

The verb conjugation table is ordered with the aspects preceding tenses, for reasons of origin: the tenses ultimately derive from reduced versions of the aspects; the perfect aspect gave rise to the present tense, the perfective to the past tense, and the once-common irrealis/conditional mood decayed into the future tense, in a logical process of mapping, in the final decades of the Equora dynasty. Written records exhibit tenses only from the late 9th century CIE, and even then only in informal documents.

See also Development of Classical Arithide tenses for more information


With the stronger role of the tenses in the koine, finer temporal distinctions became possible, and the aspects evolved from finite verb forms to dually functioning affixes: they could stand alone without tense-marking, or they could act as aspectual stems and take tenses. This overlapping feature of the aspect was often utilised in literature, as well as politics, for reasons of style, emphasis, or deliberate ambiguity.

Participles

The participles of the various aspects and the conditional mood serve two main purposes. First, due to the SOV syntax of Classical Arithide, verbs were used prenominally as modifiers. Initially these modifier verbs used the same forms as final verbs, but gradually evolved distinct forms with lengthened vowels and, in the case of the imperfective, lost the accompanying consonant. Adjectives of the verbal class, however, did not undergo this change (see Classical Arithide adjectives). Second, analogously to the Latin ablative absolute construction, the participles could indicate the context of a main sentence, e.g.

  • Kodhē roimeūm, sōpedōi tholtae ivage. Having weakened the enemy, the soldiers went in for the kill.

These participle forms were largely developed already by the Aphoiros dynasty, and codified into the language of the respectable classes upon the rise of the Equora.

Participial verbal nouns

Participles can also derive verbal nouns, such as sthorāthos "the fact that you have held (him) back" or sthorāthon "the person who held (him) back", from sthorāsos "having held back, who has held back", from sthorā "has held back, to hold back". These are quoted in the tables below in the abstract -os form which corresponds to "the fact that...", but can also take declension VI endings by replacing the ending -os, changing their meaning to become "the person who...".

Deriving other parts of speech

Like many other SOV languages, most notably Japanese, early Classical Arithide could turn its verbs into modifiers simply by putting them directly before the noun they modify, e.g. ores soli "the river flows (lit. is flowing)" vs. soli ores "the flowing river" "the river that flows (lit. is flowing)". However, due to the language's extensive and growing inflection, and consequently considerably free word order, the practice declined rather early on in the Lazeian Empire's existence in favour of the participle forms, which had already begun to differentiate from the finite forms before the conquest of Galaria (see Classical Arithide verb differentiation); it only experienced a sort of recovery after the fall of the Equora dynasty, and the consequent accelerated decay of the intricate inflection system it had built up over the years.

In the conjugation tables below, the participles for each verb are listed with an additional letter each appended in parentheses to the end. In the "standard" Classical Arithide, the correct participle forms do not include the letters in brackets, nor as modifiers include them but simply conjugate in their base form according to the declension class of their referent. In earlier periods, however, up to the decades before the Three Hundred Golden Years, the correct forms for the perfective and imperfective participles ended in -a, subsequently dropped, and as modifiers of the nominal class declined as per the fifth declension; the bracketed m after the imperfective participles, on the other hand, arose after the fall of the Equora by analogy with the perfective participle.

At the same time, in the active and middle voices verbs can form various adjectives and nouns using their different aspectual participle forms (such as fragai "to rebel, to mutiny" > fragīēs sōpedēs "rebelling/mutinying soldiers", fragaiēs sōpedēs "soldiers who have rebelled/mutinied—implied and by consequence are now no longer part of the force", frageiēs sōpedēs "soldiers who rebelled/mutinied—before/once, and that is over and done with in their histories"). This is also true for the passive voice, hence hezurāser Ganymēder "stolen Ganymede" is still missing while hezurēmer Ganymēder has been returned, and Zeus can stil be seen taking away hezurīer Ganymēder.

Voice, aspect, mood and tense

Verbs in each class are conjugated for five voices, three basic aspects, five derivative aspects and seven moods. Of the following list, those marked with an asterisk form separate verbs (i.e. take their own infinitives), which usually do not hold the full conjugation range. Additionally, the interrogative mood is marked with the auxiliary particle da. Verbs are conjugated on a cascading hierarchy as above, i.e. to the root form of the verb would first be appended affixes indicating voice, followed by aspect, then mood and subsequently tense.

Voices

  • Active John hits the ball.
  • Middle John makes a hit.
  • Passive The ball is hit by John.
  • Causative Jack makes John hit the ball.
  • Potentive Jack can hit the ball.

Aspects

  • Imperfective, indicating the progression of an action
    • Habitual/Generic I walk to work every day. Mangoes grow on trees.
    • Protractive* I walk on and on; I go on walking.
    • Inceptive* I begin to walk.
    • Frequentative* I walk around.
  • Perfective, indicating the completion of an action
  • Perfect I have walked to the cinema (and am now there).

Moods

  • Indicative, stating facts, strong beliefs
  • Subjunctive*, used with wishes, hopes, doubts, conditions
  • Desiderative* I want to walk.
  • Jussive* I want you to walk.
  • Volitive, I am willing to walk
  • Imperative Walk!
  • Cohortative Let's walk.
  • Negative1
I do not walk.

1 There are technically two types of the negative mood in Classical Arithide, but traditionally have been conflated into one by the Dethrians, who were not generally able to effectively distinguish between the two (see next section for more information).

Negation

In Classical Arithide, as with its modern descendant, there are two possible ways of constructing negation—broad and narrow—using the affix av-, -va respectively. Broad negation negates the semantic meaning of an entire word, phrase, or even sentence; the narrow variant negates only the specific conjugated meaning of the verb.

Compare the following two sentences and the nuanced difference in their meaning:

  • Vakso raenētaiva. You cannot choose to go. (lit. "going choose-can-not")
  • Vakso auraenētai. You can not choose to go. or You can choose not to go. (lit. "going not-choose-can")
  • Auvakso raenētai. You can choose not to go. (lit. "not-going choose-can")

The former sentence is an example of narrow negation, because the negative suffix applies only to the conjugated verb, i.e. it refers to the narrow act of not choosing; the latter of broad, because the prefix inverts the lexical meaning of the verb, and subsequent conjugations modify the prefixed verb as a single unit of negative meaning—the new word is technically considered grammatically affirmative.

Certain constructions require the use of either of the negatives over the other due to grammatical constraints, e.g. in the case of the following two sentences:

  1. Sit iter auvagōn do, vagmai. If that person is not going, I will go.
  2. Sit iter vagōn do, vagmaiva. If that person is going, I will not go.
  3. Sit iter auvagespai. He does not want that person to go. (Lit. "he desires the person to not-go")
  4. Sit iter vagespaiva. He does not want that person to go. (Lit. "he desires not the person to go")

In the first sentence the broad negative has to be employed due to the overlap in the various functions of the subjunctive mood, which here is used as a "subjunctive of condition": if it were said Sit iter vagōnaiva..., it would imply a separate grammatical topic (e.g. dās "I", nās "he" etc.) and that the subjunctive is being used as a "subjunctive of desire", i.e. the clause would mean, instead, the equivalent of sentence (4).

First conjugation: Consonant-stem verbs

The first conjugation, containing all consonant-stem verbs, is the most common conjugation to which verbs in Classical Arithide belong, encompassing approximately three-quarters of all verbs. The regular conjugation is illustrated by the example verbs sernēn "to order (active)" and aurai "to meet" below. Damēn "to carry", is also listed

SERN- serno, sernē(ra), sernō
sernētai, sernairā, hezernā, (sernerai)
sup. serndros
loc. serndras
ins. serneta
agt. sernon
pat. sernosis, sernosion
sernā sernās(os) sernāthos
sernei sernēm(os) sernenthos
serni sernī(ros) sernīthos
sermai sermai(nos) sermaithos
sernimnā, sernizai, serneusai, sernindai, sernoumai
sernossai, sernospai, sernōnai


EVTĒN evt-, evto, evtē(ra), evtō(ra)
evtabēn, evtārēn, evtostēn
sup. evtros
loc. evtras
ins. evteta
agt. evton
pat. evtosis
evtat, evtat- evtāt(a) evta
evten, evtem- evtēm(a) evte
evti(s), evtir- evtī(m)
(evtont, evtond-) evtūm evton
evtimnēn, evtizēn, evtivasēn, evtindēn, evtumēn
evtossēn, evtospēn, evtōnēn

-mēn verbs

Verbs whose stems end in -m take a slightly different ending in the perfective aspect, which has arisen due to historical phonetic dissimulation. Also, the agentive verbal noun takes an epenthetic -p-. To illustrate, the conjugation of the verb damēn "to carry" is provided below.

DAMĒN dam-, damo, damē(ra), damō(ra)
damabēn, damārēn, damostēn
sup. dampros
loc. dampras
ins. dameta
agt. damon (dampter)
pat. damosis
damat, damat- damāt(a) dama
dameum, dameun- dameūm(a) dame
dami(s), damir- damī(n)
(damauer, damauer-) damai(r-) damae
damimnēn, damizēn, damivasēn, damindēn, damunēn
damossēn, damospēn, damōnēn

Second conjugation: a-stem verbs

The regular conjugation for a-stem verbs is given below with the example kalān "to give".

KALĀN kala(t)-, kala, kalā(ra), kalatō(ra)
kalabēn, kalatārēn, kalastēn
sup. kalatos
loc. kalatas
ins. kalateta
agt. kalaton (kalater)
pat. kalasis
kalas, kalar- kalant kalas
kalet, kaled- kalēth kaleth
kalin, kalam- kalīm
(kalōn, kalum-) (kalōn) kalōn
kalamnēn, kalazēn, kalavasēn, kalandēn, kalatumēn
kalassēn, kalaspēn, kalatōnēn

Third conjugation: e-stem verbs

E-stem verbs conjugate like balēn "to be able (to)" below.

BALĒN1 bale(t)-, bale, balē(ra), baletō(ra)
balebēn, baletārēn, balestēn
sup. baletos
loc. baletas
ins. baleteta
agt. baleton (baleter)
pat. balesis
bales, baler- balent bales
balet, baled- balēth baleth
balean, baleam- balean
(baleōn, baleum-) (baleōn) baleōn
balemnēn, balezēn, balevasēn, balendēn, baletumēn
balessēn, balespēn, baletōnēn

Fourth conjugation: i-stem verbs

The regular conjugation for i-stem verbs follows sebiān "to hear" as elaborated:

SEBIĀN sebi(t)-, sebi, sebī(ra), sebitō(ra)
sebibēn, sebitārēn, sebistēn
sup. sebitos
loc. sebitas
ins. sebiteta
agt. sebiton (sebiter)
pat. sebisis
sebis, sebir- sebint sebis
sebiet, sebied- sebiēth sebieth
sebian, sebiam- sebian
(sebiōn, sebium-) (sebiōn) sebiōn
sebimnēn, sebizēn, sebivasēn, sebindēn, sebitumēn
sebissēn, sebispēn, sebitōnēn

Mixed conjugation verbs

The mixed conjugation verbs are all consonant-stem verbs that conjugate as per vowel-stems. Due to the consequent coincidence of the consonants from the stem and the ending, phonetic assimilation or dissimilation may occur as demonstrated below. In certain cases where the syllable structure of the verb changes (e.g. from open to closed), vowel alterations may also take place with the high vowels i and u, lowering them to e and o respectively.

Certain mixed-conjugation verbs also act as if they were e-stem verbs, and can conjugate accordingly, leading to two different conjugal matrices for the same verb; all the example verbs given below belong to this category: ludēn "to gamble", dagēn "to contain", simēn "to host" and levēn "big".

LUDĒN lud-, ludo, ludē(ra), ludō(ra)
ludabēn, ludārēn, losstēn
sup. luttos
loc. luttas
ins. ludeta
agt. ludon (lutter)
pat. ludosis
ludes, luder-
s, lōr-
ludent ludes
s
ludet, luded-
lutt, lodd-
ludēth
th
ludeth
lutth
ludian, ludiam- ludian
(ludiōn, ludium-) (ludiōn) ludiōn
ludimnēn, ludizēn, ludivasēn, ludindēn
ludossēn, ludospēn, ludōnēn


DAGĒN dag-, dago, dagē(ra), dagō(ra)
dagabēn, dagārēn, dakstēn
sup. daktos
loc. daktas
ins. dageta
agt. dagon (dakter)
pat. dagosis
dages, dager-
daks, dagr-
dagent dages
daks
daget, daged-
dakt, dagd-/dangd-
dagēth
dākth
dageth
dakth
dagian, dagiam- dagian
(dagiōn, dagium-) (dagiōn) dagiōn
dagimnēn, dagizēn, dagivasēn, dagindēn
dagossēn, dagospēn, dagōnēn


SIMĒN sim-, simo, simē(ra), simō(ra)
simabēn, simārēn, simostēn
sup. semptos
loc. semptas
ins. simeta
agt. simon (sempter)
pat. simosis
simes, simer-
semps, sempr-
siment simes
semps
simet, simed-
sempt, sembd-
simēth
sēmpth
simeth
sempth
simian, simiam- simian
(simiōn, simium-) (simiōn) simiōn
simimnēn, simizēn, simivasēn, simindēn
simossēn, simospēn, simōnēn


LEVĒN lev-, levo, levē(ra), levō(ra)
levabēn, levārēn, lepstēn
sup. leptos
loc. leptas
ins. leveta
agt. levon (lepter)
pat. levosis
leves, lever-
leps, lepr-
levent leves
leps
levet, leved-
lept, lebd-
levēth
lēpth
leveth
lepth
levian, leviam- levian
(leviōn, levium-) (leviōn) leviōn
levimnēn, levizēn, levvasēn, levindēn
levossēn, levospēn, levōnēn

See also