What would this type of verb be called?

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Davush
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What would this type of verb be called?

Post by Davush »

I have a set of verbs which are used only in conjunction with another verb, and both verbs refer to the same subject. They have their own morphology which is a bit different from 'regular' verbs:

xuni-, nagga-, wāḥi-, dara-, pūdu-, xǝši-
to want, to hope, to try, to ask, to begin, to finish

They are used with a verb in the non-past, but person is marked on the 'pseudo verb'.

xuni-n kaqqa
want-1SG go.NON.PAST
'I want to go'

xǝši-k čǝrra
finish-2SG eat.NON.PAST
'You have finished eating'

I feel like there are more verbs which I want to add to this category, but I'm not sure what is unifying them, other than they appear in a kind of serial-verb construction.

Any comments/help welcome! Thanks.
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gestaltist
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Re: What would this type of verb be called?

Post by gestaltist »

Auxiliary verbs, I think.
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Frislander
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Re: What would this type of verb be called?

Post by Frislander »

If these auxilliary verbs (for that is what they are) only ever appear with main verbs in the non-past and minus their person marking, then it's probably better saying that these auxilliaries take unmarked verbs as their complements (assuming of course that the non-past is somehow unmarked compared to the past: if the two are shown by differences in stem then it probably is better to call the main verbs "non-past"). This saves on glossing space not having to write NON.PST each time (and that is a lengthy abbreviation: NPST is better imv).
Davush
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Re: What would this type of verb be called?

Post by Davush »

Thanks both. I was hesitant to call them auxiliaries because they aren't just used for TAM purposes. I might allow the main verb to take limited TAM marking, so the 'auxiliaries' do have semantic (lexical?) information. Maybe semi-auxiliaries or pseudo-auxiliaries?
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gestaltist
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Re: What would this type of verb be called?

Post by gestaltist »

Davush wrote:Thanks both. I was hesitant to call them auxiliaries because they aren't just used for TAM purposes. I might allow the main verb to take limited TAM marking, so the 'auxiliaries' do have semantic (lexical?) information. Maybe semi-auxiliaries or pseudo-auxiliaries?
I think that's overkill. You can reinterpret each of these as having strictly TAM-related meanings*, and also, it's better to be clear than to be super-exact, IMO.

*want = desiderative mood
hope = optative mood
try = conative mood
ask = hortative mood
begin = inchoative aspect
finish = terminative aspect
masako
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Re: What would this type of verb be called?

Post by masako »

gestaltist wrote:finish = terminative aspect
This could also be perfective, depending.
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gestaltist
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Re: What would this type of verb be called?

Post by gestaltist »

masako wrote:
gestaltist wrote:finish = terminative aspect
This could also be perfective, depending.
Sure. Most of these could be reinterpreted differently. The point is: there's no reason to not see these verbs as auxiliary.
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