Preverbs

[am004 at RS1.RRZ.UNI-KOELN.DE]

In a paper submitted to a word class anthology ed. by Comrie/Vogel
I have recently established some typological 'slot' for classical
preverbs by contrasting them with a different, yet also peculiar
category from Tongan which I have called 'preverbials'. The classical
preverbs (cf. Brugmann/Delbrueck 1911:764 (Vol II), Grundriss der
vergl. Grammatik der Indog. Sprachen) are a fairly closed class of
relational adverbial items like 'up', 'at' which through
grammaticalisation end up either as verbal derivations, applicatives or
as aspectual inflections (for the latter see Bybee et al. 1994:87, The
Evolution of Grammar).
By way of contrast, the Tongan preverbials (which are always placed
right before the predicate) usually come from superordinate
predicates (like 'to be finished'), but also end up showing adverbial
characteristics like 'already', and a tendency to mark aspectual
notions apart from becoming derivational prefixes. (Also note that
the preverbials are still very semanticised; Tongan has separate
grammatical TAM markers which are supported, but not (yet) replaced
by the preverbials).
Generally speaking, the preverbs show some greater affinity to
case markers, while the preverbials show some greater affinity
to superordinate predicates, but they both operate on the core of the
event described.
Anybody happy with this? Comments welcome.
Best regards,

Juergen Broschart
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Dr. Juergen Broschart
Institut fuer Sprachwissenschaft
Universitaet zu Koeln
D-50923 Koeln
am004 at rs1.rrz.uni-koeln.de
Tel. 0221-470-2323
Fax. 0221-470-5947
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Johan van der Auwera wrote:
>
> There is at least one respectable tradition equating 'preverbal' with
> 'verbal prefix'. I have published a bit on this, but not on Germanic
> _ge_ though. One paper appeared in a EUROTYP-type volume
>
> A. Rousseau (ed.)
> 1995 Les Preverbes dans les langues d'Europe. Lille: Septention.
>
> Johan