[Lingtyp] R: Indexes fossilizing

[Elisa Roma]

Dear all,

besides reconstructed forms according to Watkins’ law, which gives forms
where the pronominal affixes have become part of some other affix or root
inflectional modification (such as transitive, past tense) a few examples
come to my mind where the affixes have become part of a specific lexical
root, such as in Italian aver-ci (to have+locative) mentioned by Nigel
Vincent and also entrar-ci (entrare+locative) ‘to enter in it’ > ‘to be
relevant for’, which in popular Italian has turned into a single lexeme
where the clitic does not move anymore (so the infinitive is c’entrare
-centrare rather than entrarci and has become homophonous with centrare ‘to
centre’).

These are some verbs in Old Irish, e.g.

at-baill ‘die’ (see eDIL headword https://dil.ie/search?q=at-bail*
<https://dil.ie/search?q=at-bail*&search_in=headword> &search_in=headword),
where -t- was originally a 3rd sg. Neuter object pronoun

In the history of Irish there are quite a few documented cases where the
object morpheme (so-called infix) has become part of the lexeme, e.g.

ad-cí ‘see’ has become at-chí, with again neuter object infix
(https://dil.ie/search?q=ad-ci
<https://dil.ie/search?q=ad-ci&search_in=headword> &search_in=headword,
McCone 1997: 172 ff., where other cases of frequent verbs, such as ‘say’,
are described)

Note that the first example is old, while the examples described by McCone
are later and belong to a period (Middle Irish) when the Neuter gender is
being lost.

Best,

Elisa

 

References

eDIL = eDIL 2019: An Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language, based on
the Contributions to a Dictionary of the Irish Language (Dublin: Royal Irish
Academy, 1913-1976) ( <http://www.dil.ie> www.dil.ie 2019). [Accessed on
1-12-23].

McCone 1997  = Kim McCone, The Early Irish Verb. Maynooth, An Sagart 1997
[2nd edition, 1st edition 1987].

 

 

 

Elisa Roma

Associate professor of Linguistics

Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici

Università di Pavia

elisa.roma at unipv.it

 

 

 

 

Da: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> Per conto di Juergen
Bohnemeyer
Inviato: giovedì 30 novembre 2023 12.30
A: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
Oggetto: [Lingtyp] Indexes fossilizing

 

Dear all – I’m passing along the following query from one of my advisees,
Jose Antonio Jodar Sánchez:

 

“I have been looking for references which talk about pronominal affixes on
verbs which have become fossilized and are now part of the verb root. I
checked Anna Siewierska’s book on person but I could not find anything. Do
you know of any?”

 

Presumably, what Jose Antonio’s is looking for is above all citable
treatments. However, if the phenomenon hasn’t been dealt with exhaustively
(which it may not), I’m sure examples will be helpful as well.

 

Thanks! – Juergen 

 

Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
Professor, Department of Linguistics
University at Buffalo 

Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus
Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260 
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Fax: (716) 645 3825
Email:  <mailto:jb77 at buffalo.edu> jb77 at buffalo.edu
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http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/ 

Office hours Tu/Th 3:30-4:30pm in 642 Baldy or via Zoom (Meeting ID 585 520
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There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The Light Gets In 
(Leonard Cohen)  

-- 

 

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