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The categories of Modern Irish verbal inflection1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

PAOLO ACQUAVIVA
PAOLO ACQUAVIVA*
Affiliation:
University College Dublin
*
Author's address: School of Languages and Literatures, University College Dublin, Newman Building, Belfield, Dublin 4, Irelandpaolo.acquaviva@ucd.ie
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Abstract

This paper sets out to identify the categories underlying Irish verbal inflection and to explain why they have their observed morphological and semantic properties. Assuming that the semantic range of a tense is a function of the whole clause, it derives the tenses of Irish from three syntactic features. Their basic value and position in the clause, along with that of other independently justified formatives, determines the attested range of interpretations for each tense, while the way they are spelled out determines the observed morphological patterns. Since the analysis of verbal categories is based on their syntactic realization, the same explanation accounts for the paradigmatic structure of Irish conjugation and for various syntagmatic phenomena of contextual allomorphy. A language-specific investigation thus claims a broader theoretical significance as an exploration of the interconnected workings of syntax, morphology, and semantics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , November 2014 , pp. 537 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

[1]

I would like to thank Aidan Doyle, James McCloskey, Diarmuid Ó Sé, and two anonymous Journal of Linguistics referees for insightful comments which substantially improved this paper. Thanks also to the audience of the 6th Celtic Linguistics Conference (University College Dublin, 12 September 2010). All errors and omissions are my responsibility.

The following abbreviations are used in example glosses: 1, 2, 3 = first, second, third person; condit = conditional; cop = copula; def = definite article; DO = prefix realized as /d-/ or lenition; F = future/conditional suffix; fem = feminine; fut = future; gen = generic; hab = habitual; impers = impersonal; [L], [N]  = lenition, nasalization; m = masculine; nas = nasalization; neg = negation; pst = past; pl = plural; pres = present; prt = particle; sg = singular; vn = verbal noun.

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