Inflectional Morphology: Verbs

Dr. Will Styler - LIGN 120

Today's Plan

• Agreement

• Tense

• Aspect

• Mood

Last time, we talked about common inflectional meanings on nouns

• This time, we'll move to verbal meaning

Common Inflectional Patterns on Verbs

• Agreement

• Tense

• Aspect

• Mood

• Other verbal meanings

Agreement

Agreement

Marks the identity of the 'actors' and their roles on the verb itself

• Also known as 'Concord'

• This is helpful for marking grammatical relations!

English agreement marking

• Sharon write-s to me
• sharon write-3SGsubj to 1sg.ACC

Spanish Agreement Marking

• Yo veo el gato

• 1sg see.1sgsubj el cat

• I see the cat

• The arguments aren't marked

• ... but the verb (and ordering) lets us know who did it!

Spanish Agreement Marking

• Michael Bay hizo peliculas malas

• Michael Bay make.3sgsubj.past movie-pl bad-pl

• "Michael Bay made bad movies"

• We know that the plural argument did it!

This is why Spanish can drop many pronouns

• Veo el gato (rather than 'yo veo')

• Tiene una tiza. 'He/she has a chalk'

• ... but in English, *Has a chalk.

Agreement can use many ways of showing identity

• Person marking (1sg, 2sg, etc)

  • 2sg did it!

• Number marking (singular, plural, etc)

  • The group with more than one item did it!

• Gender marking (masc, fem, neuter)

  • It was the masculine thing!

More ways of showing identity!

• Noun class

  • It was the large, flat object!

• New vs. old information markers

  • The thing I mentioned first did it!

"What's the difference between case and agreement?"

Case marks roles on arguments!

Russian Case Marking

• Will vidye-l koshk-u
• Will.NOM see-SG.MASC.PST cat-ACC.FEM
• "Will saw the cat."

With case, you make the arguments wear nametags

• So you know what role the arguments are playing

Will-NOM see-3sg CAT-ACC

Will-NOM see-3sg CAT-ACC

Agreement marks identity on verbs!

• "Rather than marking the arguments, let's just make sure the verb points to who did it!"

Let's test your skills!

So, are we all in...

Agreement!?

(OK, Sorry, but a bit of humor is helpful before things get tense)

Tense

Tense

Represents the relationship of the event described to another temporal reference point

Generally, the reference time is 'now'

• ... but there is such a thing as narrative present

The Timeline

A three-way tense system

Two-way tense systems

A non-present tense system

Tense can get more detailed

• Tenses for yesterday, tomorrow

• Tenses for next year, last year

• Tenses for smaller within-day periods

• ... but tense always marks time of action relative to a reference!

... which is different from ...

Aspect

Aspect

Aspect marks the temporal nature and boundedness of described events.

Aspect is widely variable

• There are many different types of aspect which can be marked

• Aspects are often coupled with tense, but don't need to be!

• Tense and aspect are not the same thing!

These aren't all the possible aspects

• Sometimes, aspect is marked on verbs

• Spanish preterite vs. imperfective

• Sometimes, different verbs have inherent aspect

• Russian verbs of aspect

• Sometimes, other verbs are used

• 'I'll start eating tomorrow'

• They're all gonna have this same feeling of describing the temporal boundedness and structure of an event

Mood (also known as 'mode' or 'modality')

Mood

Grammatical functions which encode the speaker's attitude about the event being described

• This is independent of tense and aspect

Many modes exist!

• We'll talk about some common modes

Realis vs. Irrealis

• "Is it actually happening, or not?"

• "I went to the park" vs. "Had I gone to the park..."

• Indicative is the only realis mood in most languages

Indicative

• Used for factual statements

• This is the default

• "Will is flailing his arms around"

Subjunctive

• Used for imaginary or hypothetical events

• "If a pizza were to appear, I would ensure that it be eaten"

• Maria comería si tuviera hambre. 'Maria would eat if she were hungry'

Conditional

• This event depends on some other situation being true

• "I would go to the party, if I were invited"

• Maria comería si tuviera hambre. 'Maria would eat if she were hungry'

Potential

• Something that's more likely than subjunctive or conditional

• "This is probably going to happen"

• Mood is about speaker attitude

• Epistemic is even weaker, 'this is actually possible.'

Inferential

• Reports events without confirming them

• "Andres was at the park."

• "I saw him there myself"

• "Amber said he was there"

• Turkish o gitti vs. o gitmiş

Imperative

• Imperatives issue commands, make requests, and give prohibitions

• "Turn off that Michael Bay movie."

• "Do not open Pandora's Box"

• Jussive issues commands to a third person, or generally

• "Michael Bay movies are not to be watched"

Deontic

• Expresses the speaker's belief that X should occur

• In the sense of 'it would be better'

• "Will should stop eating donuts"

Other Moods

• Optative - Marks hopes, requests and wishes

• Interrogative - Marks asking a question explicitly

• ... and plenty more!

Other Verbal Markings

Some arguments change the number of participants in a verb's frame

• Active vs. Passive voice

• "I stole the donut" vs. "The donut was stolen"

• Reflexive markers

• Marks that the subject and the object are the same

• "I bathed myself"

• Causative markers

• "I didn't do it, but I made somebody else do it"

• Reciprocal markers

• "We sunblocked each other"

• Transitivizing markers

• Makes an intransitive verb transitive

Other residents of the verb

• Negation markers

• Directional markers

• "I ran uphill"

• Pronouns

• da-me el reloj! (give.2SG.IMP-1SG.DAT DET clock)

• Noun incorporation

• Who needs multiple words, just toss the object right in there!

Wrapping Up

• Verbs take lots of morphology

• Agreement shows connections between the verb and the arguments

• Tense shows the temporal position of events

• Aspect talks about their temporal structure and boundaries

• Mood gives the speaker's attitude about them

• There's more to verbal morphology

• ... but you'll find it when you start working with your own languages!

For Next Time

• How do we elicit these contrasts?

• Then, derivation!

Thank you!