Lietuvių kalbos a-kamieniai veiksmažodžiai (tipas „bėgti“)

LIETUVIŲ KALBOS SANDAROS TYRINĖJIMAI LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, XXVI (1987) AUDRONĖ JAKULIENĖ Lithuanian A-stem verbs (type BĖGTI) The Lithuanian Dictionary, vols. I–XIII, the Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian, and other sources contain 8 verbs of the CēC type: a) three basic verbs, used throughout the Lithuanian-speaking area – bėgti, ėsti, sėsti, b) three dialectal verbs – kėsti ‘intend, want’, pėkšti ‘scream (of birds)’, sėkti ‘score, engrave’, c) two irregular verbs, whose a-stem present-tense structure is incompatible with their semantics and unusual from the perspective of contemporary Lithuanian – lėšti ‘calm down, thaw’, (pa)kęžti ‘swell, become swollen’. This article discusses the morphological structure of the present and simple past tenses of these verbs and their variation in dialects, the morphonological structure of the root, semantics, and derivational relationships (synchronically and diachronically). All three basic verbs and the dialectal sėkti may be considered Proto-Indo-European, since they have cognates in related languages (< PIE *bʰēgʰ-, *(H)ēd-, *sēd- and *sēk-). In the present tense, alongside thematic forms, athematic forms of the basic verbs may also be used in dialects and written monuments. As etymological evidence shows, ėsti is to be considered the oldest athematic verb; the athematic forms of sėsti are also quite old. The verb bėgti is reconstructed as thematic (the athematic forms are innovations), as are the thematic forms of the other verbs. Alongside thematic forms with a zero affix, forms with a suffixal i̯ are used not only in Baltic but also in other Indo-European languages. In Baltic, the use of ia-, as well as ia-sid-stem forms is often associated with semantics. The present-tense structure of sėsti is the most varied (in dialects, old written monuments, and related languages, both athematic and thematic forms with a zero affix, forms with suffixal i̯ and st, infixed forms, and reduplicated forms may be used). The present-tense forms of dialectal and irregular verbs are uncertain—some of them may also be interpreted as ia- or sta- stems. Past-tense forms vary across Baltic dialects: the use of ā- or ē-stem forms is most often associated with semantics, as well as with present-tense structure. Cognates in other related languages are generally thematic aorists (it should be noted that cognates of CēC-type verbs are predominantly sigmatic aorists). The root of the verbs under discussion, Lithuanian ė ~ Latvian ė (the circumflex accent indicates an earlier mobile paradigm) ~ Slavic ě, but in other related languages usu- 113 is usually a short ē (less often ø, ō). The lengthening of the Baltic and Slavic root is apparently inseparable from the formation of the tense opposition. The consonantism of verbs of the CēC type is characterized by the fact that C₁ may be various consonants (only the verb ėsti begins with a zero consonant, although historically a laryngeal may be assumed to have been present here), whereas C₂ must be a stop consonant. The irregular verbs and the dialectal pėkšti differ considerably from the basic verbs in their morphonological root structure (the accent may be circumflex, and C₂ may be fricatives or a consonant cluster). Both in root consonantism and in semantics, the basic verbs and the dialectal sėkti (and partly kėsti as well) are close to verbs of the CēC type—they mostly denote movement and changes in an object's structure. Various types of iteratives and causatives are most often derived from the verbs under discussion. The oldest derivational suffixes are Indo-European *ēie (~ Baltic ī), *ā, and Baltic *in(ā); a very ancient derivative of the verb sėsti with the suffix *ē denotes a state (sėdėti). Thus, the genuine verbs of the CēC type (as analysis at various levels has shown, the irregular verbs and the dialectal pėkšti are not to be considered members of this type) form a fairly cohesive structural-semantic type. The dialectal pėkšti and the irregular kėzti and lėšti differ in every respect from the group mentioned above and are most likely to be regarded as new formations of the imitative type. ROOT VERBS IN -A IN LITHUANIAN (TYPE BĖGTI) Abstract In volumes I–XIII of the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language and in other sources, 8 root verbs of the CėC type have been identified: bėgti, ėsti, sėsti / PIE *bʰēgʰ “run,” *(H)ēd- “eat,” *sēd- “sit down, sit”/; known only in dialects are sėkti (< PIE *sēk- “cut, hew”), kėsti “intend” / < Baltic *(s)ket- “spread, seize”/, pėkšti “cry (of birds),” and the irregular verbs (whose structure does not correspond to their semantics) kėzti “swell” and lėšti “calm down, diminish.” In the present tense of the Proto-Indo-European verbs bėgti, ėsti, sėsti and sėkti, alongside ancient thematic forms in -a (PIE o/e), thematic forms of another type (suffixal, infixal, reduplicated) as well as athematic forms are used in dialects, written records, and related languages. The verb ėsti has the oldest athematic forms, while sėsti has the most diverse present-tense forms. In the Baltic languages, past-tense forms in ā and ē are closely related to the present-tense forms and to the semantics of the verb. In related languages, they correspond to various preterite forms, although the thematic aorist is the most common. The verbs under discussion usually denote movement or a change in the structure of an object. They also share a certain phonological-morphological root structure: plosive consonants in auslaut, Lithuanian falling/Latvian broken intonation. Thus, 4 Proto-Indo-European verbs (and partly the dialectal kėsti) form a unified structural-semantic group. Neither of the two irregular verbs nor the dialectal pėkšti fits into this group. Most likely, they are innovations of the imitative type. 114