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Article published In: Language and Linguistics
Vol. 23:2 (2022) ► pp.240–273

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Verb stem alternation in Gongduk

Synchronic and diachronic analysis

 | Universität Bern
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 29 April 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00105.ger
Abstract
This paper provides a first overview of verb stem alternation in Gongduk (eastern Bhutan, Trans-Himalayan). Verb stem alternation in Gongduk is conditioned both by morphophonology and by grammatical categories. This paper presents both the morphophonologically transparent as well as the phonologically opaque, paradigmatic stem alternation. The analysis provided in this paper identifies seven verb classes and a small number of irregular verbs. Additionally, this paper provides some diachronic observations on Gongduk verb stems and shows that different stem classes of Gongduk preserve derivational morphology (valence, direction) with cognates in other branches of the language family. Gongduk therefore provides important evidence for the historical investigation of derivational morphology and verb stem alternation in Trans-Himalayan.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Gongduk agreement morphology
  • 3.Morphophonological stem alternation
  • 4.Verb classes
    • 4.1Class 1
    • 4.2Class 2
    • 4.3Class 3
    • 4.4Class 4
    • 4.5Class 5
    • 4.6Class 6
    • 4.7Class 7
    • 4.8Irregular verb stems
  • 5.Diachronic observations
    • 5.1Frozen valence suffixes
    • 5.2Traces of directional prefixes
    • 5.3External cognates for classes 5–7
  • 6.Summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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