5. INFLECTION.
1. Verbal Inflection.
(a) the arguments of the verb, not only the subject, but also the object and the indirect object; whether they are first, second or third person; whether they are singular or plural;
(b) the tense of the sentence, whether it is present or past, or neither of the two;
(c) whether there is a modal force to the sentence and if so, of what kind;
(d) whether the sentence is matrix or embedded, and if so, of what kind;
(e) in some varieties, the verbal inflection can also carry information about the person we are addressing, whether it is male or female.
1.1. Auxiliary selection. We will start by considering the different types of auxiliary verbs that are available. As we have already seen in section 2.1., through our discussion of transitivity, there are mainly two auxiliaries in Euskara: the auxiliary izan 'to be', and the auxiliary ukan 'to have'. In general terms, the auxiliary ukan 'to have' is used when there is an ergative phrase in the sentence. Otherwise, the auxiliary izan 'to be' is used. We illustrate this contrast in (33):
1.2. Agreement. Verbal inflection in Euskara carries information about the absolutive phrase in the sentence, the ergative phrase if there is one, and also about the dative phrase if there is one. The auxiliary verb carries some markers, or morphemes, which indicate whether these phrases are first or second person, singular or plural. As we will try to illustrate, it is also the case that sometimes the absence of morphemes provides information. Typically, absence of morphemes indicates the presence of a third person phrase, as we will see.
1.2.1. How agreement works: the basic combinations. Let us start with a few examples, as usual:
(a) the marker corresponding to the absolutive phrase appears at the beginning of the inflected auxiliary, and
(b) the marker corresponding to the ergative phrase appears at the end of the inflected auxiliary, or at least it appears following the root of the verb. One more form will confirm this:
(a) the morpheme d, which appears in present tense forms if the absolutive phrase is a third person, as it is in this case;
(b) the morpheme i, the root of the auxiliary verb, which appears in this form only when there are both a dative and an ergative phrase in the sentence;
(c) the morpheme a, which indicates that the dative phrase is a second person singular male;
(d) and the morpheme t, which indicates that the ergative phrase is a first person singular.
1.2.2. The paradigms of agreement morphology. Here we will provide the different morphemes that correspond to the different persons in the agreement morphology, depending on whether they correspond to absolutive, dative or ergative phrases in the sentence. The rest of the variables in the auxiliary verb will be kept constant, and will be discussed later. That is, we will stick to present tense forms, without modal markers. The only element that will vary is the root of the auxiliary, as you have already seen in the examples discussed above.
NOR is 'who' in absolutive, and the name of the absolutive case and agreement paradigm;
NORI is 'who' with the dative case morpheme, and the name of the dative case and agreement paradigm;
NORK is 'who' with the ergative case morpheme, and the name of the ergative case and agreement paradigm. If you ever decide to learn the language, that is how you will learn to name the cases and the verbal paradigms according to the number of cases they reflect.
1.2.2.1. The persons. Starting from left to right, let us consider the column corresponding to the person distinctions. You see that there are seven different categories in that column. The first three are singular persons, the first (ni), the second (hi) and the third (hura). The next four belong to the set of plural persons. Here we find the first person plural (gu), and two second person plurals, zu and zuek, which have been distinguished in the paradigm by calling the first one 'second person plural', and the second one 'second person plural plural'.
1.2.2.2. Phonological changes. If you consider the dative and ergative paradigms, you will see that the first two persons in the singular group have two different markers. The one on the left is the one that surfaces if it happens to be at the end of the form. The one on the right is the one that surfaces if it happens to be followed by other morphemes. This alternation has already been illustrated in the examples in (39).
1.2.2.3. The third person. You can see that the morpheme corresponding to the third person singular and the third person plural appears in brackets. This is due to the fact that the shape of the third person morpheme varies depending on the paradigm and the tense or modality of the verbal form. Thus, for instance, in present tense paradigms, like the ones we discuss here, it is often a d that surfaces, and that is what the paradigms above show. In past tense forms, the third person marker can be a z, or nothing at all, and in forms with modals it can also be a l morpheme. We will discuss these variations when addressing the morphology of tense.
1.2.2.4. A few full paradigms and how to use them. Let us now consider a few actual paradigms of auxiliary verbs, where the agreement paradigms seen above are combined with auxiliary roots.
PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
absolutive N H D G Z Z D |
ROOT
AIZ AIZ A ARA ARA ARETE IRA |
PERSON | NOR | ROOT | NORI |
NI
HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NA
HA - GA ZA ZA - |
TZAI
TZAI ZAI TZAI ZKI TZAI ZKI TZAI ZKI ZAI ZKI |
T
K/N O GU ZU ZUE TE E |
where the absolutive phrase is a first person plural pronoun gu 'we'. We look in the NOR column and we find the morpheme ga. Then we take the root tzai. Now, after the root morpheme we must also select the plural morpheme zki, and now we can consider the dative morpheme. In the sentence in (43), the dative morpheme is a third person singular amamari 'to grandmother', so we must select the morpheme o. We put everything together, and the resulting form is: gatzaizkio. Now we can complete our sentence:
PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
D D |
ROOT
I I I I I I I ZKI |
NORI
T(DA) K(A)/N(NA) O GU ZU ZUE E |
NORK
T K/N - GU ZU ZUE TE |
PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
NA HA D GA IT ZA IT ZA IT D IT |
ROOT
U U U U U U ZTE U |
NORK
T K/N - GU ZU ZUE TE |
1.3. Tense. There are two tenses: past and present. Past tense is manifest in the verbal inflection by means of the morpheme n at the end of the inflected form. Present tense is a zero morpheme, as illustrated in the paradigms above. The presence of past tense alters the shape of the initial material of the verbal root, and it can also alter the order of morphemes, as we will see in 1.3.1.
PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
Nin Hin Z Gin Zin Zin Zi |
ROOT TENSE
TZE N TZE N E N E N E N E TE N RE N |
PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
Nin Hin Zi Gin Zin Zin Zi |
ROOT
TZAI TZAI TZAI TZAI TZAI TZAI TZAI |
ZKI
ZKI ZKI ZKI |
NORI
DA A/NA O GU ZU ZUE E |
TENSE
N N N N N TE N N |
1.3.1.Past tense and ergative agreement. We can now consider past tense paradigms where there are ergative (NORK) agreement markers. In these paradigms, some forms present a different order of agreement morphemes. Let us first consider the forms where there is no morpheme-order alterations. In (56) below, you can see the overall NOR-NORK past tense paradigm. That is, the paradigm of forms containing NOR (absolutive) and NORK (ergative) agreement markers and past tense:
PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
Nind Hind {} Gint Zint Zint {} |
ROOT
U U U U U ZTE |
NORK
DA A/NA - GU ZU ZUE TE |
TENSE
N N N N N N N |
NI
HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
N
H Z G EN Z EN Z EN Z |
U
U U U U U TE IT U TE |
N
N N N N N N | |
(61) | PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NORK
N H Z G EN Z EN Z EN Z |
ROOT
I I I I I I I |
ZKI | NORI
DA A/NA O GU ZU ZUE E |
TE
TE |
TENSE
N N N N N N N |
1.4. Modality: the morhemes 'ke'and 'ba'. There are two kinds of modals that affect directly verbal inflection. The first one involves the morpheme ke, which is used to create potential forms like the one in (65a), and consequences of conditionals, like the one in (65b):
1.4.1. Modality and tense. In the previous sections, when discussing verbal paradigms, we have considered present tense forms and past tense forms. Inflected forms containing modal morphemes can also combine with present tense and past tense. But there is a third possibility, which we may call the 'hypothetical', which involves no tense at all. These hypothetical forms are neither present nor past. They lack a specification for tense. Examples of the three-way alternation are given in (66):
1.4.2. The modal morpheme 'ke': potentiality. In earlier stages of the language, this morpheme created future forms, but no longer (Lafon (1944)). The modal morpheme ke appears in inflected forms that indicate a potentiality, a possibility. For instance, if something may happen, or can be done. The appearance of this morpheme induces changes in the root of the auxiliary, as we will see in the paradigms.
1.4.2.1. Potential paradigms: absolutive. For general instructions as to how to use these paradigms, see the previous paradigms. Special remarks concerning potential paradigms are discussed below, after each relevant paradigm. Examples of a few forms will be given at the end of each section.
(67) | PERSON | NOR | ROOT | MODAL |
NI
HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
Na
Ha Da Ga Za Za Da |
ITE
ITE ITE ITE Z ITE Z ITE Z ITE Z |
KE
KE KE KE KE KE KE |
(68) | PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
Nin Hin Zi Gin Zin Zin Zi |
ROOT
TE TE TE TE TE TE TE |
Z
Z Z Z |
MODAL
KE KE KE KE KE KE KE |
TE | TENSE
eN eN eN eN eN N eN |
In this paradigm, notice that an epenthetic vowel is inserted between the modal morpheme and the past morpheme. The epenthetic vowel is not necessary in the case of the second person plural, zuek, which inflects as zintezketen, because there is a morpheme in between the modal ke and the past tense morpheme n.
(69) | PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
Nin Hin Li Gin Zin Zin Li |
ROOT
TE TE TE TE TE TE TE |
Z
Z Z Z |
MODAL
KE KE KE KE KE KE KE |
TE |
1.4.2.2. Potential paradigms: absolutive and dative. Next we will consider the inflected forms necessary to construct potential forms in sentences containing both an absolutive phrase and a dative phrase. For comparison, you may look back at the paradigms of absolutive-dative (NOR-NORI) we have already seen before.
(71) | PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
Nen Hen Ze Gen Zen Zen Ze |
ROOT
KI KI KI KI KI KI KI |
ZKI
ZKI ZKI ZKI |
NORI
DA A/NA O GU ZU ZUE E |
MODAL
KE KE KE KE KE KE KE |
TE | TENSE
N N N N N N N |
(71) | PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
Nen Hen Le Gen Zen Zen Le |
ROOT
KI KI KI KI KI KI KI |
ZKI
ZKI ZKI ZKI |
NORI
DA A/NA O GU ZU ZUE E |
MODAL
KE KE KE KE KE KE KE |
TE |
1.4.2.3. Potential paradigms: absolutive and ergative.
(75) | PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NORK
N H Ze Gen Zen Zen Z |
PLURAL
IT |
ROOT
ZA ZA ZA ZA ZA ZA ZA |
MODAL
KE KE KE KE KE KE TE KE TE |
TENSE
N N N N N N N |
(a) to take off the past tense morpheme n at the end of paradigms (74) and (75), and
(b) to replace third person morpheme z with the hypothetical third person morpheme l and the hypothetical forms result (76d). We provide examples of present tense, past tense and hypothetical forms in (76):
(76)
1.4.2.4. Potential paradigms: absolutive, dative and ergative.
(77) | PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NOR
D D |
ROOT
IEZA IEZA ZKI |
NORI
DA A/NA iO GU ZU ZUE iE |
MODAL
KE KE KE KE KE KE KE |
NORK
T K/N - GU ZU ZUE TE |
(78)
(79) | PERSON
NI HI HURA GU ZU ZUEK HAIEK |
NORK
N H Z Gen Zen Zen Z |
ROOT
IEZA IEZA IEZA IEZA IEZA IEZA IEZA |
PLUR
ZKI |
NORI
DA A/NA iO GU ZU ZUE E |
MODAL
KE KE KE KE KE KE KE |
PLUR.
TE TE |
TENSE
N N N N N N N |
(79)
(80)