Preverb

Although not widely accepted in linguistics, the term preverb is used in Caucasian (including all three families: Northwest Caucasian, Northeast Caucasian and Kartvelian), Caddoan, Athabaskan, and Algonquian linguistics to describe certain elements prefixed to verbs. In the context of Indo-European languages, the term is usually used for separable verb prefixes.^[1]

Theoretically, any prefix could be called a preverbal element. However, in practice, the term preverb applies more narrowly in those families and refers to a prefixed element that is normally outside the premise of verbal morphology like locations of noun elements or, less often, noun elements themselves.

Northwest Caucasian languages

In Northwest Caucasian languages, they can have nouns, directional and locative preverbs (like prepositions), like in this example from Ubykh:

sæbɣʲawqʼanajtʼ
sæ-	bɣʲa-	w-	qʼa	-najtʼ
1SG-	PVB-	2SG-	talk	-IMPF
You were talking about me (literally, you were talking on me)

Caddoan

In Caddoan linguistics, preverbal elements are less well defined as a class, and often, "preverb" designates a part of the verbal root that can be separated from the rest of the root by certain prefixes, as in this Wichita example:

taatíísaaskinnaʔas
ta-	i-	aa-	tíísaas	kir	ri-	ʔa	-s
INDIC-	3SG-	PVB-	medicine	liquid	portative-	come	-IMPF
He is bringing (liquid) medicine

Mandarin Chinese

For Mandarin Chinese and many other varieties of Chinese, the term refers to some words that carry the meanings of prepositions in English. In Chinese, they are lexically verbs and appear before the noun in question. They are more commonly referred to as coverbs.

Georgian

In Georgian, a Kartvelian language, the main function of a preverb is to distinguish the present tenses and the future tenses. To rurn a present tense verb into a future tense, a preverb is added to the verb compound. In addition, preverbs also have directional meanings in Georgian.

Preverbs are directly attached to the beginning of the verb compound:

aketebs ("he does it") and gaaketebs ("he will do it")

vtser ("I am writing") and davtser ("I will write")

Note in those two examples that the meaning of the future tense is achieved only by adding the preverb; no other grammatical change occurs. In these examples, preverbs have directional meanings:

modis ("he is coming")

midis ("he is going")

adis ("he is going up (the stairs)", "he is getting on (a bus)")

chamodis ("he is arriving")

shemodis ("he is entering")

Again, note that only the preverbs are changed to convey the meaning of various directional meanings. It should also be noted that preverbs add directional meanings not only to the verbs of motion but also to any other kind of verbs. Compare the examples of the verb -tser- ("write"):

davtsere ("I wrote it")

mogtsere ("I wrote it to you")

mistsere ("I wrote it to them")

gadagtsere ("I wrote to you (from a place)")

As can be seen from the examples, the preverb changes according to the indirect object (the person for (to) whom the verb is being done).

Many verbs have a common root. For example, "end" and "stay" have the same verb root, -rch-. The meanings of the verbs are distinguished by their preverbs and other elements of the verb compound:

rcheba ("he is staying"), darcheba ("he will stay")

rcheba ("it is ending"), morcheba ("it will end")

As is clear, the verbs are identical in the present tense but differ in the future tense by their preverbs.

Modern Persian

A preverb is a morpheme, which is applied together with the participles modifying their meaning and the meaning of their derivates.

Persian preverbs, referred to as "āndar" or "dar", are:

• bar
• bāz
• farā and hā
• farāz
• foru and hō
• ham
• negah and negāh
• pas
• piš
• ru
• sar
• var
• vā

Pre-verbs can modify the procedure attribute of the verbs and the infinitives, but they do not change their objective attribute:

.او کتابی داشت (static attribute)

U ketābi dāsht.

3rdP PRONOUN-

Book.DEFINITE-

Have.PAST

.او کتابی را برداشت (dynamic attribute)

U ketabi bar dāsht.

3rdP PRONOUN-

Book.DEFINITE-

PVB-

Have.PAST

The Pre-verb is normally positioned ahead of the verb. If the verb is composed of two separable components, the pre-verb is positioned ahead of the second component. The Pre-verb can be positioned at the end of the sentence, owing to versification requirements:

از کارِ خير عزمِ تو هرگز نگشت باز

هرگز زِ راه بازنگشته‌ست هيچ تير

Manuchehri (11th - 12th Century AD)

Algonquian

In Algonquian languages, preverbs can be described as phonologically separate words that may precede a verb and share its inflection. In particular, pronominal prefixes or initial change are applied to the first preverb, if any, of the verb complex rather than to the verb stem. Their meaning can range from past tense or perfective aspect to meanings for which English might use an adverb or another verb, like these from Ojibwe:

Ojibwe	English	Comment
nibaa	he/she sleeps	has no preverb
ninibaamin	we sleep	likewise, with pronominal prefix
gii-nibaa	he/she slept	has past tense preverb
ningii-nibaamin	we slept	likewise, with pronominal prefix
gii-maajii-nibaa	he/she started to sleep	has past preverb, and a lexical preverb
ningii-maajii-nibaamin	we started to sleep	likewise, with pronominal prefix

In Munsee, some words can come between a preverb and its verb.

See also prenoun in such languages.

References