7. Verbs

1. The inflection of the Verb is called its Conjugation.

2. Through its conjugation the Verb expresses Voice, Mood, Tense, Person and Number.

3. The Voices are two: Active and Middle (or Mediopassive).

4. The Moods can be four: Indicative and Imperative are the oldest ones, while Subjunctive and Optative, which are more recent, are not common to all Indo-European dialects.

5. The General Tenses are three, viz.:

a. The Present

b. The Past or Preterite.

c. The Future

NOTE. The Future Stem is generally believed to have appeared in Late PIE, not being able to spread to some dialects before the general split of the proto-languages; the distinction between a Present and a Future tense, however, is common to all IE languages.

6. The Aspects were up to three:

a. For continued, not completed action, the Present.

b. For the state derived from the action, the Perfect.

c. For completed action, the Aorist.

NOTE 1. There is some confusion on whether the Aorist (from Gk. αοριστος, “indefinite or unlimited”) is a tense or an aspect. This reflects the double nature of the aorist in Ancient Greek. In the indicative, the Ancient Greek aorist represents a combination of tense and aspect: past tense, perfective aspect. In other moods (subjunctive, optative and imperative), however, as well as in the infinitive and (largely) the participle, the aorist is purely aspectual, with no reference to any particular tense. Modern Greek has inherited the same system. In Proto-Indo-European, the aorist was originally just an aspect, but before the split of Late PIE dialects it was already spread as a combination of tense and aspect, just as in Ancient Greek, since a similar system is also found in Sanskrit.

NOTE 2. The original meanings of the past tenses (Aorist, Perfect and Imperfect) are often assumed to match their meanings in Greek. That is, the Aorist represents a single action in the past, viewed as a discrete event; the Imperfect represents a repeated past action or a past action viewed as extending over time, with the focus on some point in the middle of the action; and the Perfect represents a present state resulting from a past action. This corresponds, approximately, to the English distinction between “I ate”, “I was eating” and “I have eaten”, respectively. Note that the English “I have eaten” often has the meaning, or at least the strong implication, of “I am in the state resulting from having eaten”, in other words “I am now full”. Similarly, “I have sent the letter” means approximately “The letter is now (in the state of having been) sent”. However, the Greek, and presumably PIE, perfect, more strongly emphasizes the state resulting from an action, rather than the action itself, and can shade into a present tense.

In Greek the difference between the present, aorist and perfect tenses when used outside of the indicative (that is, in the subjunctive, optative, imperative, infinitive and participles) is almost entirely one of grammatical aspect, not of tense. That is, the aorist refers to a simple action, the present to an ongoing action, and the perfect to a state resulting from a previous action. An aorist infinitive or imperative, for example, does not refer to a past action, and in fact for many verbs (e.g. “kill”) would likely be more common than a present infinitive or imperative. In some participial constructions, however, an aorist participle can have either a tensal or aspectual meaning. It is assumed that this distinction of aspect was the original significance of the Early PIE “tenses”, rather than any actual tense distinction, and that tense distinctions were originally indicated by means of adverbs, as in Chinese. However, it appears that by Late PIE, the different tenses had already acquired a tensal meaning in particular contexts, as in Greek, and in later Indo-European languages this became dominant.

The meanings of the three tenses in the oldest Vedic Sanskrit, however, differs somewhat from their meanings in Greek, and thus it is not clear whether the PIE meanings corresponded exactly to the Greek meanings. In particular, the Vedic imperfect had a meaning that was close to the Greek aorist, and the Vedic aorist had a meaning that was close to the Greek perfect. Meanwhile, the Vedic perfect was often indistinguishable from a present tense (Whitney 1924). In the moods other than the indicative, the present, aorist and perfect were almost indistinguishable from each other. The lack of semantic distinction between different grammatical forms in a literary language often indicates that some of these forms no longer existed in the spoken language of the time. In fact, in Classical Sanskrit, the subjunctive dropped out, as did all tenses of the optative and imperative other than the present; meanwhile, in the indicative the imperfect, aorist and perfect became largely interchangeable, and in later Classical Sanskrit, all three could be freely replaced by a participial construction. All of these developments appear to reflect changes in spoken Middle Indo-Aryan; among the past tenses, for example, only the aorist survived into early Middle Indo-Aryan, which was later displaced by a participial past tense.

7. There are four IE Verbal Stems we will deal with in this grammar:

I. The Present Stem, which gives the Present with primary endings and the Imperfect with secondary endings.

II. The Aorist Stem, always Past, with secondary endings, giving the Aorist, usually in zero-grade, with dialectal augment and sometimes reduplication.

III. The Perfect Stem, giving the Perfect, only later specialized in Present and Past.

IV. The Future Stem, an innovation of Late PIE.

NOTE. Under the point of view of most scholars, then, from this original PIE verbal system, the Aorist merged with the Imperfect Stem in Balto-Slavic, and further with the Perfect Stem in Germanic, Italic, Celtic and Tocharian dialects. The Aorist, meaning the completed action, is then reconstructed as a third PIE tense-aspect, following mainly the findings of Old Indian, Greek, and also – mixed with the Imperfect and Perfect Stems – Latin.

8. The Persons are three: First, Second, and Third.

9. The Numbers in Modern Indo-European are two: Singular and Plural, and it is the only common class with the name. It is marked very differently, though.

NOTE. The Dual, as in nouns, whether an innovation or an archaism of Late Proto-Indo-European dialects, is not systematized in Modern Indo-European.

 

1. The following Noun and Adjective forms are also included in the inflection of the Indo-European Verb:

A. Verbal Nouns existed in Proto-Indo-European, but there is no single common prototype for a PIE Infinitive, as they were originally nouns which later entered the verbal conjugation and began to be inflected as verbs. There are some successful infinitive endings, though, that will be later explained.

NOTE 1. It is common to most IE languages that a special case-form (usually dative or accusative) of the verbal nouns froze, thus entering the verbal inflection and becoming infinitives. Although some endings of those successful precedents of the infinitives may be reproduced with some certainty for PIE, the (later selected) dialectal case-forms may not, as no general pattern is found.

NOTE 2. A common practice in Proto-Indo-European manuals (following the Latin tradition) is to name the verbs conjugated in first person present, e.g. ésmi, I am, for the verb es, to be or “being”, or bhérō (also probably older Athematic bhérmi), I carry, for the verb bhértu, to carry, or bhérom, carrying.

B. The Participles are older adjectives which were later included in the verbal inflection.

I. The oldest known is the Present Participle, in -nt.

II. The Perfect Participle, more recent, shows multiple endings, as -ues, -uos, -uet, -uot.

III. Middle Participles, an innovation in Late PIE, end in -meno, -mōno, -mno; and also some in -to, -no, -lo, -mo, etc.

C. The Gerund and the Absolutive, not generalized in Late PIE, indicated possibility or necessity.

 

2. The Participles are used as follows:

A. The Present Participle has commonly the same meaning and use as the English participle in -ing; as, woqnts, calling, légents134, reading.

B. The Perfect Participle has two uses:

I. It is sometimes equivalent to the English perfect passive participle; as, tektós34, sheltered, adkēptós, accepted, and often has simply an adjective meaning.

II. It is used with the verb es, to be, to form the static passive; as, i woqātós ésti, he is called.

NOTE 1. Some questions about the participles are not easily conciled: in Latin, they are formed with e ending and are stems in i; in Greek, they are formed in o and are consonantal stems. Greek, on the other hand, still shows remains of the thematic vowel in participles of verba vocalia -ājont- -ējont-, etc. Latin doesn’t.

NOTE 2. The static passive is a new independent formation of many Indo-European dialects, not common to Late PIE, but probably a common resource of the European dialects, easily loan translated from Romance, Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages into Modern Indo-European as auxiliary verb to be + perfect participle.

C. The Gerundive is often used as an adjective implying obligation, necessity, or propriety (ought or must); as, i awisdhíjendhos ésti, he must be heard.

NOTE. The verb is usually at the end of the sentence, as in Latin, Greek and Sanskrit. In Hittite, it is behind the particles (up to seven in succession). In Old Irish it was either at the beginning of the sentence or in second place after a particle. For more on this, see PIE Syntax in Appendix I.

1. In grammar, Voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb and its arguments. When the subject is the agent or actor of the verb, the verb is said to be in the Active. When the subject is the patient or target of the action, it is said to be in the Passive.

2. The Active and Middle (or Mediopassive) Voices in Modern Indo-European generally correspond to the active and passive in English, but:

a. The Middle voice often has a reflexive meaning. It generally refers to an action whose object is the subject, or an action in which the subject has an interest or a special participation:

(i) wértetoi, she/he turns (herself/himself).

(éi) wésntoi, they dress (themselves).

NOTE. This reflexive sense could also carry a sense of benefaction for the subject, as in the sentence “I sacrificed a goat (for my own benefit)”. These constructions would have used the active form of “sacrificed” when the action was performed for some reason other than the subject's benefit.

b. The Mediopassive with Passive endings (in -r) is reserved for a very specific use in Modern Indo-European, the Dynamic or Eventive passives; as

(egṓ) bhéromar 20^tós Djówilioi, I became born on July 20^th (or 20 Djówiliī, “20 of July”).

móiros[171] píngetor [172], the wall is being painted or someone paints the wall, lit. “the wall paints (impersonal mark)”.

NOTE 1. The dynamic passive usually means that an action is done, while the static or stative passive means that the action was done at a point in time, that it is already made. The last is obtained in MIE (as usually in Germanic, Romance and Balto-Slavic dialects) with a periphrasis, including the verb es, be. Following the above examples:

(egṓ) gn(a)t/bh(e)rt ésmi 20^ós Djówilios, I (f.) was born on July 20.

móiros pigtósⁱ (ésti), the wall (is) [already] painted.

ⁱ The infix -n is lost outside the Present Stem; thus, the Participle is not pingtós, but pigtós. Nevertheless, when the n is part of the Basic Stem, it remains. See the Verbal Stems for more details on the Nasal Infix.

NOTE 2. The Modern Indo-European Passive Voice endings (in -r) are older Impersonal and Late PIE Middle Voice alternative endings, found in Italic, Celtic, Tocharian, Germanic, Indo-Iranian and Anatolian, later dialectally specialized for the passive in some of those dialects. The concepts underlying modern IE Passives are, though, general to the Northern dialects (although differently expressed in Germanic and Balto-Slavic), and therefore MIE needs a common translation to express it. For the stative passive, the use of the verb es, to be, is common, but dynamic passives have different formations in each dialect. The specialized Mediopassive dialectal endings seems thus the best option keeping thus tradition and unity. See §§ 7.2.2 and 7.2.7.3.

c. Some verbs are only active, as, ésmi44, be, édmi[173], eat, or dṓmi96, give

d. Many verbs are middle in form, but active or reflexive in meaning. These are called Deponents: as, kéjai77, lay; séqomai60, follow, etc.

1. While IE II had possibly only Indicative and Imperative, a Subjunctive and an Optative were added in the third stage of Proto-Indo-European, both used in the Present, Perfect and Aorist. Not all dialects, however, developed those new formations further.

2. The Imperative is usually formed with a pure stem, adding sometimes adverbial or pronominal elements.

3. Some common Subjunctive marks are the stem endings -ā, -ē, and -s, but it is more usually formed with the opposition Indicative Athematic vs. Subjunctive Thematic, or Indicative Thematic vs. Subjunctive Thematic with lengthened vowel.

4. The Optative is differentiated from the Subjunctive by its characteristic suffix -iē/-ī; in thematic Tenses it is -oi, i.e. originally the same Subjunctive suffix added to the thematic vowel -o.

5. The Moods are used as follows:

a. The Indicative Mood is used for most direct assertions and interrogations.

b. The Subjunctive Mood has many idiomatic uses, as in commands, conditions, and various dependent clauses. It is often translated by the English Indicative; frequently by means of the auxiliaries may, might, would, should; sometimes by the (rare) Subjunctive; sometimes by the Infinitive; and often by the Imperative, especially in prohibitions.

c. The Imperative is used for exhortation, entreaty, or command; but the Subjunctive could be used instead.

d. The Infinitive is used chiefly as an indeclinable noun, as the subject or complement of another verb.

1. The Tenses of the Indicative have, in general, the same meaning as the corresponding tenses in English:

a. Of continued action,

I. Present: bhérō24, I bear, I am bearing, I do bear.

II. Imperfect: bheróm, I was bearing.

III. Future: bhérsō, I shall bear.

b. Of completed action or the state derived from the action,

IV. Perfect: (bhé)bhora, I have borne.

V. Aorist: (é)bheróm, I bore.

NOTE. Although the Aorist formation was probably generalized in Late PIE, Augment is a dialectal feature only found in Ind.-Ira., Gk., Arm and Phryg. It seems that the great success of that particular augment (similar to other additions like Lat. per- or Gmc. ga-) happened later in the proto-languages. Vedic Sanskrit shows that Augment was not obligatory, and for Proto-Greek, cf. Mycenaean do-ke/a-pe-do-ke, Myc. qi-ri-ja-to, Hom. Gk. πριατο, etc.

1. The Forms of the verb may be referred to four basic Stems, called (1) the Present, (2) the Aorist, (3) the Perfect and (4) the Future.

NOTE. There are some forms characteristic of each stem, like the suffix -n- or -sko, which give generally Present stems. Generally, however, forms give different stems only when opposed to others.

2. There are some monothematic verbs as ésmi, to be, or édmi, eat – supposedly remains of the older situation of IE II. And there are also some traces of recent or even nonexistent mood oppositions. To obtain this opposition there are not only reduplications, lengthenings and alternations, but also vowel changes and accent shifts.

3. There are also some other verbs, not derived from root words, the Denominatives and Deverbatives. The first are derived from nouns; as, strówiō, strew, sprinkle, from stróu-, structure;  the last are derived from verbs, as, wédiō, inform (from weid-33, know, see), also guard, look after.

NOTE. It is not clear whether these Deverbatives – Causatives, Desideratives, Intensives, Iteratives, etc. – are actually derivatives of older PIE roots, or are frozen remains, formed by compounds of older (IE II or Early PIE) independent verbs added to other verbs, the ones regarded as basic.

5. Reduplication is another common resource; it consists of the repetition of the root, either complete or abbreviated; as, sísdō, sit down, settle down (also sízdō, as Lat. sisto, Gk. hidzein, found in nísdos/nízdos, nest, all from sed-44, sit), gígnoskō, know (as Gk. gignosko, from gnō-100), mímnāskō, remember (from men-178, think), etc.

6. The Stem Vowel has no meaning in itself, but it helps to build different stems, whether thematic or semithematic (those which can be thematic and athematic), opposed to athematics. Thus, It can be used to oppose a) Indicative Athematic to Subjunctive Thematic, b) Present Thematic to Imperfect Athematic, c) Active to Middle voice, etc. Sometimes an accent shift helps to create a distinctive meaning, too.

7. Stems are inflected, as in the declension of nouns, with the help of lengthenings and endings (or “desinences”).

 

1. Every form of the finite verb is made up of two parts:

I. The Stem. This is either the root or a modification or development of it.

II. The Ending or Desinence, consisting of:

a. The signs of Mood and Tense.

b. The Personal Ending.

 

Thus in the verb bhér-se-ti, he will carry, the root is bher-, carry, modified into the thematic future verb-stem bher-s-e/o-, will carry, which by the addition of the personal primary ending -ti becomes the meaningful bhérseti; the ending -ti, in turn, consists of the (probably) tense-sign -i and the personal ending of the third person singular, -t.

2. Verbal endings can thus define the verb Stem, Tense and Mood.

The primary series indicates present and future, and -mi, -si, -ti, and 3^rd Pl. -nti are the most obvious formations of Late PIE. The secondary endings indicate Past; as, -m, -s, -t and 3^rd Pl. -nt. The subjunctive and optative are usually marked with the secondary endings, but in the subjunctive primary desinences are attested sometimes. The imperative has Ø or special endings.

NOTE. Although not easily reconstructed, Late Proto-Indo-European had already independent formations for the first and second person plural. However, there were probably no common endings used in all attested dialects, and therefore a selection has to be made for MIE, v.i.

They can also mark the person; those above mark the first, second and third person singular and third plural. Also, with thematic vowels, they mark the voice: -ti Active Prim. <-> -toi Middle Prim. <-> -tor Passive, and so on.

3. The Augment was used in the southern dialects – i.e. Indo-Iranian, Greek & Armenian – to mark the Past Tense (i.e., the Aorist and the Imperfect). It was placed before the Stem, and consisted generally of a stressed é-, which is a dialectal Graeco-Aryan feature in Modern Indo-European.

NOTE. Some common variants existed, as lengthened ḗ-, cf. Gk. η<ē/ā and ω<ō , the so-called Wackernagel contractions of the Augment and the beginning of the verbal root, which happened already by 2000 BC. These are different from those which happened in Attic Greek by 1000 BC.

4. Modern Indo-European verbal endings, as they are formed by the signs for mood and tense combined with personal endings, may be organized in five series.