Root Variation vs. Root Extension – a Putative - i -Infix

Bibliographic Data

ID22311592
AuthorsKatsiaryna Ackermann (0000-0002-0515-6624, Balkan Studies Research Unit Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies Austrian Academy of Sciences Apostelgasse 23 1030 Vienna Austria, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume131
Issue1
Pages98-144
Publication date2018-12-07
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistorical Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0935-3518 • E-ISSN: 2196-8071
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.13109/hisp.2018.131.1.98
OpenAlexW3169346821
LanguageEN
References cited22

Many PIE roots containing  have semantically adjacent counterparts without it. A close examination of these pairs suggests that the appearance of -i- is neihter incidental, nor does it arise from phonological constraints, but reveals an early stem-building process. In the following article I discuss the collected material, comprising 77 i-containing roots (plain phonological variants uncounted) opposed to their non-infixed counterparts (including secondary root variants), either of the same meaning, or showing contextual semantic narrowing. I further attempt to integrate the process of the presumably morphological intrusion of -i- into the root in a plausible morpho-semantic context in PIE. Some opaque cases left apart, at least two separate functions of i-infixation come to light. Firstly, it is found in intransitives or frequently clear states/inchoatives as opposed to non-infixed transitives or factitives, and it shows striking affinity both in the semantic operations and the lexical material to Caland networks; in other cases, it could have been linked to the hic-et-nunc -i-, which had left traces at different slots in the morphological system of PIE

Astrophysics · Biology · Linguistics · Physics · Computer Science · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Paleontology

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