Russian Sounds and Inflections

16. The Infinitive, Past Tense, and Verb-Stress Notation

16 THE INFINITIVE, PAST TENSE, AND VERB-STRESS NOTATION 16.1. THE INFINITIVE The infinitive is the usual form, or at least the first form, of verb citation in non-specialist dictionaries. The infinitive stem serves as the base for the past tense, for certain participles, and for the derived imperfective aspect (see Chapter 15, Section 15.1). 16.1.1. NON-SUFFIXED, SEMI-SUFFIXED, SUFFIXED Verbs have a more complex structure than nouns, in that verbal inflectional processes often refer to more than just a stem plus an ending. The stem has an internal structure, relevant to both verbal inflection and derivation. Accordingly , verbs are divided into (a) NON-SUFFIXED: no suffix intervenes between the root and the ending in either the infinitive/past stem or the present stem; (b) SEMI-SUFFIXED: a suffix is added to the root before either the infinitive/past endings or before the present endings, but not before both; (c) SUFFIXED: a suffix intervenes before both the infinitive/past endings and the present endings. Examples: NON SUFFIXED (no suffix in either stem): -#- -#-, type -#- : -#SEMI -SUFFIXED (suffix in one stem, but not the other):  д- -  д-#-у, type - - : -#SUFFIXED (suffix in both stems): с- - с--у, type - - : -16 .1.1.1. Non-suffixed stems in  ~ ь§§  are represented by the few verbs of the type ум ум умл . The stem-final  of the infinitive is a “false” suffix. Historically it derives from a so-called pleophony rule, 316 16. THE INFINITIVE, PAST TENSE, AND VERB-STRESS NOTATION according to which  went to  before a consonant. In the present work, such verbs are counted as non-suffixed. The infinitive stem of these verbs is different from the past-tense stem, which today shows mobile  extended to all past-tense forms, not just to the masculine: м мло умл мл. The vowel  under stress can be seen in the verb   л , past  ло л л. In the present stem, the root of such verbs is asyllabic: ум умш ... ум. Only three roots belong to this type: мь§§ -, ь§§ - and ь§§ -. 16.1.1.2. Former resonant-stems in о, ол, and л are represented by verbs of the contemporary suffixal type in -о-. With these verbs, a historical “pleophony” rule which, before a consonant, changed о, л/ол to оо, оло, respectively, produced a trailing о which can be reinterpreted as a suffix, making these verbs suffixed: кол-- клю ← кл-й-ут. The transition to the suffixed type of verb is aided by the fact that the present stem already has a suffixal --, making these verbs appear structurally similar to verbs of the с- - шу ← с--у class. Only five roots belong to the -- : -й- type: бо с бюс, кол клю, ол лю, о ю, мол млю. 16.1.2. THE INFINITIVE The usual infinitive ending is - , although - occurs with a number of obstruent-stem verbs. Specifically, the ending - occurs with non-suffixed verbs with stems in б, , д, с,  with post-root stress in both past and present (like  :  л л л,  ш  м  ). The infinitive ending - can be derived from the unstressed ending - (-2) by means of the same reduction rule which produces the imperative ending - from the basic ending -2 (see discussion at the end of the preceding chapter). Specifically, unstressed morphophonemic 2 goes to ь§§ at the end of a word. Here are some observations relating to the infinitive: a. After vowels, the infinitive ending is always - , whether this is after INFINITIVE VOWEL-SUFFIXED VERBS, as --- , л к- - , кол--  , г- - , ум-- (ум-- ), смо-- (смо-- ), гоо-- , or after INFINITIVE ROOT-VOWEL VERBS, for example, д - , д- (д-  ), с- ,  -с!- . b. Most superficial infinitive root-vowel verbs do not represent basic vocalic roots but have more basic root-forms ending in glide or resonant consonants: , м, ,  ( is a historical bilabial glide, and verbs with 16.1.2. THE INFINITIVE 317 stems in  belong here structurally):  -" -  -"-,  - м-, -   -, м- м-у, л- л$-. Such verbs may be referred to as GLIDE-AND-RESONANT-STEM VERBS. The alternations visible in glide-and-resonant-stems call attention to certain sound-alternations based on a pre-vocalic vs. a pre-consonantal environment (for the rules, see further below): Stem: Pre-vocalic: Pre-consonantal: Example:  "ь§§ - -- -- (- -)  "  "  ъ§§ ь§§ %- -м- -- (- -) о м ! ь§§ - - - --  &  ъ§§ - -- -#-   мъ§§ - -о- -$- мю м о- -о- -Ο- о& Ο ъ§§ - -- --   л$ъ§§ - -$- -$- л$ л The pre-vocalic stem-version is considered more basic because the resonant consonants are visible, and the other stem may be more easily derived from it than the other way around. The resonant-stem - о-, with the root alternation Ο ~ о, is unique. That the formant -- does not underlie the infinitive stem of д ду is determined by morphophonemic expectations. Namely, *д- would be expected to go to *д! (see б--- : б! ); both *с - and *с- would be expected to go to *с (see с--: с). Consequently, one assumes that these verbs are semi-suffixed д-#- д--у, с -#- с --у, с-#- с--у. 16.1.3. THE MORPHOPHONEMICS OF GLIDE-AND-RESONANT STEMS Glide-and-resonant stems (verbs of the types given in the chart just above) can be treated as “single-stem verbs,” having a unitary underlying root=stem-shape...