What are these verbal forms called?

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Davush
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What are these verbal forms called?

Post by Davush »

Hello,

I am uncertain about the terminology used for some verb forms. These are:

'When' forms in a non-interrogative sense: When X does X...
'If' forms: If X does X...
'Purposive' forms: In order to do X... (or In order for X to do X)
'Conjunctive' forms: X does X and does X...
'Because' forms: Because X does X...

Is there a general 'heading' for this type thing? It doesn't fall under aspect, mood, tense, or voice. I know Japanese uses a lot of these as part of its verbal morphology. Also, are there other languages which make use of verbal forms not easily described using TAM, voice, or other common categories?

Thanks.
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elemtilas
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Re: What are these verbal forms called?

Post by elemtilas »

Davush wrote:Hello,

I am uncertain about the terminology used for some verb forms. These are:

'When' forms in a non-interrogative sense: When X does X...
'If' forms: If X does X...
'Purposive' forms: In order to do X... (or In order for X to do X)
'Conjunctive' forms: X does X and does X...
'Because' forms: Because X does X...

Is there a general 'heading' for this type thing? It doesn't fall under aspect, mood, tense, or voice. I know Japanese uses a lot of these as part of its verbal morphology. Also, are there other languages which make use of verbal forms not easily described using TAM, voice, or other common categories?

Thanks.
Actually, none of these are "verbal" in nature. At least in English, all the "verbal" apparatus in your example sentences are plain-jane present indicative / habitual aspect or infinitive of purpose.

1. 'When' forms in a non-interrogative sense: When X does X... --- this one's a temporal adverb: "when" implies that the action is episodic and dependent on or connected to some other factor
2. 'If' forms: If X does X... --- this one is a conditional conjunction: "if" implies again that the action is episodic and relies on some other condition being met, usually of the if...then sort; this construction used to require the present subjunctive: "If this be treason..." but no longer does as five out six times it is indistinguishable from the indicative.
3. 'Purposive' forms: In order to do X... (or In order for X to do X) --- infinitive of purpose; you don't even need the "in order to" on these
4. 'Conjunctive' forms: X does X and does X... --- this is just a straight conjunction; you can join any verb form this way
5. 'Because' forms: Because X does X... --- a conjunction: on account of, for the reason that, in order that

In English, the "general heading" would be "particles". [;)]
Davush
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Re: What are these verbal forms called?

Post by Davush »

elemtilas wrote:
Actually, none of these are "verbal" in nature. At least in English, all the "verbal" apparatus in your example sentences are plain-jane present indicative / habitual aspect or infinitive of purpose.

1. 'When' forms in a non-interrogative sense: When X does X... --- this one's a temporal adverb: "when" implies that the action is episodic and dependent on or connected to some other factor
2. 'If' forms: If X does X... --- this one is a conditional conjunction: "if" implies again that the action is episodic and relies on some other condition being met, usually of the if...then sort; this construction used to require the present subjunctive: "If this be treason..." but no longer does as five out six times it is indistinguishable from the indicative.
3. 'Purposive' forms: In order to do X... (or In order for X to do X) --- infinitive of purpose; you don't even need the "in order to" on these
4. 'Conjunctive' forms: X does X and does X... --- this is just a straight conjunction; you can join any verb form this way
5. 'Because' forms: Because X does X... --- a conjunction: on account of, for the reason that, in order that

In English, the "general heading" would be "particles". [;)]
Sorry, I should have been clearer. What I meant was that some languages have separate morphological forms for the above purposes, rather than just particles or independent adverbs. Some of these no doubt come from particles (which may have been earlier adverbs, or such), but I was wondering if there was any particular terminology used to describe this.

Using Japanese as an example:
Suru - (citation form 'to do')
Shitara/Suru-to - When X does...
Sureba - If X does...
Shite - X does and...
Shita-kara - Because X did...
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Creyeditor
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Re: What are these verbal forms called?

Post by Creyeditor »

Davush wrote:Hello,

I am uncertain about the terminology used for some verb forms. These are:

'When' forms in a non-interrogative sense: When X does X...
'If' forms: If X does X...
'Purposive' forms: In order to do X... (or In order for X to do X)
'Conjunctive' forms: X does X and does X...
'Because' forms: Because X does X...

Is there a general 'heading' for this type thing? It doesn't fall under aspect, mood, tense, or voice. I know Japanese uses a lot of these as part of its verbal morphology. Also, are there other languages which make use of verbal forms not easily described using TAM, voice, or other common categories?

Thanks.
As elemtilas noted, these things do not have to be verbal, but in some languages they are. I'll give some terms that I have seen in use for similar verbal phenomena.

When: simultaneous (SIM), sequential (SEQ)
If: Conditional (COND)
In order to: Purposive (PURP)
and: additive (ADD), simultaneous (SIM)
because: causal

Some of these I have seen labeled under aspect (temporal and, when), the others (especially if and In order to) were sometimes subsumed under modality or mood.

Mee (aka Kapauku, Ekagi, Ekari) has inflectional affixes with the following meaning:
  • to go and do X and return
  • to want to do X
  • to go around doing X
Some of these might just be bad descriptions, but I think it's still interesting.
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Salmoneus
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Re: What are these verbal forms called?

Post by Salmoneus »

The underlying concept here is that of relation between propositions. SIL calls this 'interpropositional relation', but notes that the exact limits of that term are controversial. Basically, the question to be answered is: "why are you saying that?"

The word "when" at the beginning of an English clause sets up a number of possible reasons for why the clause exists ("when" is a complicated word with many meanings). One of those is to signal that the events of two clauses are simultaneously. It can also be used to form certain conditionals. ["When I hear the word 'culture', I reach for my gun" - he doesn't reach for the gun at the same time as hearing the word, necessarily, but the hearing is a condition that triggers his action]

"If" implies that the truth of the clause triggers the truth of another - "if it is blue, I will eat it" indicates that "I will eat it" is true provided that "it is blue" is true.

Purposive constructs indicate purpose: the purposive clause provides information that explains the reasoning behind the main clause.

And so on.

Now, these relations can be indicated in any number of ways - conjunctions and other particles are most likely. There is nothing specifically united these relations and only these relations. If you have such a category, you could just call it "relational" or "interpropositional" or the like. It would most likely evolve, presumably, from cliticised conjunctions. Or it could be subsumed into an existing category - several of these (conditionals, purposives, 'because' clauses) are modal, so they could all be treated within mood.

In particular, all of them other than conjunction and some forms of 'when' clause show a hierarchy of clauses: they are subordinated, background clauses that depend upon the main clause. It is common for such subordinate clauses to be distinguished through mood.
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Re: What are these verbal forms called?

Post by clawgrip »

Davush wrote:Japanese as an example:
Suru - (citation form 'to do')
Shitara/Suru-to - When X does...
Sureba - If X does...
Shite - X does and...
Shita-kara - Because X did...
I should point out that -tara is equivalent to both "if" and "when" in English, and to means "whenever".

For what it's worth, these are classified as particles in Japanese grammar. Specifically, they are called "conjunctive particles" (接続助詞) (to and kara also double as "case particles" (格助詞)). They cause the verb to conjugate to a specific stem, but, beyond "conditional", the resulting verb-particle compounds don't generally have a specific term.
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Omzinesý
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Re: What are these verbal forms called?

Post by Omzinesý »

They seem to be devises for marking different kinds of adverbial subordinate clauses.
- If they are finite (verblike) verb forms, they are some kind of moods/modes/modalities (more or less synonymous terms).
- I they are non-finite (nounlike) they are converbs.
- If they are separate words they are either subordinate conjunctions or just other connective particles.
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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