Latin 1st class -ā- verbs as thematic formations: On the deficiency of IE roots

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the morphological status of the -ā- morph which characterises Latin first class verbs. The well-known difficulty in finding an Indo-European etymology is to some extent mirrored in its incoherent distributional properties. It will be claimed that -ā- raised from the denominal/deadjectival verbs of the type multā- > multare, probably in a common west-IE stage. Conversely, in a Distributed Morphology perspective, the large diffusion of -ā- as a stem marker in primary verbs too is shown to depend on the morphological properties of verbal roots in Proto-Italic and Latin. A large amount of PIE verbal roots lost their verbal status, but the insertion of -ā- in their morphosyntactic structure allowed their reactivation.

Keywords

• verbal root
• etymology
• distributed morphology
• denominal verb
• deadjectival verb