enaTmecnierebis sakiTxebi ISSUES OF LINGUISTICS - Tbilisi State ...

since some basic transitive verbs, such as ak’etebs "she does, makes it", and some
unergative verbs, such as t’rialebs "she turns"also make use of this SM.
2.2. Third Person Singular Subject -a in Present and Future
In Old Georgian all verbs use the third person singular subject suffix -s in
the present tense, as well as in several other tenses. In Modern Georgian all
unaccusatives use the suffix -a instead in the present (and in the future, which was
later formed from the present). The effect can be seen in Table 2, which lists only
present tense-aspect-mood (TAM) forms (screeves). (A related TAM form has a
final -n in third person singular subjects.)
Old Georgian Modern Georgian
Transitives
drek’-s drek’-s "she bends it"
c’er-s c’er-s "she writes it"
hk’itxav-s (h)k’itxav-s "she asks it"
suam-s svam-s "she drinks it"
scem-s (s)cem-s "she hits it"
gvi-s gvi-s "she sweeps it"
brýaneb-s brýaneb-s "she requests it"
icnob-s icnob-s "she knows him"
Unaccusatives
drk’-eb-i-s drk’-eb-a "she bends, is bent"
i-mal-eb-i-s i-mal-eb-a "she hides"
e-mal-eb-i-s e-mal-eb-a "she hides from him"
c’ux-n-eb-i-s c’ux-d-eb-a "she bothers, disturbs herself"
axl-d-eb-i-s axl-d-eb-a "she is being renewed"
s-c’er-ie-s s-c’er-i-a "it is written" (stative)
Unergatives
glov-s glov-s "she mourns"
t’ir(i)-s t’iri-s "she cries"
brc’q’inav-s brc’q’inav-s "it glitters, glows"
kadageb-s kadageb-s "she preaches"
mepob-s mepob-s "she reigns"
Table 2. Changes in Marking of Third Person Singular Subjects in the Present
Paradigm.
There are two possible sources for the new -a. (i) The suffix -a is the marker
of the third person singular subject in the aorist screeve, where it is used by verbs
of all classes. 4 Thus, in its use in Old Georgian, -a does not set one verb class apart
or even occur more often with one class than another. In spite of this, in the
present it is adopted just for unaccusatives. (ii) A second possible source is -a, the
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