Although not used in general
linguistic
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
theory
A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...
, the term preverb is used in
Caucasian (including all three families:
Northwest Caucasian,
Northeast Caucasian and
Kartvelian),
Caddoan,
Athabaskan, and
Algonquian linguistics to describe certain elements prefixed to verbs. In the context of
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
, the term is usually used for
separable verb prefixes.
Theoretically, any prefix could be called a preverbal element. However, in practice, the term ''preverb'' applies more narrowly in those families and refers to a prefixed element that is normally outside the premise of verbal morphology like locations of noun elements or, less often, noun elements themselves.
Algonquian
In Algonquian languages, preverbs can be described as phonologically separate words that may precede a verb and share its inflection. In particular, pronominal prefixes or initial change are applied to the first preverb, if any, of the verb complex rather than to the verb stem. Their meaning can range from
past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some hav ...
or
perfective aspect
The perfective aspect ( abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole, i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the ...
to meanings for which English might use an adverb or another verb, like these from
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...
:
In
Munsee, some words can come between a preverb and its verb.
See also
prenoun in such languages.
Caddoan
In
Caddoan linguistics, preverbal elements are less well defined as a class, and often, "preverb" designates a part of the verbal root that can be separated from the rest of the root by certain prefixes, as in this
Wichita example:
Northwest Caucasian languages
In Northwest Caucasian languages, they can have
noun
In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
s, directional and locative preverbs (like
preposition
Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
s), like in this example from
Ubykh:
Mandarin Chinese
For
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
and many other
varieties of Chinese
There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the m ...
, the term refers to some words that carry the meanings of
prepositions in English. In Chinese, they are lexically verbs and appear before the noun in question. They are more commonly referred to as
coverbs.
Georgian
In
Georgian, a Kartvelian language, the main function of a preverb is to distinguish the present tenses and the future tenses. To turn a present tense verb into a future tense, a preverb is added to the verb compound. In addition, preverbs also have directional meanings in Georgian.
Preverbs are directly attached to the beginning of the verb compound:
: and
: and
Note in those two examples that the meaning of the future tense is achieved only by adding the preverb; no other grammatical change occurs. In these examples, preverbs have directional meanings:
:
:
:
:
:
Again, note that only the preverbs are changed to convey the meaning of various directional meanings.
Preverbs add directional meanings not only to the verbs of motion but also to any other kind of verbs. Compare the examples of the verb :
:
:
:
:
As can be seen from the examples, the preverb changes according to the indirect object (the person for (to) whom the verb is being done).
Many verbs have a common root. For example, "end" and "stay" have the same verb root, . The meanings of the verbs are distinguished by their preverbs and other elements of the verb compound:
: ,
: ,
As is clear, the verbs are identical in the present tense but differ in the future tense by their preverbs.
Modern Persian
A preverb is a morpheme, which is applied together with the participles modifying their meaning and the meaning of their derivates.
Some Persian preverbs, referred to as "pīš fi'l" or "pīšvand e fi'l", are:
*bar (meaning up, upon, from
Middle Persian
Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...
abar)
*bar (meaning fruit, from
Middle Persian
Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...
bar)
*bar (bar meaning chest, side, direction, from
Middle Persian
Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...
war) and var (alternative form of bar)
*bāz
*far and fara
*farāz
*foru and forud
*ham and an
*ni
*go (e.g godāxtan, gozāštan, gorīxtan, etc...)
*negah and negāh
*pas
*piš
*ru
*sar
*vā
*andar and dar
*pay
*ā
*tar and tara
*par and para
Pre-verbs can modify the procedure attribute of the verbs and the infinitives, but they do not change their objective attribute:
The Pre-verb is normally positioned ahead of the verb. If the verb is composed of two separable components, the pre-verb is positioned ahead of the second component. The Pre-verb can be positioned at the end of the sentence, owing to versification requirements:
از کارِ خير عزمِ تو هرگز نگشت باز
هرگز زِ راه بازنگشتهست هيچ تير
Manuchehri (11th - 12th Century AD)
Pingelapese
Pingelapese is a language spoken on the Island of Pingelap atoll, located in Micronesia. This language uses preverbs in existential sentences, one of their four sentence structures. The verb is used when a character of a story or statement is already known.
Toki Pona
In the
constructed language
A constructed language (shortened to conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, orthography, and vocabulary, instead of having developed natural language, naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devise ...
Toki Pona, a preverb is a class of words that can be placed at the start of the predicate in front of the verb.
Toki Pona preverbs have various functions, such as marking
grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used for signaling modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying (for example, a statement ...
or
aspect.
Some examples:
References
PVB:preverb
{{Lexical categories, state=collapsed
Grammar
Parts of speech