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On Berber Verbs of State

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The Handbook of Berber Linguistics

Part of the book series: Springer Handbooks in Languages and Linguistics ((SHLL))

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Abstract

Berber verbs of state (“verbes de qualité”, henceforth “Q-verbs”) are well known for their peculiarities, which are, for the most part, well delimited and solidly described. Yet, the status of these particularities, in the grammar of the languages that display them and their implications for the theory of grammar, are still far from consensual. We explore the possibility of a nominal analysis of Q-verbs in synchronic grammar and argue that they are nominal at the templatic level, but verbal in morphosyntax.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The 3ms agreement marker surfaces in three different shapes: [j]-, [jə]- and [i]-. These realizations are determined by the phonotactic context (cf. Bendjaballah 1999 for an analysis of this allomorphy in a Government Phonology framework):

    /j/-

    →

    [j]-

    /

    _V

      

    [jə]-

    /

    _CC

      

    [i]-

    /

    _CV

  2. 2.

    As with normal verbs, the perfective stem is not marked for tense (i). Tense is marked on an auxiliary (ii):

    i.

    assa

    lqaj

    “Today it is deep.”

     

    today

    be deep.pf

    		 
     

    ið̣əlli

    lqaj

    “Yesterday it was deep.”

     

    yesterday

    be deep.pf

    		 

    ii.

    jə-lla

    lqaj

    “It was deep.”

     

    3ms-be.pf

    be deep.pf

    		 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LLING-UMR6310, CNRS & Nantes Université, Nantes, France

    Sabrina Bendjaballah

  2. LLING-UMR6310, Nantes Université & CNRS, Nantes, France

    Martin Haiden

Authors
  1. Sabrina Bendjaballah
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  2. Martin Haiden
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sabrina Bendjaballah .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Alireza Korangy

  2. Mohamed V University, Rabat, Morocco

    Karim Bensoukas

Additional information

We would like to thank Amazigh Bedar for discussions and detailed comments on an earlier version of this article. We are grateful to the editors, Karim Bensoukas and Alireza Korangy, for inviting us to contribute to this volume, and to the reviewers for their comments.

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Bendjaballah, S., Haiden, M. (2024). On Berber Verbs of State. In: Korangy, A., Bensoukas, K. (eds) The Handbook of Berber Linguistics. Springer Handbooks in Languages and Linguistics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5690-6_16

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