Converb

The term Konverb (English converb ) refers to specialized in linguistics adverbial verb forms.

Example from Turkish:

Gülerek gitti. " Laughing, he went / she. " ( To gülmek Konverb " laugh " )

You are not finite and also act neither as a complement of the finite main verb (ie, no verbal noun ) is still considered to qualify a noun (that are not attributes ).

As can be seen from the example, converbs can be reproduced in the English translation often by free participles ( " laughing ").

Languages ​​with converbs

There are also Turkish, a number of other types of converbs. Other examples of converbs found in other Turkic languages ​​, the Mongolian (like the Mongolian ) and Tungusic languages, but also in the äthiosemitischen, omotischen and Cushitic languages ​​of Africa, in a way, in Romance and Slavic languages ​​as well as in many other languages ​​of the world, but mainly in languages ​​with the basic word order of subject-object - verb ( SOV ).

Syntax of converbs

Converbs are usually a subordinate verb (similar to a subordinate clause ). Above all, gerunds, participles but also you can expect this. Typically, they are characterized by suffixes (such as - erek in the example above). In certain languages ​​converbs can also neither attached to nor be subordinate (see Kosubordination ). Converbs may, in particular for the purpose of record linkage (English clause chaining / linking clause ) are used, with a number of such verbs in succession occurs and is completed by a finite verb.

Other terms

Other terms for types of converbs are gerund ( ium ), medial verb, adverbial participle, absolute construction ( for Romance languages ​​), gérondif (for the French ), conjunctive / absolutive participle ( for South Asian languages) and деепричастие / deepričastie (for the Russian and languages ​​of the Caucasus, North and Central Asia ).

Origin of the terms

The term comes from the Konverb Altaistik and was first described by Ramstedt (1903 ) used ( Haspelmath 1995). The term medial verb comes from the description of Asian languages ​​in which the Konverb is always in middle position because of the typical SOV.