[B-Greek] Liquid Verb Stems: Regular or Different?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Aug 25 06:19:34 EDT 2004


At 3:36 PM +0800 8/25/04, Coleman Yee wrote:
>I've finished chapter 25 of Mounce's BBG and was reviewing some of the
>previous chapters.
>
>In chapter 20 ("Verbal Roots, and Other Forms of the Future"),
>
>20.22 (p.175), on liquid futures: Stem changes. Along with the
>different tense formative, the future tense stem of a liquid verb
>usually is different from its present tense stem (for various
>reasons). ...
>
>- there it says that the future tense stem of the liquid verb is
>usually different from the present tense stem.
>
>20.13 (p.173): Liquid verbs are "regularly" formed verbs and belong in
>"Pattern 1." ...
>
>- there it gives a characteristic of liquid verbs. Let's see what
>"Pattern 1" is:
>
>20.8 (p.169): Pattern 1: Root not modified. Verbs that follow this
>pattern do not modify their root in the formation of their present
>tense stem. ...
>
>- there it says that pattern 1, which liquid verbs belong to, do not
>modify their root in forming the present tense stem. But does this
>contradict 20.22, where it says that it's different? Or have I
>misunderstood something?

There's not really a contradiction, but I would rely less upon such rules
than to learn the principal parts of any verb that has tense-stems that
aren't predictable from the present-tense lemma. Let's take a couple
examples of liquid verbs:
	BALLW from root BAL:
		present stem BALL- from BALL + y;
		future stem BALE(S)- FROM BAL + E(S) (intervocalic sigma lost,
			future tense forms like present -EW contracts)
	STELLW from root STEL
		present stem STELL- from STEL +y;
		future stem STELE(S)- from STEL + E(S) (intervocalic sigma
lost,
			future tense forms like present -EW contracts)

So in these two instances (and in others you may choose to check) different
formative elements are combined with the roots BAL and STEL to yield the
present and future tense-stems.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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