AUX: auxiliary verb
Definition
The most commonly used auxiliary verb in Armenian is եմ/em “be”, and its variant (with separate lemma) լինեմ (լինել)/linem. It accompanies the lexical verb of a verb phrase and expresses grammatical distinctions not carried by the lexical verb.
Armenian auxiliary verbs can be divided into:
- tense auxiliary, used to form compound tenses represented by եմ/em and էի/ēi “be”;
- aspectual auxiliary, used to form so-called “secondary compound tenses” represented by լինեմ (լինել)/linem (linel) “be repeatedly / habitually”,
- voice auxiliary, used to form periphrastic causatives represented by տալ/tal “cause / make someone perform action” (lit. give),
- mood auxiliary, used to form periphrastic necessitative mood with պիտի/piti “to be necessary, useful” or պետք է/petk’ ē lit. is needed.
Examples
- Present tense. The finite present form of եմ/em is combined with imperfective and resultative participles of the lexical verb. The auxiliary expresses aspect, person, number, mood and tense, participles express aspect and voice: վազում եմ/vazowm em “I run / I am running”, կանգնած են/kangnaç en “they are standing”.
Note that a limited set of verbs can form present morphologically, without the auxiliary.
- Imperfect tense. The finite imperfect form of էի/ēi is combined with imperfective, perfect and resultative participles of the lexical verb. The auxiliary expresses aspect, person, number, mood and tense, participles express aspect and voice: վազում էի/vazowm ēi “I was running”, վազել էիր/vazel ēir “you had run”, կանգնած էին/kangnaç ēin “they were standing”.
Note that the finite present and imperfect forms of եմ/em and էի/ēi are also used with the perfect and future participles of the lexical verbs to form periphrastic present perfect (e.g. վազել եմ/vazel em “I have run”), (present-)future (e.g. վազելու եմ/vazelow em “I shall run”) and future-in-the-past (վազելու էի/vazelow ēi “I would (intended to) run”). The auxiliaries express aspect, person, number, mood and tense (Tense=Pres and Tense=Imp accordingly), participles express aspect and voice.
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Durative / habitual aspect. The finite form of լինեմ/linem (in various tenses and moods or in the infinitive լինել/linel) is combined with processual, resultative and future participles of the lexical verb. The auxiliary expresses aspect, person, number, mood and tense, participles express aspect and voice: գնալու լինեմ/gnalow linem “(If / when) I intend to go.
Sub”, գնացած լինեմ/gnac’aç linem “(If / when) I will be gone.Sub”, գնալիս լինեմ/gnalis linem “(If / when) I will be going.Sub”, գնալու լինել/gnalow linel “to intend to go, to be going”, գնացած լինել/gnac’aç linel “to be gone”, գնալիս լինել/gnalis linel “to be in the process of going”. -
Causative voice. The finite form of տալ/tal (in various tenses and moods) is combined with the infinitive of the content verb. The auxiliary expresses aspect, person, number, tense and mood. Only the auxiliary is annotated with
Voice=Cau; the infinitive retains its own voice annotation: հասկանալActտալ.Cau“to make somebody understand”, հասկացնելCau“lit: to make somebody understand” (morphological causative), հասկացնելCauտալCau“to make someone make someone understand”. -
Necessitative mood. The mood particle պիտի/piti “to be necessary, useful” and the impersonal predicative պետք է/petk’ ē lit. is needed, are combined with subjunctive finite form of lexical verb. The auxiliary expresses mood. պիտի (պետք է) գնա/piti (petk’ ē) gna “he/she must go home”, պիտի (պետք է) գնար/piti (petk’ ē) gnar “he/she had to go”.
Since there is no generally accepted approach in Armenian grammar to the analysis of finite forms of the verb լինել/linel “be” as either auxiliary or lexical verbs, the Armenian UD treebank adopts the following principle: the aorist and the present and imperfect forms of the subjunctive and conditional moods of լինեմ/linem (եղավ/eġav “was”, լինի/lini “if-it-is”, լիներ/liner “if-it-was”, կլինի/klini “will-be”, and կլիներ/kliner “would-be”) are analyzed as lexical verbs whenever they occur with nominal predicates, and as auxiliaries only when they combine with participles.
In compound forms consisting of եմ/em and լինել/linel used with nominal predicates, եմ is analyzed as an auxiliary, while լինել is analyzed as a lexical verb. Both components are analyzed as auxiliaries only when used with participles.
With a nominal predicate, եմ/em functions as a copula, making the nominal predicate (noun, adjective, etc.) the head of the clause, and is attached to it via the cop relation. Note that in Armenian copulas are also tagged AUX and the definition of copular clauses has been extended to location-existentials (Առավոտյան ստվերն այս կողմում է/Aṙavotyan stvern ays koġmowm ē “In the morning, the shadow is on this side.”). Only non-copular existential uses of լինել/linel and կամ/kam are tagged VERB (Այն եղել է ու կա որպես հուշ։/Ayn eġel ē ow ka orpes howš “It existed then and still exists as a memory.”).
# visual-style 5 3 xcomp color:blue
# visual-style 5 4 aux color:blue
1 խեղճը խեղճ NOUN _ Animacy=Nhum|Case=Nom|Definite=Def|Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ Translit=xeġč̣ë|LTranslit=xeġč̣
2 բոլորովին բոլորովին ADV _ PronType=Tot 3 advmod _ Translit=bolorovin|LTranslit=bolorovin
3 ուժասպառ ուժասպառ ADJ _ _ 5 xcomp _ Translit=owžaspaṙ|LTranslit=owžaspaṙ
4 է եմ AUX _ Aspect=Imp|Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Polarity=Pos|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 aux _ Translit=ē|LTranslit=em
5 եղել լինել VERB _ Aspect=Perf|Subcat=Intr|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Mid 0 root _ Translit=eġel|LTranslit=linel
# visual-style 2 3 aux color:blue
1 արդեն արդեն ADV _ _ 2 advmod _ Translit=arden|LTranslit=arden
2 ընտրված ընտրել VERB _ Aspect=Perf|Polarity=Pos|Subcat=Intr|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ Translit=ëntrvaç|LTranslit=ëntrel
3 կլինի լինել AUX _ Aspect=Prosp|Mood=Cnd|Number=Sing|Person=3|Polarity=Pos|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 2 aux _ Translit=klini|LTranslit=linel
4 նոր նոր ADJ _ Degree=Pos 5 amod _ Translit=nor|LTranslit=nor
5 նախագահը նախագահ NOUN _ Animacy=Hum|Case=Nom|Definite=Def|Number=Sing 2 nsubj:pass _ Translit=naxagahë|LTranslit=naxagah|SpaceAfter=No
# visual-style 2 1 xcomp color:blue
1 բախտորոշ բախտորոշ ADJ _ _ 2 xcomp _ Translit=baxtoroš|LTranslit=baxtoroš
2 եղավ լինել VERB _ Aspect=Perf|Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Polarity=Pos|Subcat=Intr|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin|Voice=Mid 0 root _ Translit=eġav|LTranslit=linel
3 նրա նրա DET _ Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 4 det:poss _ Translit=nra|LTranslit=nra
4 մասնակցությունը մասնակցություն NOUN _ Animacy=Nhum|Case=Nom|Definite=Def|Number=Coll 2 nsubj _ Translit=masnakc’owt’yownë|LTranslit=masnakc’owt’yown|SpaceAfter=No
Modal verbs are not auxiliaries
Armenian modal verbs are not considered auxiliaries and are tagged VERB. Their behavior is only slightly different from other content verbs.
Constructions with կամ and ունեմ and resultative participle
Finite forms of the existential verbs կամ/kam “be, exist” and ունեմ/ownem “have” when combined with a resultative participle are tagged AUX.
- Նա հագած ուներ թեթև վերարկու։/Na hagaç owner t’et’ew verarkow “He had a light coat dressed.”
- Երեկվանից ոչ մի տող գրած չկամ։/Erekvanic’ oč mi toġ graç čkam “I haven’t written a single line since yesterday.” (lit. I do not exist written not any line since yesterday.)
Although կամ/kam and ունեմ/ownem are not traditionally classified as auxiliary verbs in Armenian grammar, they are analyzed here as auxiliaries when used in these resultative or experiential (mainly in negative or interrogative) constructions.
Note that the verb ունեմ/ownem, combined with the infinitive of a limited set of coordinate compounds, forms habitual present and past imperfect constructions.
- Նրանք իրար տուն գնալ-գալ ունեն։/Nrank’ irar town gnal-gal ownen “They are in the habit of visiting each other’s homes.” (lit. They have going-and-coming to each other’s homes);
- Առաջ իրար հետ առնել-տալ ունեին։/Aṙaǰ irar het aṙnel-tal ownein. “They used to have dealings with each other.” (lit. They used to give-and-take with each other).
AUX in other languages: [axm] [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [da] [el] [en] [es] [et] [fi] [fr] [fro] [ga] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [hyw] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [naq] [nmf] [no] [oge] [pcm] [ps] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urj] [xcl] [xmf] [yue] [zh]