AUX: auxiliary verb
Definition
The only truly auxiliary verb in Armenian is եմ “be”, and its variant (with separate lemma) լինեմ (լինել) “be repeatedly / habitually”. 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 and էի “be”;
- aspectual auxiliary, used to form so-called “secondary compound tenses” represented by լինեմ (լինել) “be repeatedly / habitually”,
- voice auxiliary, used to form periphrastic causative represented by տալ “cause / make someone to perform action”,
- mood auxiliary, used to form periphrastic necessitative mood by պիտի “to by necessary, useful” or պետք է “lit: is needed”.
Examples
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Present tense. Finite present form of եմ is combined with imperfective and resultative participles of the lexical verb. The auxiliary expresses aspect, person, number, mood and tense, participles expresse aspect and voice: վազում եմ “I run / I am running”, կանգնած են “they are standing”. Note that a limited set of verbs can form present morphologically, without the auxiliary.
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Imperfect tense. Finite imperfect form of էի is combined with imperfective, perfect and resultative participles of the lexical verb. The auxiliary expresses aspect, person, number, mood and tense, participles expresse aspect and voice: վազում էի “I was running”, վազել էիր “you were running”, կանգնած էին “they were standing”.
Note, that fintie present and imperfect forms of եմ and էի are also used with the perfect and future participles of the lexical verbs to form periphrastic present perfect (e.g. վազել եմ “I have run”), (present-)future (e.g. վազելու եմ “I shall run”) and future-in-the-past (վազելու էի “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 լինել (լինեմ) (in various tenses and moods or in the infinitive լինել ) is combined with processual, resultative and future participles of the lexical verb. The auxiliary expresses aspect, person, number, mood, tense and aspect, participles expresse aspect and voice: գնալու լինեմ “(If / when) I intent to go.
Sub”, գնացած լինեմ “(If / when) I will be gone.Sub”, գնալիս լինեմ “(If / when) I will be going.Sub”, գնալու լինել “to intend to go, to be going”, գնացած լինել “to be gone”, գնալիս լինել “to be in the process of going”. -
Causative voice. The finite form of տալ (in various tenses and moods) is combined with infinitve of the content verb. The auxiliary expresses aspect, person, number, tense and mood. The auxiliary will have
Voice=Cau. There will be also voice information at the infinitive: հասկանալ.Actտալ .Cau“lit: to make somebody understand”, հասկացնել .Cau“lit: to make somebody understand” (morphological causative), հասկացնել.Cauտալ .Cau“lit: to make someone make someone understand”. -
Necessitative mood. The mood particle պիտի “to by necessary, useful” and the impersonal predicative պետք է “lit: is needed” are combined with subjunctive finite form of lexical verb. The auxiliary expresses mood. պիտի (պետք է) գնա “he/she must go home”, պիտի (պետք է) գնար “he/she had to go”.
Note, that in Armenian copulas are also tagged AUX and the definition of copula sentences has been extended
to location-existentials (Նա տանն է։ / Նա տանն է լինում։ “He is at home.”) Hence almost all occurrences of եմ and լինել (լինեմ) should be now tagged AUX.
Only pure existentials without location (Այն եղել է ու կա որպես հուշ։ “It has been and is as a memory.”) have a non-auxiliary լինել and կամ which should be tagged VERB.
Modal verbs are not auxiliaries
Armenian modal verbs are not considered auxiliary and they are tagged VERB. Their behavior is only slightly different from other content verbs.
Constructions with կամ and ունեմ and resultative participle
Note, that finite form of existentials կամ “be, exist” and ունեմ “have” in combination with resultative participle (Նա հագած ուներ թեթև վերարկու։ “He had a light coat dressed.” or Երեկվանից ոչ մի տող գրած չկամ։ “I do not have a single line written since yesterday.” (lit: “I do not exist written no any row since yesterday.”) are tagged AUX (these so-called “experiential forms”, mainly in negativ or interrogative constructions, are analyzed as auxiliary in the Armenian grammar).
AUX in other languages: [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [da] [el] [en] [es] [et] [fi] [fro] [fr] [ga] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [uk] [u] [urj] [xcl] [yue] [zh]