Person[obj]: person direct object
| Values: | 1 | 2 | 3 |
In Old Georgian, as in Modern Georgian, verbal agreement is polypersonal and cannot be reduced to simple subject–verb agreement as found in most Indo-European languages. The Old Georgian verb agrees morphologically not only with the subject, but also with one or more objects, depending on the verbal class and syntactic construction. This agreement is expressed through a complex system of prefixal and suffixal person–number markers, whose distribution is closely tied to verbal morphology and historical TAM series.
Old Georgian verbs distinguish between core (valency-determining) arguments and non-core (peripheral) arguments. Core arguments are those that are morphologically indexed on the verb by means of person and number markers, whereas peripheral arguments are not reflected in verbal agreement. The Old Georgian verb is capable of encoding relations between two and three participants. By means of agreement morphology, it distinguishes roles such as agent, patient, recipient, beneficiary, causer and causee, as well as locative relations in certain constructions. From a valency perspective, Old Georgian verbs can be classified as follows:
a) Impersonal verbs, which lack a grammatical subject and typically denote natural phenomena or states, already well attested in the earliest Old Georgian texts; b) Intransitive verbs, which take a single core argument, usually marked as subject and agree with it in person and number; c) Indirect transitive verbs, which govern two core arguments, commonly a subject and an indirect object, with the indirect object frequently indexed on the verb by prefixal agreement morphology; d) Transitive verbs, which take a subject and a direct object, both of which may be reflected in verbal agreement depending on person hierarchy and verbal class; e) Ditransitive verbs, which take three core arguments: subject, direct object, and indirect object, and exhibit the most complex agreement patterns, often encoding both objects within the verbal form.
But, when marking first- and second-person objects, it makes no difference what kind of object it is: direct or indirect; in both cases it is expressed in the same way. The distinction is determined by the context.
Person[obj] is feature of verbs. It is an agreement feature that marks the person of the verb’s direct object. Person[obj] marked on verbs makes it unnecessary to add a personal pronoun as object and thus direct objects may be dropped.
1: first person direct object
Examples
- მხატავს ‘he/she draws me / depicts me’, მპოვებს ‘he/she finds me’ etc.
- გუხატავთ ‘you (pl.) draw us / depict us’, გუპოვებთ ‘you (pl.) find us’ etc.
2: second person direct object
Examples
- გხატავს ‘he/she draws you (sg.) / depicts you’, გპოვებს ‘he/she finds you (sg.)’ etc.
- გხატავთ ‘he/she draws you (pl.) / depicts you’, გპოვებთ ‘he/she finds you (pl.)’ etc.
3: third person direct object
Examples
- ჰხატავს ‘he/she draws him/her/it’, ჰპოვებს ‘he/she finds him/her/it’ etc.
- ჰხატავენ ‘they draw him/her/it’, ჰპოვებენ ‘they find him/her/it’ etc.
Person[obj] in other languages: [ka] [oge]