AUX: auxiliary verb
Definition
Classical Armenian has the following auxiliary verbs: եմ/em ‘to be’, its perfective counterpart լինիմ/linim (‘to become’), the negated copula չիք/čʽikʽ (‘there is no’), and the causative auxiliary տամ/tam (‘to give’).
- The auxiliaries եմ and լինիմ are used in the following constructions:
- The copula with non-verbal predicates, including predicates of location.
- Periphrastic perfect/resultative (see Meyer 2023 with bibliography):
- Present perfect: present form of եմ plus past participle;
- Pluperfect: imperfect form of եմ plus past participle, aorist form of լինիմ plus past participle of the main verb;
- Future perfect: present subjunctive form of եմ plus past participle, present subjunctive form of լինիմ plus past participle, aorist subjunctive form of լինիմ plus past participle of the main verb.
- The auxiliary չիք is used as a negated copula with non-verbal predicates.
- The auxiliary տամ is used to form periphrastic causative: any form of տամ, including periphrastic forms, plus infinitive of the main verb (see Kocharov 2023).
Examples
- Copula: եին արդարք / ein ardarkʻ “they were righteous” (Luke 1:6)
- Negated copula: չիք ոք բարի / čʻikʻ okʻ bari “none is good” (Luke 18:19)
- Periphrastic tenses: զայն նշան տուեալ էր նոցա / zayn nšan toweal ēr nocʻa “this sign was given to them” (Luke 22:47)
- Periphrastic causative: ետ տանել զնա առ Հէրովդէս / et tanel zna aṙ Hērovdēs “he sent him to Herod” (Luke 23:7)
References
Առաքելեան, Վարագ. 2010. Գրաբարի քերականութիւն. Երևան: Վիամիր․ [Araqelian, Varag. 2010. Grammar of Grabar. Yerevan: Viamir]
Jensen, Hans. 1959. Altarmenische Grammatik. Heidelberg: Winter.
Kocharov, Petr. 2023. Causatives in Classical Armenian. Folia Linguistica 57/3: 593-627. (open access)
Meillet, Antoine. 1913. Altarmenisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg: Winters. (Internet Archive)
Meyer, Robin. 2023. Iranian Syntax in Classical Armenian. Oxford University Press. (open access)
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]