Conjugation II verbs: the diachronic and comparative aspects

Abstract

The article proposes an approach to defining verbal conjugations which is based, in my opinion, on the essential features of this grammatical phenomenon. These include diachrony, the concept of two stems of the verb, and the material of foreign Slavic languages. Of all verbal lexemes, only verbs with the non-root thematic vowels -i-, -eand -а-(-ya-) before -t’ undergoing syncope in the stem of the present (future simple) tense but only in one class with each final belong to the second conjugation. From the diachronic perspective, all these verbs originated from the Proto- Slavic thematic *-ī stem verbs. I consider the verbs shave (brit’), endure (terpet’), twirl (vertet’), offend (obidet’), depend (zaviset’), hate (nenavidet’), see (videt’), look (smotret’), hear (slyshat’), breathe (dyshat’), hold (derzhat’) not as exceptions, but as ordinary verbs belonging to corresponding classes with unstressed vowel endings verified by stress. Each verb class of conjugation II has systemic correspondences in foreign Slavic languages. The study relies on comparative-typological, structural, and diachronic analysis.