PASKAJORJA E TIPIT “ME PUNUE” DHE LIDHORJA “TË PUNOJ” - PREJARDHJA, NGJASHMËRITË DHE DALLIMET
THE “ME PUNUE” TYPE INFINITIVE AND THE “TE PUNOJ” CONJUNCTION - ORIGIN, SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

Summary/Abstract: The syntagmatic development of a language determines the structure (typology) of that language. The convergence in similar paths of the old infinitive and the Albanian participle has determined in a way the present forms and functions of these verbal forms. Albanian linguistics and foreign researchers already state the conjunction ‘të punoj’ replaced the Albanian infinitive ‘me punue.’ Traces of the old auxiliary verb are found in some sporadic cases in the southern dialect and in the speech of the Arbëreshë people in Italy. The infinitive was formed sometime in the c. V, before the formation of the nominative adjective. The formation of the nominative adjective, sometime in the c. VII, "paved the way" for the formation of the conjunction, not that the latter had to be formed, but because the ready form similar to the demonstrative ‘punoj’, after the adjective of the participle, was attached to it in the form of a calque ‘të punoj’, under the influence of a neighboring language, Greek (Bokshi, 2014). The form of the infinitive and the subjunctive have similar paths of formation. The infinitive and the relative are derived from the epithetism of the substantivized attributive participle ‘nisi me (të) punuem’ and ‘nisi të punuarit’. The infinitive is grammaticalized in the active form me punue, before the formation of the nominative adjective, while the conjunction is in the active form të punoj, after the formation of the nominative adjective. The participle also performed the function of the adjective without ‘të’, while in conjunction, the adjective with ‘të’ became substantive and "detached" to be attached to the form similar to the demonstrative in the form of a calque ‘të punoj’. Under the influence, over time, the form of the conjunction ‘të punoj’ was grammaticalized. In this paper, we will present the way of formation of these two verb forms, the function, similarities and differences between them.

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