Frequentative and Momentative Verbal Derivation in Veps Language
Frequentative and Momentative Verbal Derivation in Veps Language

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the structure, use and semantics of frequentative and momentative verbal derivation in Veps. The study is based on a corpus of context-embedded derivatives collected firstly from early twentieth century texts and secondly from spoken and written present day Veps. Veps derivation is compared to Finnish and Estonian and to a lesser extent to Karelian. Finnic verb derivatives are basically transparent and mutually understandable but they are used in different contexts and their degree of productivity varies. In present-day Veps frequentative derivatives are commonly used in those syntactic contexts in which their Finnish and Estonian cognates could not be used. Variation in both frequentative and momentative suffixes has diminished, and only the shortest suffixes -(e)le and -(a)hta are productive.

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