Re: USAGE: Circumfixes

Hi!

Tamas Racsko <tracsko@...> writes:
>...
> > Strong past participles as well, though the latter also use ablaut.
>
> I thought the problem over again, maybe I was wrong when I agreed.
And I thought about it, but was not sure whether they are circumfixes.
I can only say what I feel when I use them: the prefix is a
'secondary' part of the parfect participle maker.  However, the rules
when to use it and when not to are fixed, so the prefix part 'ge-' is
not optional.

A possible analysis might be that 'ge-...-t' (weak) and 'ge-...-en'
(strong) are circumfixes of the same morpheme that has allomorphs '-t'
and '-en' when another prefix is in the way.

But that's only a feeling, I don't know for sure how to classify it.

>   I've forget that prefixed verbs have no ge- in past participle,
> e.g. schreib.en 'to write' > ge.schrieb.en 'written' vs.
> ab.schreib.en 'write down, copy' > ab.schrieb.en.
You probably mean to right thing, but chose a bad example, since
the PPP is indeed 'abgeschrieben'.

Whether to use the 'ge-' prefix part or not depends (with a few modern
exceptions) on whether the prefixed part is stressed or not.  If
stressed, it is actually, well, maybe a clitic (or some floating
affix), that will be moved around when word order requires that.  If
it is not stressed, it is an fixed prefix that is part of the verb.

Examples:

I'll mark main stress with " in the examples.

Clitic (or maybe 'floating affix'):
   "unterstellen (reflexive) - to shelter ('stand under')

   'Ich muß mich "unterstellen.'    - 'I must shelter.'
   'Ich stelle mich "unter.'        - 'I shelter.'
   'Ich habe mich "untergestellt.'  - 'I sheltered.'

   Here, '"unter-ge-stell-t' has the 'ge-...-t' circumfix.

   In the same way:
      "wegstellen         - to put away
      "abstellen          - to (temporarily) put down
      "anstellen (refl.)  - to queue (BE), to line up(?) (AE)

   And, of course, the verb without any prefix stuff:
      "stellen            - to put (so that it stands afterwards),
                            to stand

Affix:
   unter"stellen  - to claim, to assume (that someone ... something)

   'Ich muß Dir unter"stellen, daß...'  - 'I must assume that you ...'
   'Ich unter"stelle Dir, daß...'       - 'I assume that you ...'
   'Ich habe Dir unter"stellt, daß...'  - 'I assumed that you ...'

   Here, 'unter-"stell-t' has the '-t' suffix.

   In the same way:
      be"stellen      - to order
      ver"stellen     - to change (e.g. of volumne); to disguise
      ent"stellen     - to deface/deform

   To confuse you a bit, there are words that have both a clitic
   and an affix:
      "abbestellen    - to cancel an order

      'Ich habe das Buch abbestellt.' - 'I cancelled the order of the book.'

      Consistently, this behaves like 'be"stellen', since 'ab-' is
      just *another* prefix.

As can be seen, the verbs with clitics usually retain the original
meaning of the verb 'stellen' or are at least close to it.  But with
affixes, the meaning changes totally.  That is what would be expected
by the stronger fusion, of course.

The interpretation is up to you, I simply don't know and, as I said,
would intuitively favor an analysis of two allomorphs, one circumfix,
one suffix.  The rule is that 'ge-' is not used when there is another
prefix (not a clitic) in front of the verb's stem.

**Henrik