A PFM approach to the verb inflection system of Georgian dialects: example of Gurian

Abstract

The verb inflection system of Kartvelian languages is characterized by the interaction of morphosyntactic features, morphosemantic features and inflection-class traits. Thus, an incremental and morpheme-based approach might fail to seize the multilevel interactions as well as the systemic complexity within Kartvelian verb inflection. However, Paradigm Function Morphology (PFM, Stump 2016) could provide a realizational and paradigm-based approach to verb inflection. Recently, linguists have adopted PFM model in the analyses of different Kartvelian languages and have obtained plausible results (Makharoblidze & Léonard 2020; Tran Ngoc 2020; She 2021). By applying PFM analysis model in Gurian verb inflection, we demonstrate the compatibility of the realizational and paradigm-based approach with traditional templatic analyses. At the same time, we also show that PFM model, by highlighting the paradigmatic dimension of verb inflection, could describe the systemic complexity in a parsimonious way.