Theme vowels

In what follows we describe how theme vowels were annotated in the Database.

The following theme vowel classes were annotated for BCS (5300, defective excluded from the count):

Theme Vowel Class	Example (inf, pres.1pl, gloss)	N Verbs (total= 5300)	% of all verbs
a/a	pitati, pitamo ‘ask’ prov(j)erava-ti, prov(j)eravamo ‘check’ dominirati, dominiramo ‘dominate’	1702	32.11%
i/i	visiti, visimo ‘hang’ graditi, gradimo ’build’ odlaziti, odlazi-mo ’leave'	1601	30.21%
a/je	plakati, plačemo (← plak-je-mo) ’cry’ treptati, trepćemo(← trept-je-mo) ‘blink’ formulisati, formulišemo (formul-is-je-mo) ‘formulate' ispitivati, ispitujemo ‘question’ dod(j)eljivati, dod(j)eljujemo ‘assign’ kovati, kujemo ‘mint’ rezultovati, rezultujemo ‘result’ davati, dajemo ‘give’	1029	19.42%
∅/e	pasti, pasemo ‘graze’ bosti (← bod-∅-ti), bodemo ‘stab’ piti, pijemo ‘drink’ čuti, čujemo ‘hear’ umr(ij)eti, umremo ‘die’	298	5.62%
u/e	gurnuti, gurnemo ‘push’ brinuti, brinemo ‘worry’	258	4.87%
(j)e/i	gor(j)eti, gorimo ‘burn’ crven(j)eti, crvenimo ‘become red’ zreti, zrimo ‘ripen’	184	3.47%
∅/ne	stati, stanemo ‘stop’ pasti (← pad-∅-ti), padnemo ‘fall’	124	2,34%
a/i	strujati, strujimo ‘flow’ ležati, ležimo ‘lie’ zaspati, zaspimo ‘fall asleep’	62	1.17%
a/e	(h)rvati, (h)rvemo ‘wrestle’ grebati, grebemo ‘scratch’	19	0.36%
(j)e/(ij)e	sm(j)eti, sm(ij)emo ‘be permitted’	17	0.32%

The following theme vowel classes were annotated for Slovenian (3000, defective excluded from the count):

Theme Vowel Class	Example (inf, pres.1pl, gloss)	N Verbs (total= 3000)	% of all verbs
a/a	delati, delamo ‘work’ kopirati, kopiramo ‘copy’ prepoznaati, prepoznavamo ‘recognise’ dozdevati, dozdevamo ‘seem’ pogovarjati, pogovarjamo ‘talk’	1045	34.83%
i/i	deliti, delimo ‘share’ graditi gradimo ’build’ vstopiti, vstopimo ‘enter’	863	28.77%
a/je	orati, orjemo ‘plough’ sijati, sijemo ‘shine’\\prikazovati, prikazujemo ‘show’ vzdrževati (← vzdrž-ov-a-ti), vzdrž-u-je-mo ‘abstain’ skakati, skačemo (← skak-je-mo) ‘jump’ pisati, pišemo (← pis-je-mo) ‘write’ iskati, iščemo (← isk-je-mo) ‘seek’	378	12.60%
∅/e	pasti, pasemo ‘graze’ pasti (← pad-∅-ti) pademo ’fall’ odpreti, odpremo ‘open’	285	9.5%
i/e	miniti, minemo ‘pass’ iztegniti, iztegnemo ‘stretch out’	144	4.8%
e/i	zveneti, zvenimo ‘sound’ zoreti, zorimo ‘ripen’	127	4.23%
a/i	bežati, bežimo ‘flee’ bati, bojimo ‘be afraid’	36	1.20%
a/e	brati, beremo ‘read’ izzvati, izzovemo ‘challenge’	46	1.53%
∅/ne	stati, stanemo ‘cost’ pričeti, pričnemo ‘start’ odeti, odenemo ‘cover up’	27	0.90%
e/e	umeti, umemo ‘understand’ vedeti, vemo ‘know’	47	1.57%

Given that the annotated theme vowel classes deviate from the previously proposed theme vowel systems (see for example Toporišič 2004 for Slovenian and Pranjković & Silić 2005 for BCS) we add the guidelines that were used for annotation.
For the purposes of the database, a theme vowel is taken to be the affix before the inflectional ending, which reflects the conjugation class of a group of verbs. Since the theme vowel can depend on the finiteness of the verb form, theme vowel classes are represented as pairs - the first vowel of the pair corresponds to the theme vowel in a non-finite form (we give the infinitive), the second in a finite form (for example the 1. person plural form as in the tables above or 3. person singular that is listed in the database, note that in BCS the division does not fully match the opposition finite - non-finite, but we approximate it this way).
In order to determine the theme vowels, the conjugation of the verb and the root were considered (here root is used purely descriptively, as the pre-theme vowel part of the verb which can in fact be a morphologically complex unit). We give some examples below (these examples apply for both BCS and Slovenian).

gledati
gled-a-ti: gled- is taken to be the root as it can be found in other contexts (pogled ‘look, view.n’)
gled-a-ti: -ti is the infinitival ending
gled-a-mo: -mo is the 1st person plural ending
Theme vowels: a in non-finite form, a in finite form; the theme vowel class is a, a

držati
drž-a-ti: drž- is taken to be the root as it can be found in other contexts (Slovenian: drž-a, drž-e ‘posture.nom, gen’) but is also the part of the verb that is not changing in the conjugation
drž-a-ti: -ti is the infinitival ending
drž-i-mo: -mo is the 1st person plural ending
Theme vowels: a in non-finite form, i in finite form; the theme vowel class is a, i

pisati
pis-a-ti: pis- is taken to be the root as it can be found in other contexts (pismo ‘letter.n’)
pis-a-ti: -ti is the infinitival ending
piš-e-mo: - mo is the 1st person plural ending
But: the theme vowel e would not induce the phonological change of the root, rather this phonological change indicates that the theme vowel is -je
Theme vowels: a in non-finite form, je in finite form; the theme vowel class is a, je

The general guideline for annotation and theme vowel classification was to use as few classes as possible to capture as much data as possible. Based on this, some items, which are sometimes taken to be theme vowels, were reconsidered and reanalyzed as a combination of a verbal affix and a theme vowel. We list these items for both sub-bases.

BCS

-irati, -iramo (as in kopirati, kopiramo ‘to copy, we copy’): -ir-a-ti, -ir-a-mo; theme vowel class a,a
-nuti, -nemo (as in skoknuti, skoknemo ‘to jump, we jump’): -n-u-ti,-n-e-mo; theme vowel class u, e
-ovati, -ujemo (as in verovati, verujemo ‘to believe, we believe’): -ov-a-ti, -u-je-mo; theme vowel class a, je
-ivati, -ujemo (as in ukazivati, ukazivamo ‘to appear, we appear’): -iv-a-ti, u-je-mo, theme vowel class a, je
-vati, -jemo (as in prodavati, prodajemo ‘to sell, we sell): -v-a-ti, -je-mo; theme vowel class a, je
-isati, -išemo (as in spekulisati, spekulišemo ‘to speculate, we speculate): -is-a-ti, is-je-mo (only -je- will give the surface form -iš-e-mo), theme vowel class a, je

Slovenian

-irati, -iramo (as in organizirati, organiziramo ‘to organize, we organize’): -ir-a-ti, -ir-a-mo; theme vowel class a, a
-avati, -avamo (as in prepoznavati, prepoznavamo ‘to recognise, we recognise’): -av-a-ti, -av-a-mo, theme vowel class a, a
-evati, -evamo (as in dozdevati, dozdevamo ‘to seem, we seem’): -ev-a-ti, -ev-a-mo; theme vowel class a, a
-ja, -ja (as in pogovarjati, pogovarjamo ‘to talk, we talk’): -j-a-ti, -j-a-mo; theme vowel class a, a
-niti, -nemo (as in kihniti, kihnemo ‘to sneeze, we sneeze’): -n-i-ti, -n-e-mo; theme vowel class i, e
-ovati/-evamo, -ujemo (as in oblikovati, oblikujemo ‘to design, we design’; razmnoževati, razmnožujemo ‘to duplicate, we duplicate), -ov/ev-a-ti, -u-je-mo; theme vowel class a, je

Some special cases

There are verbs that could be classified as belonging to several different theme classes. While this is very much a question of an adequate analysis, some (pre-theoretic) decisions were made for the purposes of the annotation.

a, je or ∅, e class
Verbs with root allomorphy (e.g. klati, koljemo ‘to slaughter, we slaughter’): these verbs can be analyses as being in the a, je class (kl-a-ti, kol-je-mo) or the ∅, e class (kla-∅-ti, kolj-e-mo). We add these verbs to the most frequent class they fit into. That is, since a, je is the third biggest class in both sub-bases, these verbs were annotated as a, je verbs.

a, je or a, e
In verbs with r and j in the root (e.g. orati, orjemo ‘to plough, we plough’ and smejati, smejemoSLO/smijati, smijemoBCS ‘to laugh, we laugh’) it is unclear whether the theme vowel class is a, je or a, e as both r and j are known to be able to absorb j. These cases were always annotated as a, je verbs.

e, e or ∅,e
For verbs which in BCS have (ij)e and in Slovenian have e in the infinitive (umr(ij)etiBCS / umretiSLO ‘to die), the past participle was also considered. If the verb have a ∅ in past participle (umr-∅-l-a ‘die.pst-ptc.fem’ in both) and e in the finite form (umr-e-mo ‘we die’), they are annotated as ∅, e verbs. This separates them from verbs, in which e also appears in the past participles (e.g. sporazumeti ‘to understand’, sporazumela ‘understand.pst-ptc.fem’, sporazumemo ‘we understand’) which were annotated as e, e verbs.

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