Bradley Jeremy Moss. Mari converb constructions

University of Vienna, 2010. — 129 p.Converb constructions are an ever-present phenomenon in the Mari language. Such paired verbs are an areal phenomenon of the Volga region – they can be found in the local Turkic languages (Tatar, Chuvash) and Finno-Ugric languages (Mari, Udmurt, marginally also in Mordvin) alike. In Mari converb constructions, two verbs form a union in which the first verb is in a gerundial form, while the second verb can be conjugated freely. Examples could literally mean "to eating place", "to loving live" or "to crying send". It is important to note here that the gerund holds the actual semantic content of such a pairing. The second verb – even if it is, grammatically, the main verb – only gives pairing a certain aspectual colouring. The second verb's original lexical meaning is either partially or completely lost in the process. In the pairing "to eating place", for example, the verb "eating" is carried out in a perfective manner, which can be derived from the perfective nature of the action described by this word. Better translations of the examples given here would be "to eat up", "to love for a long time" and "to start crying".