Contributors

• Elisa Roma

Comments

General comment

Old Irish is the Celtic variety of the Gaelic branch documented in various manuscript sources dating from the late 7th to the 9th century AD (see Source of the data below).

Any noun phrase (argument or adjunct) is always optional and it was not possible to apply a test using the sentence frame suggested in the ValPaL manual to distinguish between arguments and adjuncts. The coding frames given here include all arguments/adjuncts of the pre-defined role frame with the corresponding Old Irish case-marking, plus a few additional ones that were found regularly in the sources.

The database includes as coded alternations passive and non-finite constructions, but since A/S/O pronominal arguments must be indexed on verbal forms, verb inflection is regularly affected by the nature of arguments (see Characterization of indexing resources below). Each non-finite construction is included for a verb form if it is attested in the corpus for that verb.

Characterization of flagging resources

The major resource for argument/adjunct identification is case marking, which applies regularly to all noun phrases. Case forms used to flag arguments with finite verb forms are nominative (A/S) and accusative (O). The dative case is used with prepositions, alongside the accusative case, while the genitive is an adnominal case and may be used to flag arguments only in non-finite constructions (i.e., with verbal forms which have nominal rection), or when governed by prepositions which have nominal origin (e.g. dochum + gen ‘towards’, from a proclitic form of tochim ‘(act of) stepping to’).

The prepositions most frequently used to flag arguments are: the dative preposition do (regularly used for recipients but also to flag A/S in non-finite constructions), the allative prepositions i+acc and co+acc, the ablative prepositions a+dat and ó+dat, the locative preposition i+dat, the superessive and malefactive preposition for+acc. Less frequent ones are the directive preposition fri+acc, which flags addressees and in general faced participants, and the adessive preposition la+acc, which may flag experiencers, companions and agents with passive and non-finite forms. Note that pronominal objects of prepositions are obligatorily expressed as indexes (see below Characterization of indexing resources).

Ditransitives usually adhere to the indirective alignment, with few exceptions (notably TEACH, that allows secundative alignment as well).

Characterization of indexing resources

While nominal subjects in the nominative case are always cross-referenced by verbal endings on the verb, all pronominal direct arguments (A/S/O) are indexed on verbal forms and may not be expressed with independent, case-marked pronominal forms. They are indexed as follows:

• all kind of subjects in the active and third person subjects in the passive are indexed through verbal endings
• object arguments – corresponding to accusative nominal arguments – and speech-act participants subject arguments of passive forms – corresponding to nominative nominal arguments – are indexed through prefixes or inner indexes (traditionally called infixes), inserted between lexical preverb and verb stem

Passive forms with speech-act participants, therefore, qualify as desubjectives. Since the alternation between case-marking and verb indexing for different persons is paradigmatic and exceptionless, the two strategies have been considered the same for the sake of coding frames. In a similar vein, relativized arguments, whose syntactic function in the relative clause is coded on the verb, are considered the same as non-relativized ones.

Prepositions inflect for person, i.e., pronominal dependents of prepositions are obligatorily fused with them (head-marking), e.g. to Conall = do Chonall, to him = dó, to me = dom, to you (sg.) = duit. Cross-reference of nominal objects of prepositions is however prohibited.

Characterization of ordering resources

Despite having regular nominal and accusative case-marking and subject agreement, word order in Old Irish is rather rigid, at least strictly verb-initial, and regularly VSOX. Prepositional pronominal arguments, i.e. prepositions inflected for person, may precede a nominal direct object (VSXO). Arguments may be fronted for pragmatic reasons, mostly in left dislocations (with resumption through a pronominal index) or clefting, which, broadly speaking, are topicalising and focusing constructions respectively.

Different word orders occur with non-finite verbal forms; they may be grouped into two main constructions (VS/O vs. S/O do V):

• non-finite verbal forms (verbal nouns) inflected for case are followed by a genitive argument (which is generally the O argument with transitive verbs and the S argument with intransitive verbs); if it is not in the genitive case, the S or A subject is either controlled or follows the verb and genitive, flagged with the preposition do+dat, or, less frequently, la+acc: i.e., he was bringing a treasure = he was at bringing (of) treasure; it is good that he brings a treasure = bringing (of) treasure by (lit. to) him is good.
• non-finite verbal forms (verbal nouns) in the dative case are governed by the preposition do and preceded by one of the two direct arguments, which appears in the case-form required by the matrix verb (raising): e.g. he set out to bring a treasure = he set out (a) treasure to bring; it is good that he brings a treasure = (it) is good (a) treasure to bring by (lit. to) him.

Strictly speaking, only in the second construction is word order the crucial element for argument identification.

Non finite-constructions have been labelled and numbered as follows: 1 = O in the genitive, 2 = A/S in the genitive, 3 = only prepositional argument(s) overt, and 4 = no overt argument (only controlled arguments). The second construction above with preposed argument is labelled do+V(erbal)N(oun).

Note that while nominal genitives always follow their syntactic head, pronominal genitives (possessives) are proclitic to their nominal heads. Since this is a general paradigmatic rule and exceptionless, the two strategies have been considered the same for the sake of coding frames.

Source of the data and generalizations/background of the contributor(s)

Data were collected in the second half of 2023 and in 2024 for the 80 core meanings in ValPaL, plus a few additional ones, through the database Corpus Palaeohibernicum (CorPH). CorPH includes 13123 finite verb occurrences and 5340 non-finite verb occurrences; it comprises ca. 70 texts of different genres and sizes, covering the time-span labelled Early Irish (7th-10th cent.), which lumps together Old and early Middle Irish. Counterparts to verb meanings were selected searching the electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language eDIL. Occasionally, examples were taken from the Würzburg Glosses, or from eDIL, when occurrences were missing in CorPH but the patterns were clearly attested elsewhere, including somewhat later sources (Middle Irish). For the meanings COUGH and HUG, however, only tentative corresponding expressions could be provided.

Morphological glosses are meant to be as simple as possible. Although Old Irish features many proclitics, including the definite article, prepositions, possessives, copular forms, usually spelt together with the stressed word that hosts them and causing initial mutations, the equal sign is used only for a specific kind of clitics, traditionally termed notae augentes or emphatic particles, namely pronominal enclitics that are attached to any host that includes a pronominal index. Angle brackets are used for pronominal object morphemes that appear between a lexical preverb and a verb root.

The contributor, Elisa Roma, is associate professor of General and Celtic Linguistics at the University of Pavia. Acknowledgments are due to Michele Tron (PhD student in Linguistics at the University of Pavia) for proofreading and format corrections.