Shawn
Community Tutor
Gaeilge: The Names of Verb Types / Verb Constructions In English, we talk about prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs. Are there specific names for the following types of verbs in Irish? 1. rud a bheith agat : to have something I have a dog. = Tá madra agam. ** English subject = Irish prepositional phrase ** English direct object = Irish subject 2. cónaí a bheith ort : to live / dwell somewhere I live in Montague. = Tá mé in mo chónaí i Montague. ** English Subject = Irish Subject ** Irish verb has a fragment which consists of chónaí taking a possessive adjective + the preposition i 3. rud a bheith i gceist agat a dhéanamh : to plan to do something I plan to go fishing on Saturday. = Tá sé i gceist agam dul ag iascaireacht Dé Sathairn. ** English Subject = Irish prepositional phrase ** The Irish verb takes sé as its subject and is inflected for number and person with that. ** The Irish verb also has the fragment "i gceist". ** The English direct object which is an infinitive is an inverted verbal noun construct in Irish.Perhaps #1 could be called a prepositional verb?
Dec 6, 2016 9:06 PM
Answers · 1
I think you're trying to make Irish constructions fit English patterns. I would say that the examples you give are cases of the verb "bí" (the substantive verb) used with various prepositional phrases, but the fact that they would all be translated into English with a specific verb is leading you to read too much into the relationship between substantive verb and prepositional phrase. These prepositional phrases can, moreover, be used without the substantive verb, which demonstrates that they are separate entities within the sentence ("cónaí" and "i gceist" can't be considered fragments of the verb): "Is cuma liom agam nó uaim é" = "I don't care if I have it or not"; "Tháinig sé i gceist an rachaimis a iascaireacht nó nach rachaimis" = "The question arose as to whether or not we'd go fishing"; "Tá sé beo bocht agus gan cónaí air ach i mbothán suarach" = "He was living in poverty with no dwelling but a shabby hut". Having said that, the construction "Tá mé i mo chónaí" is a special case, it may be called a stative construction and is also used with other "stative" verbs (luigh, seas, suigh) as well as certain nouns to indicate an ongoing state rather than an action: tá mé i mo shuí/i mo sheasamh/i mo luí (not *tá mé ag suí, etc. which would indicate an action rather than a state); tá mé i mo mhac léinn, etc. (by the way, "cónaí a bheith ort" is a different construction to "bheith i do chónaí", although the meaning is much the same). Phrasal verbs do exist in Irish though, some examples would be "lig ort" = "to pretend"; "cuir síos ar" = to describe"; "tabhair amach" = "to tell off, scold" ("lig mé orm go raibh mé tinn", "chuir mé síos ar an duine a chonaic mé", "thug mo mhamaí amach nuair a tháinig mé abhaile gan bhróga".
December 7, 2016
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