Ever since Streitberg's formulation of the perfectivizing function of the preverb
ga-in Gothic many counterclaims have been proposed. But unfortunately they have been discussed in the bed of Procrustes, so the problem with the Gothic
ga-remains to be solved. I think the following three things would be necessary in order to clarify the function of this controversial morpheme: first, an analysis of all Gothic ga-compounds and corresponding simplexes on the basis of their counterparts in Greek; second, an explanation of how
ga-, which originally meant ‘together’, changed to the marker of perfective aspect; third, a diachronic analysis of the aspectual system in Germanic languages.
Goth.
ga-can be assumed to be cognate with Lat.
com- on several phonological and semantic grounds. Since Gothic had no preposition corresponding to Lat.
cum which had concrete meaning ‘together’,
ga-underwent great changes in its function.
Extensive juxtapositions of ga-compounds along with corresponding simplexes make it clear that in some cases
ga -changes the lexical meaning of the simplex: e. g. gaggan ‘go’ vs. ga-gaggan ‘go together’; jiukan ‘fight’ vs. ga-jiukan ‘conquer’. In the former example
ga -preserves its original meaning but in the latter
ga -has given perfective meaning to the simplex.
Apart from its lexical relevance
ga -acquired the function of expressing the perfective aspect as a grammatical category, but the function is not so systematic as Streitberg believed. According to my survey,
ga -stands as a translation of almost any Greek preverb though other Gothic preverbs rather regularly render specific preverbs of the other language. About 19 per cent of all the ga-compounds are used to translate various Greek compound verbs. This fact shows that
ga -almost lost its original meaning, and intensifying function which is very common in Greek preverbs can be ascribed to
ga-. The function of intensifying the meaning of the verb was connected with that of perfectivizing the action and then
ga -became the marker of perfective aspect. About 80 per cent of
ga -compounds (except lexically relevant
ga -and intensifying
ga-) are used to translate the Greek forms expressing ‘perfective’. But in our text we can find the ga-compounds which correspond to the imperfective forms in Greek and have no special meaning.
The arguments presented above point to the conclusion that the meaning and the function of Goth. preverb
ga -underwent the following change.
association → intensifier → marker of perfective aspect → meaningless
↓
change in lexical meaning
The reason why
ga -weakened its perfectivizing function must be sought in the fact that periphrastic forms expressing ‘imperfective’ and ‘perfect’ was found in our Gothic text. That the equivalents of
ga -in the subsequent development of the surviving Germanic languages nearly disappeared and periphrastic forms gradually came into productive use is adduced as further confirmation of this view.
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