THE WORD-FORMING MEANING OF THE SECOND STEM OF CAUSATIVE VERBS IN THE OLD ARMENIAN

Abstract

The semantic motivation of compound words is determined by the meanings of the derivational and derivative stems, it is, as a rule, of a synchronic nature, and in some cases the semantic motivation of compound words becomes inexplicable if the vocabulary of a certain stage of language development moves on to the next stage or stages of the language development.

In such cases, the semantic interpretation of words is possible only by identifying the original meanings of these words. As most parts of words in the Old Armenian retained their original meanings, understanding the derivational meanings of the vast stratum of compound words in Old Armenian is impossible within the framework of the modern linguistic thinking. Their derivational meaning can only be understood through historical semantics.

In the present article, we have presented the analysis of the second causative stem of verbs as a word-forming, derivational morpheme in the Old Armenian. The stems of such words are also used as word-forming morphemes.

A whole series of units taken from the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Modern Armenian Language” by E. Aghayan, such as: զայրացուցիչ (outrageous), մեղմացուցիչ (softening), զորացուցիչ (strengthening), գոհացուցիչ (satisfying), հոգնեցուցիչ (exhausting), ելուզակ (robber), մածուցիկ (viscous), կառուցել (to build), հարուցել (to cause), թուլացուցիչ (relaxing), թեթևացուցիչ (alleviating), փլուզել (to destroy), լրացուցիչ (additional), խլացուցիչ (deafening), հանգստացուցիչ, (calming), զայրացուցիչ (outrageous), հարուցիչ (stimulating), հանգուցյալ (deceased), etc. – is the evidence of the fact that the word-forming meaning of the components of these words can only be explained by interpreting the meanings of the morphological stems of the verbs of the Old Armenian language. Thus, in the Old Armenian language the causative is զայրացուցանել (to make angry), its second stem is զայրացոյց (զայրացույց) - now զայրացուցիչ (outrageous), մեղմացուցանել – մեղմացոյց – մեղմացուցիչ, etc.

Thus, the second stem -ոյց (ուց) of the causative verb in the Old Armenian became the main word-forming component for the aforementioned words in the Modern Armenian. The semantic motivation for such words can only be interpreted using the Old Armenian, through the conduction of a word-forming analysis and the identification of the meanings of their main word-forming morphemes.