Abstract. The paper presents and evaluates various NLP tools that have been created using the open source library HFST-Helsinki FiniteState Technology and outlines the minimal extensions that this has required to a pure finite-state system. In particular, the paper describes an implementation and application of Pmatch presented by Karttunen at SFCM 2011.
A survey of Saami *-(e̮)hče̮ frequentative verbs is made based on dictionary data from all Saami languages. The analysis of their base verbs shows that in most of the languages, the frequentative derivatives are not restricted to *ē-stem bases as in North Saami; specifically in Skolt and Kildin Saami, the derivational type seems to be productive on *e̮- and *ō-stems as well.
The purpose of this article is twofold: first, to give an overview of the morphological and areal variation of the Saami deverbal inchoative suffixes (North Saami -goahti- and -šgoahti-), and second, to give an updated account of the history of said suffixes. To achieve the latter, a critical survey is made of previous literature dealing with these Saami suffixes as well as the phonetically and semantically similar derivational suffixes in Mordvin (Erzya -kado-, -gado-) and in Veps and Ludic (-gande-, -škande- ~ -gade-, -škade-). Several kinds of etymological cognate or loan relations between these suffixes have been posited. In the present paper, however, it is argued that the Saami -goahti- suffix is not related to other Uralic suffixes, but instead results from the affixation of an independent verb (North Saami boahtit ‘to come’). The -š- element attaching to the suffix is explained as a remnant of another derivational suffix still found as an independent inchoative marker -ahtja- present from South Saami up to Lule Saami.
The Saami languages utilize a long-established progressive construction based on the inflected copula verb and the so-called action essive form of the main verb, for example North Saami lea dahkamin ‘is doing’ of dahkat ‘to do’. The present paper examines an apparently innovative construction that has not been described before, similarly appearing in a progressive function but based on the inflected copula and the locative case form of the deverbal noun in -u, for example lea jođus ‘is going’ of johtit ‘to travel, go, be in motion’. The main data source used is the SIKOR corpus, containing contemporary written language material in several Saami languages; supplementary sources of both written and oral material and of different ages are used as well. The data reveals that the new construction is frequently used of the verb johtit ‘to travel, go’ in modern North Saami (leat jođus) and fairly known in Inari Saami, too (leđe joođoost). It is used more rarely of the verb mannat ‘to go’ in North Saami (leat manus); from Inari Saami there is only a single attestation of this verb in older data. Other verbs are not observed to be used in a similar construction, and the innovation seems to be confined to the contemporary use of these two Saami languages. It is argued that there are both language-internal and external factors that have contributed to the emergence of the leat jođus construction, including the global tendency of progressives to develop out of locative constructions and most importantly the model of the contact language Finnish, where a structurally identical deverbal noun based progressive construction is commonly used of the most frequent motion verbs (olla menossa ~ tulossa ~ lähdössä of mennä ‘to go’, tulla ‘to come’, lähteä ‘to depart’).
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