The project of a lexicon of Neo-Aramaic verbs

A group of scholars from Saint Petersburg and Moscow is working on a Lexicon of Neo-Aramaic verbs. The purpose of the lexicon is to systematise data on the structure of the verb systems of various North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic varieties. The dictionary now contains information on Christian Urmi, Nudez, Mahmudi, and Bohtan idioms. The dictionary is being created to achieve the following goals: (1) documentation of Neo-Aramaic varieties, (2) intragroup comparison of the verb systems of these varieties, and (3) comparison of Neo-Aramaic data with the predictions of general linguistic theories of verb semantics. Documentation is necessary because all the varieties under study are endangered and poorly described. By comparing the verb systems of several closely related varieties, it is possible to determine which features of the verb systems are inherited from a common ancestor and which are the result of parallel development. The discussion of the Neo-Aramaic data from a typological perspective contributes to general linguistic theory. The layout of the Lexicon of Neo-Aramaic verbs has been designed according to the ideas of modern general semantics about the structure of verb meaning. The lexicon entry has the following blocks: general information, morphology, valency pattern and actionality. This allows us to study the interaction of verbal actionality and argument structure, as well as their interaction with derivational morphology. In addition, examples of the use of each lexeme in a corpus of spoken texts are given. Data for the lexicon were collected using the method of elicitation while working with speakers who live in the Assyrian diasporas in Russia and Armenia. Data from existing dictionaries were also used. The lexicon already contains basic information on more than 1800 verbs of Christian Urmi, and for some of them (about 100 verbs) a full description is available, including information on argument structure and actionality. For other varieties, only general information on 120 lexemes is available so far. The lexicon is being actively enriched now. Currently, the dictionary exists as a table in the Excel editor, but a web interface is being developed in parallel, after completion of which the Lexicon of Neo-Aramaic verbs will be made publicly available. The information on the lexicon's online page will be available in Russian and English for the convenience of a wide range of users, including both researchers and speakers of Neo-Aramaic languages. This article provides general information about Neo-Aramaic idioms and their areas of distribution, discusses the theoretical prerequisites for the creation of the lexicon, proposes the layout of the dictionary entries, and describes the procedure for enriching the dictionary. I would like to thank the speakers of the Neo-Aramaic languages who consulted me for their responsiveness, and my colleagues, especially Yu. Koryakov, A. Russkikh and E. Zabelina, for their valuable comments on the article and assistance in collecting data for the lexicon.

Keywords

Authors

References