A Study On Tibetan Compound Verbs

Based on the language evolution and previous studies,this paper takes written Tibetan as the research object to analyze the emergence and development,word-formation and grammatical characteristics of Tibetan compound verbs.It is believed that the compound form of Tibetan verbs had emerged as a vernacular pattern in the ancient Tibetan language,but there has been less focus on it for its small occurrence possibility and weak productivity.However,due to the simplification of the internal phonetic structures and language contact with neighboring ethnic groups,the usage of compound verbs in the language has increased,and a new structure of compound verbs has emerged.Tibetan compound verbs mainly consist of a compounded root and an affix Namely,the compounded root,composed of two roots(one of them must be a verbal root),functions as a gerund,and then the affix is attached to the gerund,which contributes to the formation of a Tibetan compound verb functioning as a predicate.In addition,its grammatical category is subject to the grammatical rules of Tibetan verbs,which mainly embodied in the three-time morphological changes,transitivity and intransitivity,and autonomy and non-autonomy of its additional elements.Moreover,the current study further analyses a small number of compound verbs which do not conform to the normal word formation of Tibetan verbs,and holds that the emergence of those compound verbs is a result of language contact.