UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Los Angeles

Derivational Morphology
of the Early Irish Verbal Noun

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A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction

of the requirements for the degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Indo-European Studies
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by

Randall Clark Gordon

2012
 UMI Number: 3497395

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© Copyright by

Randall Clark Gordon

2012
The dissertation of Randall Clark Gordon is approved.

A.^/4/au-^ y Uc. m\
Calvert Watkins

~£>KJC^
Brent Vine

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'{/yUvu^ii
Pamela Munro

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Joseph F. Nagy, Committee Chair
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University of California, Los Angeles

2012

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

SYMBOLS v

ABBREVIATIONS: General Abbreviations vi

Language Abbreviations ix

Source Abbreviations xi

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Verbal Nouns in the Secondary Literature 3

1.2 Target Period and Source Texts 6

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1.3 Towards a Definition of the Old Irish Verbal Noun 13

1.4 The Question of Raising

IE 37

1.5 Other Preliminaries 45

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CHAPTER 2. FORMATION OF VERBS AND VERBAL NOUNS 58

2.1 Formation of Verbs 58

2.2 Formation of Verbal Nouns 77

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CHAPTER 3. VERBAL NOUNS OF PRIMARY VERBS AND

NON-DENOMINATIVE SECONDARY VERBS 139

3.1 Types 1 and 2: Deradical and Deverbtive Formations 140

3.2 Type 5: Suppletive Verbal Nouns 323

CHAPTER 4. VERBAL NOUNS OF DENOMINATIVE VERBS 330

4.1 Type 2: Deverbative Formations 331

4.2 Unclear Formations 433

4.3 Type 3: Source Nouns 442

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 4.4 Type 4: Deadjectival/Denominative Formations 483

4.5 Type 5: Suppletive Verbal Nouns 495

CHAPTER 5. QUESTIONS OF DIACHRONY: THE CELTIC VERBAL NOUN

AND PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN 500

5.1 Verbal Nouns in Celtic 500

5.2 Infinitival Formations in Proto-Indo-European? 503

5.3 The Celtic Evidence 513

5.4 The Implications for Proto-Indo-European 521

BIBLIOGRAPHY 532

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IV
 SYMBOLS

LINGUISTICS A N D GRAMMAR

(before the word) reconstructed 5 is cognate with

historical preform
(after the word) uncertain (...) orthographic representation
reconstructed citation form
A../ phonemic representation
unhistorical (virtual) preform
of an analogical formation I...I morphemic representation

false output cited for the sake C palatalized consonant

of argument or illustration
primary stress
becomes, yields regularly
secondary stress

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> does not yield
medial syncope
continues, descends from
regularly
IE f-> corresponding verb / verbal
noun
< does not descend from
lenites a following initial
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is analogically replaced by consonant

analogically replaces nasalizes a following initial

consonant, or prefixes n- to a
-> is the morphological basis of following initial vowel
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<- is morphologically derived does not lenite a following

from initial consonant, or prefixes
Ih-I to a following initial vowel

PHONETIC CLASSES

C any consonant H any laryngeal

V any vowel I any glide or high vowel

T any stop R any resonant

D any dental obstruent L any liquid

G any guttural obstruent N any nasal

K any voiceless guttural obstruent

 ABBREVIATIONS

GENERAL ABBREVIATIONS

abl. ablative deut. deuterotonic

abs. absolute do. (ditto) same as previous

abstr. abstract ed. edited; edition

ace. accusative ed.n. editor's note

ad fin. (adfinem) near the end ed(s). editor(s)

adj., Adj adjective esp. especially

adv. adverb ex(x). example(s)

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agric. agricultural fern., [f.] feminine

Anm. (Anmerkung) note IE fig- figurative(ly)

aor. aorist fn(n). footnote(s)

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arch. archaic fol. folio

athem. athematic forthc. forthcoming

c. circa fut. future

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[c] common gender gen. genitive

caus. causative gl- glossing

cent. century id. (idem) same as previous

ch(s.) chapter(s) idiom. idiomatic

coll. collective ifx. infixed

conj. conjunct ind., indie.. indicative

cp. compare inf. infinitive

cpd(s). compound(s) ins. instrumental

dat. dative intens. intensive

VI
interrog. interrogative pel. particle

intr. intransitive perf. perfect

ipf. imperfect perh. perhaps

ips. impersonal pi. plural

ipv. imperative PN(N) personal namef s")

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iter. iterative poet. poetic

1 line ppl. past participle

leg. legal; (legendum) to be read ppp. past passive participle

lit. literature; literal(ly) pres. present

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LN(N) local name(s) pret. preterite

loc. locative prol. prologue

loc. cit.
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(loco citato) in the place cited pron. pronoun

masc, [m.] masculine prot. prototonic

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mg. meaning rec. recension

n. note refs. references

N noun rel. relative

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narr. narrative rev. revised; reverse

n e u t , [n.] neuter s. strong

nom. nominative sb. somebody

obi. oblique sec. secondary

op. cit. (opere citato) inL the work cited sfx. suffixed

part. participle s singular

g-
pass. passive stat. stative

p.c. personal communication sth. something

Vll
subjunctive tr(s). translator(s)

supine w. weak; with

suppletive; supplement vb.,V verb

(sub voce/ibus) under the vgl. (vergleiche) compare

headword(s)
v.l. (varia lectio) variant reading
under the headwords
vn v VN verbal noun
somewhere
vol(s). volume(s)
transitive; translating
vs. versus

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Vlll
 LANGUAGE ABBREVIATIONS

Alb. Albanian Gr. Greek

Arg. Argolic Hesych. Hesychius

Arm. Armenian Hitt. Hittite

Av. Avestan Horn. Homeric

Bret. Breton Ion. Ionic

Cat. Catalan Khot. Khotanese

Co. Cornish Lat. Latin

Croat. Croatian Latv. Latvian

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CS Church Slavonic Lith. Lithuanian

Cypr. Cypriot IE LLat. Late Latin

Cz. Czech LPBr. Late Proto-British

Delph. Delphian MBret. Middle Breton

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Dor. Doric MCo. Middle Cornish

Du. Dutch MHG Middle High German

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EMI Early Modern Irish MIr. Middle Irish

EMW Early Modern Welsh MLG Middle Low German

Eng. English MoBret. Modern Breton

EOIr. Early Old Irish MoE Modern English

EPAlb. Early Proto-Albanian MoG Modern German

EPBr. Early Proto-British Molr. Modern Irish

Finn. Finnish MoRu. Modern Russian

GAv. Gathic Avestan MoW Modern Welsh

Go. Gothic MSogd. Manichean Sogdian

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MW Middle Welsh PIE Proto-Indo-European

Myc. Mycenaean Pllr. Proto-Indo-Iranian

Norw. Norwegian PIran. Proto-Iranian

OAtt. Old Attic Prlr. Primitive Irish

OBret. Old Breton Pit. Proto-Italic

OCo. Old Cornish PSab. Proto-Sabellic

OCS Old Church Slavonic PSlav. Proto-Slavic

OE Old English Ru. Russian

OFr. Old French Rum. Rumanian

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OFris. Old Frisian Sc. Scots (English)

OHG Old High German ScGael. Scottish Gaelic

Olr. Old Irish

IE SCr. Serbo-Croatian

OLat. Old Latin Skt. Classical Sanskrit

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ON Old Norse Slav. Slavic

OPers. Old Persian Span. Spanish

OPru. Old Prussian SPic. South Picene

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ORu. Old Russian Toch. Tocharian

OS Old Saxon Umbr. Umbrian

Osc. Oscan Vann. Vannetais

OW Old Welsh Ved. Vedic Sanskrit

PArm. Proto-Armenian VLat. Vulgar Latin

PBr. Proto-British W Welsh

PCelt. Proto-Celtic WGmc. West Germanic

PGmc. Proto-Germanic YAv. Younger Avestan

 SOURCE ABBREVIATIONS

AC Apgitir Chrdbaid "The Alphabet of Piety' (Hull 1968).

Aisl. Aislinge Meic Conglinne 'The Vision of MacConglinne' (Meyer 1892).

AM Audacht Morainn 'The Testament of Morann' (Kelly 1976).

Arm. Book of Armagh (Thes. I, 494-98; II, 238-43).

AU Annals of Ulster (Annala Uladh) (Hennessy & Mac Carthy 1887-1901).

Aul. Aulularia of Plautus.

Auraic. Auraicept na n-Eces 'The Scholars' Primer' (Calder 1917).

Bacch. Bacchides of Plautus.

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BCr. Glosses on Bede (Carlsruhe) (Thes. II, 10-30).

Bl. Poems of Blathmac (Carney 1964: 1-88).

IE
BNT1 Bretha Nemed (Toisech) 'Judgments of Privileged Ones (First)', first third
(Breatnach 1989).
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BNT2 Bretha Nemed (Toisech) 'Judgments of Privileged Ones (First)', second third

(Breatnach 1987: 2 0 ^ 2 ) .

Bor. Borama 'Tribute' (Stokes 1892b).

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Bot. Botorrita bronze plaques (MLHIV).

Cambr. Cambrai Homily (Thes. II, 244-47).

CCC 1 Compert Con Chulainn 'The Conception of Cu Chulainn', recension 1

(Thurneysen 1912: 31-41).
CCC 2 Compert Con Chulainn "The Conception of Cu Chulainn', recension 2
(Windisch 1880:140-42; also called Feis Tige Becfoltaig 'Passing of the Night
at Becfoltach's House', Meyer 1905b: 500-4).

CCCG A Concise Comparative Celtic Grammar (Lewis & Pedersen 1937/1961).

CDS Cin Dromma Snechta (Thurneysen 1912: 30; 1921:1,15-18).

CG Crith Gablach 'Branched Purchase' (Binchy 1941).

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CIH Corpus Iuris Hibernici (Binchy 1978).

CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (V = Mommsen 1872-1877).

Civ.Dei De Civitate Dei of St. Augustine.

Contrib. Contributions to Irish Lexicography (Meyer 1906).

CP The Caldron ofPoesv CBreatnach 1981).

CRR Cath Ruis na Rig for Boinn 'Battle of Ross na Rig on the Boyne' (Hogan 1892).

DD Dan De (McKenna 1922).

DELG Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue grecque (Chantraine 1968/1980).

DGVB Dictionnaire des gloses en vieux breton (Fleuriot 1964 = 1985 vol. 1).

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DIL Dictionary of the Irish Language.

EC Echtrae Chonnlai "The Expedition of Connlae' (McCone 2000).

EDPC
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Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Matasovic 2009).

Eg. 88 British Library MS Egerton 88.

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Eg. 1782 British Library MS Egerton 1782.

EIEC Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (Mallory & Adams 1997).

EIV The Early Irish Verb (McCone 1997).

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Etym. Etymologiae of Isadore of Seville.

EWAia Etymologisches Worterbuch des Altindoarischen (Mayrhofer 1986-2001).

FB Fled Bricrend 'The Feast of Bricriu' (Henderson 1899).

FBM First Battle of Moytura (Fraser 1915).

Fel. Felire Oengusso Cell De 'The Martyology of Oengus the Culdee' (Stokes
1905b).

FEW Franzosisches etymologisches Worterbuch (Wartburg 1922-2002).

FF Foras Focul 'Knowledge of Vocables' (Stokes 1891: 8-22).

FM Annals of the Four Masters (Annala na gCeithre Mhaistri) (O'Donovan 1856).

xii
GOI A Grammar of Old Irish (Thurneysen 1946).

GMW A Grammar of Middle Welsh (D. S. Evans 1970).

GPC Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru: A Dictionary of the Welsh Language (Thomas et al.
1967-2002).

GPH Glossarium Palaeo-hibernicum (Ascoli 1888-1907).

Geogr. Geographia of Ptolemy.

HB Hail Brigit (Meyer 1912).

Hib.Min. Hibernica Minora (Meyer 1894).

Hist.Eccl. Historia Ecclesiastica of Socrates of Constantinople.

Hy.Broc. Broccan's Hymn (Irish hymn V from the Liber Hymnorum) (Thes. II, 327-^9).

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Hy.Sanc. Sanctan's Hymn (Irish hymn VI from the Liber Hymnorum) (Thes. II, 350-63).

IB Imram Brain 'The Sea-Voyage of Bran' (Meyer 1895).

IE
IDB Immacallam in Druad Brain -\ inna Banfdtho Febuil 'The Conversation of Bran's
Druid and Febul's Prophetess' (Carey 2002: 71-85).
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IEW Indogermanisches etymologisches Worterbuch (Pokorny 1959/1989).

IGT Decl. Irish Grammatical Tracts: II. Declension (Bergin 1916-1928).

II. Iliad of Homer.

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KBo Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazkoi.

KEWA Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Worterbuch des Altindischen (Mayrhofer 1953-

1980).

KPV Die keltischen Primarverben (Schumacher 2004).

Laud 610 Oxford University, Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 610.

LB An Leabhar Breac 'The Speckled Book', Royal Irish Academy MS 23 P 16.

LEIA Lexique etymologique de I'irlandais ancien (Vendryes et al. 1959-).

Lev. Leviticus.

LG The Laud Genealogies and Tribal Histories (Meyer 1912c).

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LHEB Language and History in Early Britain (Jackson 1953).

LEV2 Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben (Rix & Kiimmel 2001).

LL Lebor Laignech 'The Book of Leinster', Trinity College Dublin MS 1339.

LWG A Lexicon of the Old Irish Glosses in the WUrzburg Manuscript of the Epistles of
St. Paul (Kavanagh & Wodtko 2001).

LU Lebor na hllidre 'Book of the Dun Cow', Royal Irish Academy MS 23 E 25.

Ml. Milan glosses on the Psalms (Thes. I, 7-483).

MLH Monumenta Linguarum Hispanicarum (IV = Untermann & Wodtko 1997).

Mon.Tall. Monastery of Tallaght (E. Gwynn & Purton 1911).

NIL Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon (Wodtko et al. 2008).

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O'C O'Curry Law Transcripts.

O'Cl. O'Clery's Irish Glossary (Miller 1879-1883).

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O'D O'Donovan Law Transcripts.
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OCC Oracio Colum Cille .cc. (Meyer 1908: 258).

OIPG Old-Irish Paradigms and Selections from the Old-Irish Glosses (Strachan &
Bergin 1949)

PH Passions and Homilies from Leabhar Breac (Atkinson 1887).

PR

Rawl. B. 502 Oxford University, Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson B. 502.

Rawl. B. 512 Oxford University, Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson B. 512.

RIA 3 B 23 Royal Irish Academy MS 3 B 23.

RIA 23 N 10 Royal Irish Academy MS 23 N 10 (ohm Betham 145).

RIA D IV 2 Royal Irish Academy MS D IV 2 (olim Stowe 992).

RIG Recueil des Inscriptions Gauloises (II/l = Lejeune 1988; III = Duval & Pinault
1986).

RV Rg-Veda.

San.Corm. Sanas Cormaic 'Cormac's Glossary' from YBL (Meyer 1912b).

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SFM Seel as-a-mberar eombad he Find mac Cumaill Mongan 'A Story from Which It Is
Inferred that Mongan Was Find mac Cumaill' (White 2006:116-60).

Sg. Saint Gall glosses on Priscian (Thes. II, 49-224).

SMMD Scela Mucce Meic Datho 'Tidings of Mac Datho's Pig' (Thurneysen 1935).

SR Saltair na Rann 'The Psalter of Quatrains' (Stokes 1883).

St.M Stowe Missal (Thes. II, 250-255, 284).

TAilb. Tochmarc Ailbe (Thurneysen 1921c).

TB In Tenga Bithnua 'The Ever-New Tongue' (Carey 2009).

TBC1 Tain Bo Cuailnge 'The Cattle-Raid of Cooley', rec. 1 (C. O'Rahilly 1976).

TBDD1 Togail Bruidne Da Derga 'The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel', rec. 1

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(Thurneysen 1912: 27-28).

TCD H 2.15A Trinity College Dublin MS 1316 (olim H 2.15A).

IE
TCD H 3.18 Trinity College Dublin MS 1337 (olim H 3.18).

TCD H 4.22 Trinity College Dublin MS 1363 (olim H 4.22).

EV
TecCorm. Teeosca Cormaic 'The Instructions of Cormac' (Meyer 1909).

Thes. Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (Stokes & Strachan 1901-1910).

Trip.12"3 Tripartite Life of Patrick (Bethu Phdtraic), parts 1-2-3 (Mulchrone 1939).
PR

TT Togail Troi 'The Destruction of Troy' (Stokes 1881).

US Urkeltischer Sprachschaiz (Stokes 1894).

VKG Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen (Pedersen 1909-1913).

Vulg. Vulgate.

Wb. Wiirzburg glosses on the Pauline Epistles (Thes. I, 499-714).

WG A Welsh Grammar (Morris-Jones 1913).

Wortk. Zur keltischen Wortkunde (Meyer 1912-1921).

YBL Yellow Book of Lecan, Trinity College Dublin MS 1318.

xv
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing a dissertation is a long journey that cannot be accomplished alone; I am pleased

to recognize so many who have helped me to arrive successfully at this point.

Special thanks go to my advisor, Joseph Nagy, whose guidance, friendship, and

unfailing expressions of confidence — not only through the dissertation process, but over

the course of my entire graduate career — have led me at last to this achievement. I am

also greatly indebted to the other members of my committee: Cal Watkins, Brent Vine,

and Pam Munro, whose keen suggestions and criticisms have steered me safely away

from numerous pitfalls, and whose encouragement and praise have been just as valuable.

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It has been an honor to study under all of my professors. In addition to those

just mentioned, many other eminent scholars, each in his or her own unique way, have
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left their indelible mark on my development as a student of language: Raimo Anttila,

Jesse Byock, Bruce Hayes, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Stephanie Jamison, Donka Minkova, and
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Chris Stevens, to name a few. I also salute Craig Melchert, whose capable leadership has

raised the already highly esteemed UCLA IES program to even greater heights, always
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going out of his way to make sure we students are well supplied both academically and

financially. I only regret that I never had the opportunity to take any of his classes.

Finally, I would be negligent if I did not thank my family and friends outside of

the university for always being there. Above all, I offer my deepest gratitude to my

wife, Wendy, and my stepson, Ariel, who for so many years — and always with the

utmost graciousness and good cheer — have tiptoed around my books and papers,

listened politely as a captive audience to my frequent soliloquies on all matters

linguistic, and put u p with a husband and father who was too often absent even while

present. Their support and belief in me have meant more than I can express.

xvi
 VITA

June 23,1966 Born, Grand Junction, Colorado

1984-1985 Chancellor's Scholarship

Ambassador University
Pasadena, California

1987-1988 President, French Club

Ambassador University
Pasadena, California

1988 Bachelor of Arts, Theology

With Highest Distinction
Ambassador University
Pasadena, California

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2002, 2004 Reader, Classics Department: Origins and Nature of English
Vocabulary
University of California, Los Angeles
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2004-2005 Graduate Research Mentorship
University of California, Los Angeles
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2006-2009 Instructional Technology Consultant
UCLA Center for Digital Humanities
Los Angeles, California

2007 Candidate of Philosophy

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Program in Indo-European Studies

University of California, Los Angeles

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

Gordon, Randall. 2010. "Beating, Hacking, and Spitting: Germanic Contributions to the
Question of Aerostatic d-Presents in Proto-Indo-European." Historische Sprach-
forschung 123: 258-96.

—. 2010b. "Verbal Arguments and the Verbal Noun in Old Irish." Paper presented
at the 22nd Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, November 5, 2010, Los
Angeles, California.

—. 2011. "Verbal Arguments and the Verbal Noun in Old Irish." In Proceedings of the
22nd Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, Stephanie W. Jamison, H. Craig
Melchert, and Brent Vine (eds.), pp. 33-52. Bremen: Hempen.

xvii
 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Derivational Morphology
of the Early Irish Verbal Noun

by

Randall Clark Gordon

Doctor of Philosophy in Indo-European Studies

University of California, Los Angeles, 2012

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Professor Joseph F. Nagy, Chair

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As is well known, the Insular Celtic languages (Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Breton and the
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now-extinct Manx and Cornish) utilize a class of verbal abstracts known as "verbal

nouns" to perform the functions that are fulfilled in other Indo-European languages by
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infinitives and supines. Yet in many ways the Celtic verbal noun remains somewhat of

an enigma. The purpose of the present study is to examine the historical morphology of

the verbal noun in the earliest Celtic language for which we have a meaningful

literature, namely Old Irish, in order (1) to distinguish the derivational patterns that lie

behind their multifarious formations, and (2) to clarify the place of the Celtic verbal

noun within the development of Indo-European. Twenty-six early Old Irish texts were

perused for their verbal nouns, dating from the seventh century through the first half of

the eighth (some in contemporary manuscripts, others existing only in later copies) and

covering a range of genres including textual glosses, prose, poetry, and law. The almost

xviii
650 tokens of verbal nouns that emerged from this search were used as the basis for the

analysis and conclusions of the study.

In addressing the problem of defining the Old Irish verbal noun, a multifaceted

approach is advocated in order to capture the systemic character of the verbal noun,

taking into consideration the interplay of morphological, semantic, and syntactic factors.

It is concluded that the verbal noun, while possessing limited verbal features, is not

infinitival in Old Irish; it is primarily and fundamentally a substantive, distinguishable

from an ordinary abstract only in certain aspects that depend on the special associative

relationship it has with its verb.

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The body of the study concentrates on morphological concerns. An overview of

the rather complicated system of Old Irish verbal compounding is presented first, as this
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is also reflected in the verbal nouns; and a discussion of verbal-noun formation follows.

Five types of verbal nouns can be discerned in Old Irish, based on the derivational
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relationship each bears to its verb: 1. deradical formations corresponding to primary

verbs; 2. deverbative formations, mostly from secondary verbs; 3. source nouns of

denominative verbs; 4. deadjectival formations to cognate factitive verbs (also

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denominative formations to cognate denominative verbs); and 5. suppletive verbal

nouns. The more than two dozen formative suffixes that characterize the derived verbal

nouns have unmistakable Indo-European origins; each of these is examined briefly.

In the exposition of the data, the morphological details of all the verbal nouns

that make up this study, organized according to the verbal root with which they are

associated, are systematically analyzed in accordance with the above framework. The

accompanying commentary covers sundry issues of etymology, historical phonology,

morphology, semantics, and any other details of interest elicited by the material.

The concluding chapter considers the placement of the Celtic verbal noun within

xix
the wider Indo-European context in the light of these findings. While some previous

studies have posited the existence of infinitival formations in the Indo-European proto-

language and have concluded that the verbal noun of the Insular Celtic languages must

be an innovation, it is argued here that the broad alignment of primary verbal nouns

with primary verbs and secondary verbal nouns with secondary verbs, which is

systematic in Old Irish, is best explained in terms of inheritance. This implies that Proto-

Indo-European itself possessed only verbal nouns, and that the infinitival formations of

the daughter languages must have arisen independently.

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 CHAPTER 1.

INTRODUCTION.

The Insular Celtic languages display a number of linguistic features that are, from an

Indo-European point of view, rather extraordinary. Some of these, such as VSO word

order and the dichotomy between absolute and conjunct verbal endings, have been, and

continue to be, examined extensively in the literature. But others, such as the verbal-

noun system, have received far less attention. It may be taken as axiomatic that the

comparative method is a reliable tool only insofar as the languages and features being

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compared are accurately understood. The purpose of the present study, therefore, is to

further our understanding of the Celtic verbal noun by documenting and analyzing the
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derivational patterns that underlie this entity in the earliest Celtic language for which we

have a sizable enough literature to construct a relatively complete picture. That

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language is, of course, Old Irish.

Verbal nouns are not, in and of themselves, unusual in the world's languages.

Many languages make widespread use of verbal nominalizations to express the content
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of a verb phrase in non-verbal syntactic constructions such as the nominal complement

of a verb. 1 What makes the Celtic verbal noun remarkable is its unique situation in Indo-

European. Whereas all the other known Indo-European languages have developed

specialized non-finite verbals — infinitives, supines, and gerunds — to fulfill such roles,

1
For example, in the English sentence The destruction of the city by an earthquake occurred at midnight, the
noun phrase the destruction of the city by an earthquake expresses the same idea as the clause "an
earthquake destroyed the city" but functions syntactically as subject of the verb occurred. For a
typological survey of such constructions in the world's languages, see Koprjevskaja-Tamm (2011),
where they are termed "action nominal constructions."

1
the Celtic languages 2 exclusively employ abstract nouns. Only early Indo-Iranian, best

exemplified by Vedic, displays anything even remotely similar, with its wide assortment

of infinitives, some of which are hard to distinguish from case forms of ordinary verbal

abstracts; but even this system is decidedly more verbal in nature than that of Celtic. We

shall have more to say on this matter in Chapter 5.

The first order of business in the examination of our subject will be to define

exactly what constitutes a "verbal noun." This rather vexed question has been

addressed in various ways in the literature, but most approaches, by considering only

one or two chief characteristics, have failed to embrace the scope of its character. We

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will take a more inclusive approach in this study, weighing the range of morphological,

semantic, and syntactic factors that bear upon the issue and setting forth a series of
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criteria by which it may be gauged whether a given nomen actionis or other abstract noun

is capable of fulfilling the special role of a verbal noun. We will close this introductory
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chapter with a brief description of the early Old Irish texts that make up our corpus and,

finally, some comments on Old Irish phonology and orthography.

The second chapter will lay out the morphological background of our subject,
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starting with a sketch of the structure of the Insular Celtic verbal complex, followed by a

description of the verbal-noun formations attested in our Old Irish corpus, and finishing

with a classification of the derivational relationships that exist between the verbal nouns

and their verbs.

Chapters 3 and 4 comprise the body of the work. In them we will examine the

morphological properties of all the verbal nouns that occur in our representative corpus;

Chapter 3 treats the verbal nouns of primary verbs, Chapter 4 the verbal nouns of

With the possible exception of Celtiberian; see § 5.1.