The Category of Voice in the Chuvash Language

In traditional Chuvash linguistics, the voices of a verb have not been recently singled out as a separate inflectional category. The forms expressing such meanings have special features; the main one is the inability of corresponding affixes to combine with all verbs. Thus they are referred to the sphere of word formation. The problem of determining the grammatical status of these forms is relevant because of the necessity to establish the correct composition of grammatical forms and categories of the verb in the Chuvash language. The article deals with a brief history of verb forms’ study with voice meanings in the Chuvash linguistics and they are compared with similar forms in other Turkic languages. According to the author, the application of functional-semantic approach to solve complex grammatical questions, in particularly the content side of language sign is of primary in the light of the development of verb morphology research in modern Russian Turkology. Due to this the grammatical status determination of a form should be considered through the semantic factor. Analyzing the voices it is necessary to establish either the corresponding affix attachment forms a new word or it serves to change the word form. Since the meanings of the voice are stated to convey various subject-object relations, the author concludes that these forms do not form a new word as the action remains unchanged. Consequently, there is a word-formation process and these forms constitute the word-formation category of the verb.