Verbeke Alignment and Ergativity in New Indo-Aryan Languages

1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-3-11-029267-1
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 51, 331 Seiten

Reihe: Empirical Approaches to Language Typology [EALT]ISSN

The volume investigates the different alignment patterns in Indo-Aryan and shows that the variation of alignment patterns in Indo-Aryan goes beyond the opposition between accusativity and ergativity. The book includes a thorough discussion of the concepts and terminology relating to alignment patterns.The study draws extensively on new language data from Indo-Aryan. It includes discussions of examples taken from Hindi, Sanskrit, Apabhramsa, Asamiya, Bangla, Oriya, the Bihari languages, Nepali, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Siraiki, Poguli, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marwari, Harauti, the Hindi varieties, and Shina. The volume offers a comprehensive overview of various alignment patterns in Indo-Aryan based on a wide range of data. By focusing on lesser known Indo-Aryan languages, the study questions the central position of Hindi-Urdu in the research on ergativity. Each language is treated in its own right, with a focus on language-specific data and analyses, rather than relying on a notional format that starts with pre-established linguistic concepts. In accordance with this methodology, much attention is paid to "indirect" connections between ergative constructions and other syntactic and semantic patterns in the various languages.

Zielgruppe

Institutional Libraries, Students and Researchers of Language Typology, Indo-European Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Syntax-Semantics Interface

Autoren/Hrsg.

Verbeke, Saartje

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Historische & Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Einzelne Sprachen & Sprachfamilien
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Acknowledgments;9
2;List of Abbreviations;10
3;Introduction;13
4;1 Theoretical preliminaries;20
4.1;1.1 Ergativity from a functional and typological perspective;20
4.1.1;1.1.1 Ergativity: the standard functional-typological definition;21
4.1.2;1.1.2 Core arguments and grammatical relations;25
4.1.2.1;1.1.2.1 The subject issue;26
4.1.2.2;1.1.2.2 Grammatical relations;33
4.1.2.3;1.1.2.3 Case;40
4.1.2.4;1.1.2.4 Verb agreement;44
4.1.3;1.1.3 Alignment splits based on referential hierarchies;46
4.1.3.1;1.1.3.1 Silverstein’s hierarchy;47
4.1.3.2;1.1.3.2 Differential object marking: the markedness discussion;48
4.1.3.3;1.1.3.3 Differential subject marking;51
4.1.4;1.1.4 Tense/Aspect/Mood and head- vs. dependent-marking;53
4.1.4.1;1.1.4.1 Tense/Aspect/Mood split;53
4.1.4.2;1.1.4.2 Case marking and verb agreement;54
4.2;1.2 Direct and indirect motivations of ergativity;56
4.2.1;1.2.1 Ergativity in discourse-functional and cognitive linguistics;58
4.2.1.1;1.2.1.1 Du Bois: “The discourse base of ergativity”;58
4.2.1.2;1.2.1.2 Cognitive accounts;60
4.2.2;1.2.2 Historical motivations;66
4.2.3;1.2.3 Case and transitivity;68
4.2.3.1;1.2.3.1 An alternative view of ergativity;68
4.2.3.2;1.2.3.2 Transitivity: from Sapir to Hopper and Thompson;72
4.3;1.3 Conclusions;75
5;2 Indo-Aryan;77
5.1;2.1 Geographical distribution of the Indo-Aryan languages;77
5.2;2.2 Alignment in Hindi;80
5.3;2.3 Origin of the ergative pattern in Indo-Aryan;87
5.3.1;2.3.1 Historical overview;87
5.3.1.1;2.3.1.1 Old Indo-Aryan;87
5.3.1.2;2.3.1.2 Middle Indo-Aryan;90
5.3.1.3;2.3.1.3 New Indo-Aryan: Early Hindi;92
5.3.2;2.3.2 Passive reanalysis;92
5.3.3;2.3.3 Ergative remains ergative?;95
5.4;2.4 Some key concepts of the Indo-Aryan languages;101
5.4.1;2.4.1 Masica’s layer system;101
5.4.2;2.4.2 The verb system in Indo-Aryan;103
5.4.2.1;2.4.2.1 The participial base of the verb system in Indo-Aryan;103
5.4.2.2;2.4.2.2 Light verbs and lexical compound predicates;104
5.4.2.3;2.4.2.3 Perfect, perfective, and past;106
5.4.2.4;2.4.2.4 Passives;108
5.4.2.5;2.4.2.5 Causatives;109
5.4.3;2.4.3 Experiencer constructions;110
5.4.4;2.4.4 Unergatives;120
6;3 Eastern Indo-Aryan: Asamiya;123
6.1;3.1 Asamiya: description;125
6.1.1;3.1.1 Case marking in Asamiya;125
6.1.2;3.1.2 Case marking of the subject;127
6.1.3;3.1.3 Differential object marking and the dual marking of IO;131
6.1.3.1;3.1.3.1 O-marking;131
6.1.3.2;3.1.3.2 Dual marking of IO;133
6.1.3.3;3.1.3.3 Experiencer constructions;136
6.1.4;3.1.4 Verb agreement in Asamiya;138
6.2;3.2 The transitive verb;139
6.2.1;3.2.1 The transitive verb in Eastern Indo-Aryan;140
6.2.1.1;3.2.1.1 The transitive verb in the Bihari languages;143
6.2.1.2;3.2.1.2 Honorific agreement in Maithili;146
6.2.1.3;3.2.1.3 Honorific agreement in Magahi;149
6.2.2;3.2.2 The transitive verb in an Eastern Hindi variety;151
6.3;3.3 Ergative marking in Eastern Indo-Aryan;154
6.4;3.4 Conclusion;156
7;4 Northern Indo-Aryan: Nepali;158
7.1;4.1 Nepali: description;159
7.1.1;4.1.1 Case marking in Nepali;159
7.1.2;4.1.2 Case marking of the core arguments;160
7.1.3;4.1.3 Verb agreement in Nepali;164
7.2;4.2 Reanalysis and extension of the postposition le;168
7.2.1;4.2.1 Previous accounts;171
7.2.1.1;4.2.1.1 Focalization;171
7.2.1.2;4.2.1.2 Syntactic restrictions;173
7.2.1.3;4.2.1.3 Disambiguation hypothesis;173
7.2.1.4;4.2.1.4 Stage- vs. individual-level predicates;175
7.2.2;4.2.2 Perfective aspect expressed by le;177
7.3;4.3 Language contact;182
7.4;4.4 Conclusion: alignment in Nepali;185
8;5 Western Indo-Aryan: Kashmiri;187
8.1;5.1 Kashmiri: description;188
8.1.1;5.1.1 Case marking in Kashmiri;188
8.1.2;5.1.2 Verb agreement in Kashmiri;192
8.1.2.1;5.1.2.1 The verb system;192
8.1.2.2;5.1.2.2 Imperfective constructions;194
8.1.2.3;5.1.2.3 Ergative case marking in the perfective;197
8.2;5.2 Pronominal suffixes in Western Indo-Aryan;200
8.2.1;5.2.1 Bound pronouns or agreement markers?;200
8.2.2;5.2.2 Pronominal suffixes in Kashmiri;203
8.2.3;5.2.3 Pronominal suffixes in Poguli;211
8.2.4;5.2.4 Pronominal suffixes in Sindhi;213
8.2.5;5.2.5 Pronominal suffixes in Siraiki;216
8.3;5.3 Second person importance: hierarchical relations and Marathi;218
8.4;5.4 Conclusion;220
9;6 Central Indo-Aryan: Rajasthani;224
9.1;6.1 Description of Marwari;225
9.1.1;6.1.1 Case marking;225
9.1.2;6.1.2 Verb system and agreement in Marwari;226
9.2;6.2 Differential marking;230
9.2.1;6.2.1 Marwari subject marking: a historical perspective;230
9.2.2;6.2.2 Differential marking in Harauti;235
9.2.3;6.2.3 Object marking in Marwari and Gujarati;242
9.2.4;6.2.4 The marking of subjects and experiencers in Gujarati and Punjabi;246
9.2.5;6.2.5 Differential marking: summary;251
9.3;6.3 Central Indo-Aryan and Hindi: variation on a micro-scale;252
9.3.1;6.3.1 Hindi and Braj: O-marking and agreement;252
9.3.2;6.3.2 Bundeli and Bagheli;256
9.3.3;6.3.3 Varieties of Hindi: conclusion;258
9.4;6.4 Central Indo-Aryan: Conclusion;258
10;7 Conclusion;260
10.1;7.1 The definition of ergativity: summary;260
10.2;7.2 Splits;263
10.2.1;7.2.1 The influence of referential hierarchies;264
10.2.1.1;7.2.1.1 Referentiality of O;264
10.2.1.2;7.2.1.2 Referentiality of A;266
10.2.2;7.2.2 Tense/Aspect/Mood splits;268
10.2.3;7.2.3 Classifying the Indo-Aryan languages;271
10.2.4;7.2.4 Case marking versus verb agreement;272
10.3;7.3 Core arguments and grammatical relations;273
10.4;7.4 The motivation of the ergative pattern in Indo-Aryan;275
10.5;7.5 Final observations;278
11;8 Appendix;280
11.1;8.1 Appendix 1;280
11.2;8.2 Appendix 2;286
12;9 References;308
13;Index of subjects;328
14;Index of languages;332

Über Autor(innen)

Saartje Verbeke, Ghent University, Belgium.