First person objects, antipassives, and the political history of the Southern Kirant
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Balthasar Bickel
und
Martin Gaenszle
Abstract
Several Kiranti languages (Tibeto-Burman, Nepal) from different genealogical sub-groups show multiple parallel developments from antipassive constructions with generic, non-specific objects into agreement markers registering first person objects. The developments span a relatively contiguous geographical area in the southernmost part of the family. We explain the developments by contact with politeness strategies of speaker-effacement in Maithili (Indo-Aryan) formal style, with which southern Kiranti elites have been in intense contact in about the same time frame as can be assumed for the emergence of the antipassive-based agreement forms. These findings illustrate a particularly tight interaction between natural (functional) strategies of politeness with specific historical contingencies.
©2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Munich/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Retroflex consonant harmony: An areal feature in South Asia
- Two micro-areal developments in northwestern South Asia: Causative involuntatives and causee marking postpositions
- First person objects, antipassives, and the political history of the Southern Kirant
- Is Manipur a linguistic area?
- The Northwest of South Asia and beyond: The issue of Indo-Aryan retroflexion yet again
- Book Reviews
- Book Review
- Book Review
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Retroflex consonant harmony: An areal feature in South Asia
- Two micro-areal developments in northwestern South Asia: Causative involuntatives and causee marking postpositions
- First person objects, antipassives, and the political history of the Southern Kirant
- Is Manipur a linguistic area?
- The Northwest of South Asia and beyond: The issue of Indo-Aryan retroflexion yet again
- Book Reviews
- Book Review
- Book Review
