Typological change in Vedic
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Eystein Dahl
Abstract
The Vedic aorist indicative presents a classic case of the development from aspect to tense. In Early Vedic, the aorist indicative has properties typical of perfective past categories cross-linguistically, whereas in later stages of Vedic it is primarily, if not exclusively used to express that a situation has occurred immediately prior to the moment of speech. The recent past reading of the aorist indicative is found in Early Vedic too and may be seen as a consequence of its basic perfective meaning. The limitation of the aorist indicative to recent past contexts in later stages of Vedic may be seen as a conventionalization of a pragmatic implicature, resulting in grammatical change. The use of perfective categories to express the recent past is fairly frequently met with. In later stages of Vedic a tripartite past tense system is found. The main functional difference between the three past tense categories seems to be that they locate situations with different degrees of remoteness from the moment of speech, the aorist indicative locating the situation in the recent past, the imperfect locating the situation in the non-recent past and the perfect locating the situation in the remote past. This type of tense opposition is not uncommon in the languages of the world and it will be argued that the Vedic evidence is crucial for understanding the development of this kind of past tense system.
Abstract
The Vedic aorist indicative presents a classic case of the development from aspect to tense. In Early Vedic, the aorist indicative has properties typical of perfective past categories cross-linguistically, whereas in later stages of Vedic it is primarily, if not exclusively used to express that a situation has occurred immediately prior to the moment of speech. The recent past reading of the aorist indicative is found in Early Vedic too and may be seen as a consequence of its basic perfective meaning. The limitation of the aorist indicative to recent past contexts in later stages of Vedic may be seen as a conventionalization of a pragmatic implicature, resulting in grammatical change. The use of perfective categories to express the recent past is fairly frequently met with. In later stages of Vedic a tripartite past tense system is found. The main functional difference between the three past tense categories seems to be that they locate situations with different degrees of remoteness from the moment of speech, the aorist indicative locating the situation in the recent past, the imperfect locating the situation in the non-recent past and the perfect locating the situation in the remote past. This type of tense opposition is not uncommon in the languages of the world and it will be argued that the Vedic evidence is crucial for understanding the development of this kind of past tense system.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
- On tense and mood in conditional clauses from Early to Late Latin 13
- The fate of the subjunctive in late Middle Persian 57
- The negated imperative in Russian and other Slavic languages 79
- Grammaticalisation of verbs into temporal and modal markers in Australian languages 107
- Aspect and tense in counterfactual main clauses 133
- On non-canonical modal clause junction in Turkic 159
- Reference, aspectuality and modality in ante-preterit (pluperfect) in Romance languages 173
- Subjects and objects with Latin habere and some of its Romance descendants 211
- Diachrony and typology in the history of Cree (Algonquian, Algic) 223
- Typological change in Vedic 261
- On the evolution of verbal aspect in insular Celtic 299
- The anticausative and related categories in the Old Germanic languages 329
- Directionality, case and actionality in Hittite 383
- The case of unaccusatives in Classical Portuguese 411
- Some historical developments of the verb in Neo-Aramaic 425
- Contributors 435
- Index 437
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
- On tense and mood in conditional clauses from Early to Late Latin 13
- The fate of the subjunctive in late Middle Persian 57
- The negated imperative in Russian and other Slavic languages 79
- Grammaticalisation of verbs into temporal and modal markers in Australian languages 107
- Aspect and tense in counterfactual main clauses 133
- On non-canonical modal clause junction in Turkic 159
- Reference, aspectuality and modality in ante-preterit (pluperfect) in Romance languages 173
- Subjects and objects with Latin habere and some of its Romance descendants 211
- Diachrony and typology in the history of Cree (Algonquian, Algic) 223
- Typological change in Vedic 261
- On the evolution of verbal aspect in insular Celtic 299
- The anticausative and related categories in the Old Germanic languages 329
- Directionality, case and actionality in Hittite 383
- The case of unaccusatives in Classical Portuguese 411
- Some historical developments of the verb in Neo-Aramaic 425
- Contributors 435
- Index 437
