Syntactic lability vs. ergativity in Indo-Aryan
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Krzysztof Stroński
Abstract
Contemporary IA languages are considered to be purely nominative at the level of syntax. Ergativity is restricted to the morphological domain. However the scrutiny of certain syntactic constructions such as converbal clause chaining or coordinate conjunction reduction shows that they are not necessarily sensitive to the basic grammatical relations (Bickel & Yādava 2000), in other words, the notion of pivot is not fully operational in the IA languages. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate that apart from the dominating syntactic A/S pivot early NIA shows: (a) instances of converbs not controlled by the A of the main clause and (b) the dropped element in coordinate or certain subordinate constructions is not always an A/S argument. The alleged syntactic lability will be observed diachronically in four dialectal groups, namely Rajasthani, Pahari, Western Hindi and Eastern Hindi.
Abstract
Contemporary IA languages are considered to be purely nominative at the level of syntax. Ergativity is restricted to the morphological domain. However the scrutiny of certain syntactic constructions such as converbal clause chaining or coordinate conjunction reduction shows that they are not necessarily sensitive to the basic grammatical relations (Bickel & Yādava 2000), in other words, the notion of pivot is not fully operational in the IA languages. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate that apart from the dominating syntactic A/S pivot early NIA shows: (a) instances of converbs not controlled by the A of the main clause and (b) the dropped element in coordinate or certain subordinate constructions is not always an A/S argument. The alleged syntactic lability will be observed diachronically in four dialectal groups, namely Rajasthani, Pahari, Western Hindi and Eastern Hindi.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Ergativity in Indo-Aryan and beyond 1
- Looking for ergativity in Indo-Aryan 39
- The origin and development of the Old Indo-Aryan predicated - tá construction 61
- On the establishment of ergative alignment during the Late Middle Indo-Aryan period 109
- Why the ergative case in modal (in)transitive clauses? The historical evolution of aspect, modality, ergative and locative in Indo-Aryan 133
- Ergative alignment in Western New Indo-Aryan languages from a historical perspective 165
- The restoration of the ergative case marking of ‘A’ in perfective clauses in New Indo-Aryan 201
- Syntactic lability vs. ergativity in Indo-Aryan 237
- Language Index 259
- General Index 261
- Author Index 265
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Ergativity in Indo-Aryan and beyond 1
- Looking for ergativity in Indo-Aryan 39
- The origin and development of the Old Indo-Aryan predicated - tá construction 61
- On the establishment of ergative alignment during the Late Middle Indo-Aryan period 109
- Why the ergative case in modal (in)transitive clauses? The historical evolution of aspect, modality, ergative and locative in Indo-Aryan 133
- Ergative alignment in Western New Indo-Aryan languages from a historical perspective 165
- The restoration of the ergative case marking of ‘A’ in perfective clauses in New Indo-Aryan 201
- Syntactic lability vs. ergativity in Indo-Aryan 237
- Language Index 259
- General Index 261
- Author Index 265
