Relation between animacy and case marking in Eastern Indo-Aryan languages
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Bornini Lahiri
Abstract
Case markers in eastern Indo-Aryan languages mark the animate and inanimate objects differently. Most of the case markers of eastern Indo-Aryan languages are sensitive to animacy features of nouns and pronouns and this is reflected in the morphology. It is seen that the linguistic manifestation of animacy does not follow the biological dimension of animacy in case marking. It is perceived that despite strong preferences for a specific animacy value of nouns, speakers may conceptualize nouns differently from this preferred value in different contexts. In these contexts, an inanimate object can get case marked as an animate object. But in these cases, there are certain restrictions which need to be followed. For example, the verb plays an important role. The present paper explores the relationship between animacy and case marking in eastern Indo-Aryan languages. It also lists the various conditions in which inanimate objects are marked as animate objects, while maintaining the difference between animate and inanimate objects.
Abstract
Case markers in eastern Indo-Aryan languages mark the animate and inanimate objects differently. Most of the case markers of eastern Indo-Aryan languages are sensitive to animacy features of nouns and pronouns and this is reflected in the morphology. It is seen that the linguistic manifestation of animacy does not follow the biological dimension of animacy in case marking. It is perceived that despite strong preferences for a specific animacy value of nouns, speakers may conceptualize nouns differently from this preferred value in different contexts. In these contexts, an inanimate object can get case marked as an animate object. But in these cases, there are certain restrictions which need to be followed. For example, the verb plays an important role. The present paper explores the relationship between animacy and case marking in eastern Indo-Aryan languages. It also lists the various conditions in which inanimate objects are marked as animate objects, while maintaining the difference between animate and inanimate objects.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Preface vii
- Contents xi
- Acknowledgements xiii
- On the syntax of comparative clauses in Vedic Sanskrit … like someone eating the foam off the water 1
- Some questions about yád in Vedic 23
- A statistical model of syntactic and nonsyntactic factors affecting relative clause placement in Hindi 43
- Optionality and variation in agreement in some participles in Hindi-Urdu 77
- A cross-linguistic approach to sentential subjects in Kannada 119
- Relation between animacy and case marking in Eastern Indo-Aryan languages 173
- Participles with a semantic void in Koints 191
- Competition between vectored verbs and factored verbs in Hindi-Urdu, Marathi and Gujarati 207
- How similarly do Hindi rakhnā and Japanese oku PUT behave as a V2? A corpus-based comparative analysis 243
- The use of vector verbs in early modern Tamil 261
- Reflexive and reciprocal marking in Mising 291
- Reciprocals in Kokborok — A Case of Syntactic Convergence 311
- A cognitive semantic analysis of locative and spatial constructions in Bangla 339
- Revisiting Pāṇini’s generative power 361
- Hindi root allomorphy: Insights from phonological and morphosyntactic theory 381
- Lexeme and speech syllables in English and Hindi. A case for syllable structure 415
- List of contributors 463
- List of contributors 469
- Index of languages 477
- Index of subjects 479
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Preface vii
- Contents xi
- Acknowledgements xiii
- On the syntax of comparative clauses in Vedic Sanskrit … like someone eating the foam off the water 1
- Some questions about yád in Vedic 23
- A statistical model of syntactic and nonsyntactic factors affecting relative clause placement in Hindi 43
- Optionality and variation in agreement in some participles in Hindi-Urdu 77
- A cross-linguistic approach to sentential subjects in Kannada 119
- Relation between animacy and case marking in Eastern Indo-Aryan languages 173
- Participles with a semantic void in Koints 191
- Competition between vectored verbs and factored verbs in Hindi-Urdu, Marathi and Gujarati 207
- How similarly do Hindi rakhnā and Japanese oku PUT behave as a V2? A corpus-based comparative analysis 243
- The use of vector verbs in early modern Tamil 261
- Reflexive and reciprocal marking in Mising 291
- Reciprocals in Kokborok — A Case of Syntactic Convergence 311
- A cognitive semantic analysis of locative and spatial constructions in Bangla 339
- Revisiting Pāṇini’s generative power 361
- Hindi root allomorphy: Insights from phonological and morphosyntactic theory 381
- Lexeme and speech syllables in English and Hindi. A case for syllable structure 415
- List of contributors 463
- List of contributors 469
- Index of languages 477
- Index of subjects 479
