First person objects, antipassives, and the political history of the Southern Kirant

Balthasar Bickel; Martin Gaenszle

doi:10.1515/jsall-2015-0003

Article

First person objects, antipassives, and the political history of the Southern Kirant

Balthasar Bickel and Martin Gaenszle

Published/Copyright: February 10, 2015

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From the journal Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics Volume 2 Issue 1

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.

Keywords: language contact; areal diffusion; antipassives; politeness; object agreement

Published Online: 2015-2-10

Published in Print: 2015-3-1

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/jsall-2015-0003

Keywords for this article

language contact; areal diffusion; antipassives; politeness; object agreement