Volume 12, Issue 2

In this paper, it is shown that (i) the synthetic ablative and locative case in Niya Prakrit have come to be restricted to inanimate nouns and pronouns, and that (ii) analytic formations with postpositions are used for animates: (pro)noun + paride ‘from’ for ablatival functions, and (pro)noun + vaṃti ‘in, at, to’ for locatival functions. In addition, it is argued that in the Khotan Prakrit document CKD 661 the postposition sag̲aj̲i /saγāźi/ ‘in, at, to’ is used in the same function as Niya Pkt. vaṃti .

The Āyurvedic medical treatise known as Jīvakapustaka is preserved in an incomplete tenth-century manuscript from Dunhuang, which alternates Sanskrit verse and Late Khotanese prose. This article pursues two primary objectives. Firstly, it offers a new edition, translation, and linguistic commentary on both the Sanskrit original and the Khotanese rendition of the Mahātikta formula ( Jīvakapustaka 38), with comparative remarks on its parallel in the Sanskrit Siddhasāra 12.11. Secondly, it traces the transmission history of the sole surviving manuscript of the Jīvakapustaka , focusing on omissions in the Mahātikta formula as a key piece of evidence.

India’s linguistic diversity encompasses twenty-two constitutionally recognized languages, each characterized by rich morphology, extensive inflectional properties, and relatively free word order. Among these, Dogri, an Indo-Aryan language with a Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) structure, stands out for its use of postpositions instead of prepositions to convey spatial relations, a feature that sets it apart from languages like English and Russian. This study explores the syntactic and semantic structures of postpositional locative expressions in Dogri, a language that remains significantly underexplored and underdocumented. The research focuses on two primary objectives: (1) to identify and classify various one-word and two-word locative case markers, both free and bound, that exhibit polysemous relationships in Dogri; and (2) to analyze how these markers semantically and syntactically link nouns or pronouns with locative expressions, enriching sentence meaning. Data were collected through a random survey of 90 native Dogri speakers from Kathua, Jammu, and Reasi districts in Jammu and Kashmir, with 45 participants responding to pictorial questionnaires and 45 participating in interviews. The analysis examines spatial, directional, and temporal locative relations, differentiating static positional references from directional shifts. The findings reveal that Dogri locative markers are predominantly postpositional, with their functions marked through inflectional affixes. This study offers valuable insights into Dogri’s unique linguistic features and contributes to understanding its typological placement within the Indo-Aryan language family.

This paper investigates two classes of Pahari-Pothwari (an understudied South Asian language) light verb constructions (LVCs), which comprise a light verb (LV) and nominal/adjectival/verbal coverb, forming one single verbal predicate. It is shown that four LVs contribute minimally two lexical semantic features: agentivity and, in a subset of cases, causation via language-internal and external diagnostics (Cruse 1973: 11–23). The agentivity distinction coincides with case marking patterns: non-agentive LVs e  ‘come’ and lag ‘attach’ are restricted to an accusative/dative case marked experiencer subject; agentive LVs maɾ ‘hit’ and kaɾ ‘do’ are restricted to an ergative/nominative case subject. Using a series of morphosyntactic and syntactic diagnostics, the study shows that nominal coverbs are morphosyntactically distinct from nominal complements, despite sharing some surface properties. The data indicates that the LV and coverb contribute to the argument structure, and there are possible combinatory restrictions of N + V LVCs, which can give an insight into the status of nominal coverbs.

This study examines the ergative marking system in Changki, a dialect of the Ao language of Nagaland, India. Changki exhibits an ergative-absolutive pattern but is not strictly an ergative-absolutive language. The ergative marker -nə́ on A arguments of transitive verbs is obligatory in some constructions, while it is non-obligatory in others. The primary goal is to examine the factors determining obligatory and non-obligatory ergative marking and their functions in Changki. The study shows that animacy, discourse-pragmatic factors, and high agency verbs determine the ergative marking. Furthermore, ergative may also appear with S arguments of unergative verbs if the action is performed deliberately or purposely, but not with S arguments of unaccusative verbs. The use of ergative has multiple functions, such as providing agency to the inanimate subjects, focusing the agent/actor in a discourse, and highlighting the agency of the agent. This study will enhance the understanding of non-obligatory ergative systems in Naga, in particular, and Tibeto-Burman languages as a whole.