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Article published In:
Diachronic Dimensions of Alignment Typology
Edited by Eystein Dahl
[Diachronica 38:3] 2021
► pp. 457–501

Typology and diachrony of converbs in Indo-Aryan

ORCID logo | Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
| Ghent University

Non-finite forms constitute an important component of the verbal system of Indo-Aryan (IA) languages. On the one hand, some of them, such as e.g., converbs, have already received proper attention in historical linguistics and typological literature, with regard to Old Indo-Aryan (OIA), Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) and New Indo-Aryan (NIA) (cf. Tikkanen 1987; Peterson 1998; Subbarao 2012 among others). Other forms, such as participles, have usually been analysed in the wider context of reorganisation of a finite verbal system which led to alignment change (for recent discussion see Dahl and Stroński 2016). On the other hand, adverbial participles or infinitives have so far been under-studied (cf. Sigorski 2005), particularly within early NIA. This period in the history of IA languages witnessed several important morphosyntactic developments and still requires in-depth study, particularly due to the lack of well-edited corpora. The aim of the present paper is to partly fill this gap by highlighting major trends in the development of constructions based on various non-finite forms in early NIA. We focus on main argument marking in converbal chain constructions and its interplay with the animacy hierarchy. We demonstrate a relative stability of differential case marking (DCM), focusing mainly on conditions on differential subject marking (DSM) and differential object marking (DOM). In addition, we compare converbal chain constructions with participial absolute constructions (AC). Finally, in order to give a holistic view of converbal constructions, we verify the type of linking instantiated by them, focusing on three scopal parameters in converbal constructions (Tense, Illocutionary Force and Negation) and using the apparatus of Role and Reference Grammar and Multivariate Analysis.

Keywords: Indo-Aryan, converb, cosubordination, alignment, absolute construction, differential subject marking, differential object marking, operator scope
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Alignment and converbal chains in IA
  • 3.Coordination, subordination and cosubordination
  • 4.Main argument marking in converbal chain constructions
    • 4.1A-marking
    • 4.2Differential object marking
  • 5.The subject identity constraint (SIC)
  • 6.Absolute constructions
  • 7.Scope of selected operators
    • 7.1Tense scope
    • 7.2IF scope
    • 7.3NEG-operator
    • 7.4Concluding remarks on the scopal properties of CVB
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Primary sources
  • References
Published online: 10 August 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.19067.str
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