Ergativity in Indo-Aryan and beyond
Eystein Dahl | UiT – The Arctic University of Norway & Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
Krzysztof Stroński | UiT – The Arctic University of Norway & Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
This chapter gives an overview of the current state of the art of research on ergativity in Indo-Aryan. First, it discusses a number of theoretical and terminological issues concerning synchronic and diachronic dimensions of ergative alignment and outlines a typology for exploring the relationship between ergativity and other alignment types with particular reference to the South-Asian linguistic area. Second, it provides an overview of the Modern Indo-Aryan languages showing ergative alignment in parts of their verbal system and of the striking variation in this domain. Third, it explores the various hypotheses regarding the origin and development of ergative alignment in Indo-Aryan.
References (117)
References
Aissen, Judith. 1999. Markedness and subject choice in Optimality Theory. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 17: 673-711.
Aissen, Judith. 2003. Differential object marking: Iconicity vs. economy. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 21: 435-483.
Andersen, Paul Kent. 1985. Die grammatische Kategorie Passiv im Altindischen: Ihre Funktion. In Grammatische Kategorien. Funktion und Geschichte, Benfried Schlerath (ed.), 47–57. Wiesbaden: Reichert.
Andersen, Paul Kent. 1986a. Die ta-Partizipialkonstruktion bei Aśoka: Passiv oder Ergativ? Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung 99: 75–96.
Andersen, Paul Kent, 1986b. The genitive agent in Rigvedic passive constructions. In Collectanea linguistica in honorem Adami Heinz [Prace Komisji Językoznawstwa 53], 9–13. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk.
Anderson, Stephen R. 1976. On the notion of subject in ergative languages. In Subject and Topic, Charles Li (ed.), 3–23. New York NY: Academic Press.
Anderson, Stephen R. 1977. On mechanisms by which languages become ergative. In Mechanisms of Syntactic Change, Charles Li (ed.), 317-363. Austin TX: University of Texas Press.
Benveniste Emile, 1952. La construction passive du parfait transitif. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 48(1): 176-186.
Bickel, Balthasar & Yādava, Yogendra P. 2000. A fresh look at grammatical relations in Indo-Aryan. Lingua 110: 342-373.
Bubenik, Vit. 1989. On the origins and elimination of ergativity in Indo-Aryan languages. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 34(4): 377–398.
Bubenik, Vit. 1996. The Structure and Development of Middle Indo-Aryan Dialects. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Butt, Miriam. 2001. A reexamination of the accusative to ergative shift in Indo-Aryan. In Time Over Matter: Diachronic Perspectives on Morphosyntax, Miriam Butt & Tracy Holloway King (eds), 105–141. Stanford CA: CSLI.
Butt, Miriam. 2006. Theories of Case. Cambridge: CUP.
Bynon, Theodora. 2005. Evidential, raised possessor and the historical source of the ergative construction in Indo-Iranian. Transactions of the Philological Society 103(1): 1–72.
Cardona, George. 1970. The Indo-Iranian construction mana (mama) krtam
. Language 46: 1–12.
Cardona, George. 1974. The Indo-Aryan languages. Encyklopedia Britannica, 15th edn, 9: 439-450.
Cardona, George. 2002. The old Indo-Aryan tense system. JAOS 122 (Indic and Iranian Studies in Honor of Stanley Insler on His Sixty-Fifth Birthday): 235-243.
Chatterji, Suniti Kumar. 1970[1926]. The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Comrie, Bernard. 1978. Ergativity. In Syntactic Typology: Studies in the Phenomenology of Language, Winfred P. Lehmann (ed.), 323–393. Texas TX: University of Texas Press.
Comrie, Bernard. 1989. Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Syntax and Morphology, 2nd edn. Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Dahl, Eystein. 2009. Semantische und pragmatisch-kontextuelle Faktoren in der Entwicklung des altindoarischen Perfekts. In Pragmatische Kategorien. Form, Funktion und Diachronie. Akten der Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft in Marburg, 24.-26.9.2007, Elisabeth Rieken & Paul Widmer (eds), 35-50. Wiesbaden: Reichert.
Dahl, Eystein. 2010. Time, Tense and Aspect in Early Vedic Grammar. Exploring Inflectional Semantics in the Rigveda. Leiden: Brill.
Dahl, Eystein. 2012. Evidence for evidentiality in Late Vedic. In Indic across the Millennia: from Rigveda to Modern Indo-Aryan. 14th World Sanskrit Conference, Kyoto, Japan, September 1-5 2009. Proceedings of the Linguistics Section, Jared Klein & Kazuhiko Yoshida (eds), 9-23 Bremen: Ute Hempen.
Dahl, Eystein. 2014a. The development of the Vedic perfect: From anterior to inferential past. In Vedic and Sanskrit Historical Linguistics: Papers from the 13th World Sanskrit Conference, Jared Klein & Elizabeth Tucker (eds), 179-242. New Delhi: Motilal Banarshidas.
Dahl, Eystein. 2014b. Partitive subjects and objects in Indo-Iranian and beyond. In Partitive Cases and Related Categories, Silvia Luraghi & Tuomas Huumo (eds), 417-441. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Dahl, Eystein & Fedriani, Chiara. 2012. The argument structure of experience: Experiential constructions in Early Vedic, Homeric Greek and Early Latin. Transactions of the Philological Society 110(3): 342-362.
Davison, Alice. 2008. Case Restriction on Control: Implications for Movement. Journal of South Asian Linguistics 1 (1), 29-54.
de Hoop, Helen & Peter de Swart (eds). 2008. Differential Subject Marking. Dordrecht: Springer.
Delbrück, Berthold. 1888. Altindische Syntax. Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
Dik, Simon C. 1978. Functional Grammar [North-Holland Linguistic Series 37] Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Dik, Simon C. 1989. The Theory of Functional Grammar, Part 1: The Structure of the Clause. Dordrecht: Foris.
Dixon, Robert M.W. 1972. The Dyirbal language of North Queensland. Cambridge: CUP.
Dixon, Robert M.W. 1979. Ergativity. Language 55: 59–138.
Dixon, Robert M.W. 1994. Ergativity. Cambridge: CUP.
Donohue, Mark & Wichmann, Søren (eds). 2008. The Typology of Semantic Alignment. Oxford: OUP.
Dryer, Matthew S. 2007. Clause types. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. 1: Clause Structure, Timothy Shopen (ed.), 224-275. Cambridge: CUP.
Filimonova, Elena. 2005. The noun phrase hierarchy and relational marking: Problems and counterevidence. Linguistic Typology 9: 77–113.
Givón, Talmy. 2001a. Syntax, Vol. I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Givón, Talmy. 2001b. Syntax, Vol. II. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Gonda, Jan. 1951. Remarks on the Sanskrit Passive. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Grierson, George A. 1903-1928. Linguistic Survey of India, Vols. I-XI. Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, India.
Grierson, George A. 1934. On the Modern Indo-Aryan Vernaculars, reprinted from the Indian Antiquary 60-62 (1931-1933). Bombay: British India Press.
Gusain, Lakhan. 2004. Marwari. M�nchen: Lincom Europa. Languages of the World/Materials 427.
Haspelmath, Martin. 2011. On S, A, P, T, and R as comparative concepts for alignment typology. Linguistic Typology 15: 535–567
Hoernle, R. 1880. A Comparative Grammar of the Gaudian Languages: With Special Reference to the Eastern Hindi Accompanied by a Language-map and a Table of Alphabets. London: Trübner.
Hock, Hans Heinrich. 1986. P-oriented construction in Sanskrit. In South Asian Languages. Structure, Convergence Diglossia, Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Colin P. Masica & Anjani Kumar Sinha (eds), 15–26. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Hook, Peter E. 1991. On identyfying the conceptual restructuring of passive as ergative in Indo-Aryan. In Pāṇinian Studies. Professor S. D. Joshi Felicitation Volume, Madhav M. Deshpande & Saroja Bhate (eds), 177- 199. Ann Arbor MI: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan.
Hook, Peter E. 1996. Kesar of Layul: A central Asian epic in the Shina of Gultari. In Studies in Pakistani Popular Culture, William Hanaway & Wilma Heston (eds), 121-183. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel and Lok Virsa.
Iemmolo, Giorgio & Klumpp, Gerson (eds). 2014. Special thematic issue on Differential Object Marking. Linguistics 52(2).
Jamison, Stephanie W. 1979a. Remarks on the expression of agency with the passive in Vedic and Indo-European. Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung 93: 196-219.
Jamison, Stephanie W. 1979b. The case of the agent in Indo-European. Die Sprache 25: 129-143.
Jamison, Stephanie W. 1990. The tense of the predicated past participle in Vedic and beyond. Indo-Iranian Journal 33: 1-19.
Jamison, Stephanie W. 2000. Lurching towards ergativity: Expressions of agency in the Niya Documents. Bulletin of the School of African and Oriental Studies 63(1): 64-80.
Katre, Sumitra M. 1968. Problems of Reconstruction in Indo-Aryan. Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
Khokhlova, Ludmila V. 1995. The development of patient-oriented constructions in late western NIA languages. Osmania Papers in Linguistics 21: 15–51.
Khokhlova, Ludmila V. 2001. Ergativity attrition in the history of western new Indo–Aryan languages (Punjabi, Gujarati and Rajastahani). The Yearbook of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 2001: 159–184.
Khokhlova, Ludmila V. 2002. Syntactic peculiarities of Rajasthani. Paper read at the 17th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Heidelberg, September 9–14. <[URL]>
Khokhlova, Ludmila V. 2006. Sintaktičeskaja evolucija zapadnych novoindijskich jazykov v 15–20 vv. In Aspekty komparativistiki [Orientalia et Classica: Trudy Instituta Vostočnych Kultur i Antičnosti: Vypusk VIII], Anna V. Dybo, Vladimir A. Dybo, Oleg A. Mudrak & George S. Starostin (eds), 151–186. Moskva: Rosijskij Gosudarstvennyj Gumanitarnyj Universitet.
Klaiman, Miriam H. 1978. Arguments against a passive origin of the IA ergative. In
Chicago Linguistic Society: Papers from the 14th Regional Meeting
, 204–216. Chicago IL: CLS.
Klimov, Georgij A. 1972. K xarakteristike jazykov aktivnogo stroja. Voprosy Jazykoznanija 4: 3–13.
Klimov, Georgij A. 1973. Očerk obščej teorii èrgativnosti. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo ‘Nauka’.
Klimov, Georgij A. 1977. Tipologija jazykov aktivnogo stroja. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo ‘Nauka’.
Klimov, Georgij A. 1983. Principy kontensivnoj tipologii. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo ‘Nauka’.
Klimov, Georgij A. & Edel’man, Džoj I. 1970. Jazyk burushaski. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo ‘Nauka’.
Li, Chao. 2007. Split ergativity and split intransitivity in Nepali. Lingua 117: 1462–1482.
Magier David. 1983. Topics in the Grammar of Marwari. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
Manning, Christopher D. 1996. Ergativity. Argument Structure and Grammatical Relations. Stanford CA: CSLI.
Masica, Colin P. 1979. Aryan and non-Aryan elements in North Indian agriculture. In Aryan and Non-Aryan in India, Madhav M. Deshpande & Peter E. Hook (eds), 55–151. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Center for South Asian and Southeast Asian Studies.
Masica, Colin P. 1991. The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge: CUP.
McGregor, William B. 2009. Typology of ergativity. Language and Linguistics Compass 3(1): 480–508.
McGregor, William B. 2010. Optional ergative case marking systems in a typological-semiotic perspective. Lingua 120: 1610–1636.
Merlan, Francesca. 1981. Some functional relations among subordination, mood, aspect and focus in Australian languages. Australian Journal of Linguistics 1: 175–210.
Meščaninov, Ivan I. 1967. Ergativnaja konstrukcija v jazykach različnych tipov. Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo ‘Nauka’.
Miltner, Vladimir. 1965. From OIA passive to NIA active. Asian and African Studies 1: 143–146.
Mithun, Marianne. 1991. Active/agentive case marking and its motivations. Language 67: 510–46.
Montaut, Annie. 2006. The evolution of the tense-aspect system in Hindi/Urdu, and the status of the ergative alignment. In Proceedings of the LFG 06 Conference. Miriam Butt & Tracy Holloway King (eds), 365–385. Konstanz: Universität Konstanz.
Næss, Åshild. 2004. What markedness marks: The markedness problem with direct objects. Lingua 114: 1186–1212.
Nigam, R.C. 1972. Language Handbook on Mother Tongue in Census (Census of India 1971) [Census centenary Monograph No 10]. New Delhi: Government of India.
Palancar, Enrique. 2002. The Origin of Agent Markers. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
Payne, John R. 1980. The decay of ergativity in Pamir languages. Lingua 51: 147–186.
Peterson, John. 1998. Grammatical relations in Pali and the emergence of ergativity in Indo-Aryan. Munich: Lincom.
Peterson, John. 1999. Grammatische Relationen in Pali und die Entstehung von Ergativit�t im Indoarischen. Historische Sprachforschung, 112/2: 227�263.
Pirejko, Lija A. 1968. Osnovnyje voprosy ergativnosti na materiale indoiranskich jazykov. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo ‘Nauka’.
Pray, Bruce. 1976. From passive to ergative in NIA. In The Notion of Subject in South Asian Languages [South Asian Studies, Publication Series 2], Manindra Verma (ed.), 195–211. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin.
Regamey, Constantin. 1954. A propos de la “construction ergative” en indo-aryen moderne. In Sprachgeschichte und Wortbedeutung, Festschrift Albrecht Debrunner, gewidmet von Schülern, Freunden und Kollegen, Redard George (ed.), 363–381. Bern: Francke.
Šamatov, Azad N. 1974. Klassičeskij dakxini. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo ‘Nauka’.
Shackle, Christopher. 1979. Problems of classification in Pakistan Punjab. Transactions of the Philological Society 1979: 191-210.
Srishti, Recha. 2006. Reflecting AGREE: Hindi-Urdu reflexives. In Western Conference of Linguistics (WECOL) 2006 Proceedings, Vol.17, Erin Bainbridge & Brian Agbayani (eds), 361-72. Fresno CA: California State University.
Silverstein, Michael. 1976. Hierarchy of features and ergativity. In Grammatical Categories in Australian Languages, Robert W. Dixon (ed.), 112–171. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Skalmowski, Wojciech. 1974. Transitive verb constructions in the Pamir and Dardic languages. Studia Indoeuropejskie. Prace komisji Językoznawstwa 37: 205–212.
Southworth, Franklin C. 2005. Linguistic Archeology of South Asia. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
Speijer, J.S. 1998[1886]. Sanskrit Syntax. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass Publishers.
Stroński, Krzysztof. 2010. Variation of ergativity patterns in Indo-Aryan. Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 46(2): 237–253.
Stroński, Krzysztof. 2011. Synchronic and Diachronic Aspects of Ergativity in Indo-Aryan. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM.
Tikkanen, Bertil. 1988. On Burushaski and other ancient substrata in Northwest South Asia. Studia Orientalia (Helsinki) 64: 303–325.
Trask, R. Larry. 1979. On the origin of ergativity. In Ergativity. Towards a Theory of Grammatical Relations, Frans Plank (ed.), 385–404. London: Academic Press.
Turner, Ralph L. 1975. Collected Papers, 1912-1973. London: OUP.
Verbeke, Saartje. 2013a. Alignment and Ergativity in New Indo-Aryan Languages [Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 51]. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Verbeke, Saartje. 2013b. Differential subject marking in Nepali: The agent marker le in imperfective constructions. Linguistics 51(3): 585 – 610.
Verma, Manindra K. (ed.). 1976. The Notion of Subject in South Asian Languages [South Asian Studies, Publication Series 2]. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin.
von Hinüber, Oskar. 1968. Studien zur Kasussyntax des Pāli, besonders des Vinaya-Piṭaka. München: Kitzinger.
De Vreese, Koenraad S.J.M. 1959. Apabhraṃśa studies (III). Journal of the American Oriental Society 79(1): 7-16.
Whitney, William Dwight, 1888. Sanskrit Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Witzel, Michael. 1989. Tracing the vedic dialects. In Dialectes dans les langues indo-aryennes, Colette Caillat (ed.), 97-265. Paris: College de France, Institut de Civilisation Indienne.
Witzel, Michael. 1995. Early Indian history: Linguistic and textual parameters. In Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity. The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia, George Erdosy (ed.), 85-125. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Witzel, Michael. 1999. Substrate languages in Old Indo-Aryan (Rigvedic, Middle and LateVedic). Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 5(1): 1–67.
Zakharyin, Boris. 1979. On the formation of ergativity in Indo-Aryan and Dardic. Osmania Papers in Linguistics 5: 50–71.
Zakharyin, Boris. 1982. Problemy jazykovych kontaktov w indijskich Gimalajach. Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta, Serija 13, Vostokovedenije 3: 31–42.
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Carling, Gerd & Chundra Cathcart
Eliasson, Pär & Marc Tang
2018.
The lexical and discourse functions of grammatical gender in Marathi
.
Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 5:2
► pp. 131 ff.
Zúñiga, Fernando
2018.
The diachrony of morphosyntactic alignment.
Language and Linguistics Compass 12:9
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.