The Mahābhārata in The Tribal and Folk Traditions of India - Edited by K - S - Singh - Shimla, New Delhi, 1993 - Indian Institute of Advanced Study - 9788185952178 - Anna's Archive
The Mahābhārata in The Tribal and Folk Traditions of India - Edited by K - S - Singh - Shimla, New Delhi, 1993 - Indian Institute of Advanced Study - 9788185952178 - Anna's Archive
Li
— S
Ss
So
eo =
SZ
es
(oT
CD)@) <r
4 >?
—
This is an important book in Areal Typology of
India as it establishes that typologycally and
genetically diverse languages of the country
including the modern and tribal languages today
share their linguistic structures which are
manifestations of the shared underlying
semantic structures. Drawing examples from a
large number of Indian languages, the author
has been successful in showing that each
language, in a typical language contact
situation, preserves both individual as well as
group identity markers. Basing her arguments
on some significant but hitherto ignored
grammatical aspects, she has tried to prove that
it is mostly those semantic constructs that
pertain to perceptive and sensory abilities of a
human being that materialize in shared
linguistic structures.
https://archive.org/details/mahabharataintri0000unse
SEMANTIC UNIVERSALS IN
INDIAN LANGUAGES
deae
ie coe a |
pen oe ar
He
SEMANTIC UNIVERSALS IN
INDIAN LANGUAGES
ANVITA ABBI
Dr. Anvita Abbi came to the Institute as a Fellow for a short period in the
summer of 1990 to work on ‘Semantic Unity in Linguistic Diversity’.
Besides giving lively seminar during her term as a Fellow, she prepared
the first draft of her monograph before leaving the Institute and prepared
the final version subsequently at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi. The book presents a strong agrument for a ‘long and stable multi-
lingualism’ in India which has given rise to ‘the “Indianness” of our
languages’, manifested in linguistic structuration and variety. The
similarities of structures arise from the fact that ‘all Indian languages
share acommon semantic base’. Her approach to the problem, therefore,
is refreshing as well as instructive.
Seino grivtian a
“ina 2Dqu vhs bhi routes: nec Yee Mel sqrt IT
| vtBonicanet Soenworrs, ooleo ato senate fraclatHandHA ahaa
HRA ATI
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Conclusions
auxiliary
causative
Compound Verb
Complete Word Reduplication
declaration
dubitative
emphatic
Echo Word
feminine
Genitive
Intransitive
locative
masculine
Nominative
nominal
Negative
participle
passive
pre/post position
possessive
progressive
past
reciprocal
Subject
CHAPTER I
Introduction
It has been known that every word, and more generally every
linguistic sign, is an entity with two sides. Every linguistic sign is a
unity of sound and meaning, or in other words, of signifier and
signified. The two components are intimately related, e.g. the Hindi
word caay ‘tea’ is pronounced in such a way that there are definite
sound sequences c followed by a long vowel aa which itself is
followed by a semivowel y. This combination of the three sounds is
the structuration of the word for ‘tea’ in Hindi, which is the signifier
of the word. And the signifier signifies a definite meaning here, for
example it refers to a “drink which is hot and prepared by tea leaves’.
If someone says caay, this signifier evokes in us the corresponding
signified, i.e. the hot drink made of some special leaves.
The 18th century and the 19th century linguists had been pre-
occupied with finding such sound-meaning correspondences across
languages which they called COGNATES. The methodology adopted
came to be known as Comparative Methods which ruled out
borrowings and chance similarity among languages. The basic
assumption on which the comparative method was based happened
to be a little unnatural, i.e. the proto language (the language or a
linguistic form said to be the ancestor of attested languages or forms)
is a homogeneous entity and is devoid of borrowings and
interferences. This implied that if we compared cognates of several
languages we could not only reconstruct the parent language from
which the ‘daughter’ languages must have descended but could also
establish group of languages belonging to the same family of
languages. In other words, relationship like mother-daughter, and
sister-sister languages were established on the basis of
sound-meaning correspondences across languages. We must note
THE LANGUAGES AND
DIALECTS OF
SOUTH ASIA
epunyWUON
« ISOyYY
OILVISVOUL
ei SNV YON =— ‘yoyjupg “Uppuny
OR ‘212
epunyy jenusd
—= ‘Diuvyy ‘suone 1]DYON
YyNoS — ‘vlog ‘{DIDD WNLOD
Kharia
kol-ob-no?-dom-dhab-na-la?-ki-kiyar
rec. caus. eat pass. quickly progr. pst dub.
‘you both were being, fed by each other quickly’ (VM:p. 35-7)
go? ‘carry’; which Dravidian and Indo Aryan lack it. Nasalization
such as in Hindi hé‘are’ dges not exist in Dravidian, Tibeto Burman,
and Khasi (Austroasiatic). Conversely, retroflex lateral / does not
exist in Tibeto Burman languages. Nor does it exist in Eastern IA
languages. Consult map 2 which suggests North-South divide on the
basis of a single feature, i.e. nasalization. It also suggests East-West
divide on the basis of retroflex lateral.
spill’ (intr); /u ‘to nourish’ and /?u: ‘to be alive’, in Kurux (North
Dravidian language) ke?na ‘to die’; ho?na ‘to take’, bona ‘hit’;
ci?na ‘to give’, etc.
Khasi (Autroasiatic, Monkhmer branch) has glottal stops in
words like /9? 19? ‘clouds’, daukha? ‘fish’ etc.
Vowels t and n
High, Central unrounded vowel [t] and mean mid back rounded
vowel [n] are prevalant in Dravidian languages like Tamil, and
Autroasiatic languages like Khasi Consider:
Lamino Dentals
Implosives
Unreleased Stops
Though occur only in certain specific phonological environments
such as in word final position yet quite prevalent in Tibeto Burman
languages, as well as in Khasi, Munda, and Konkani (IA language).
Mundari has ‘kuij’ ‘to dance’; Kharia has goej’ ‘to dance’; Konkani
uses it in rap’ ‘to live’, thak’ ‘to lie’, udak’ ‘water’ etc.; Meitei:
lek’-‘lick’ tak’ ‘teach’ sak’ ‘sing’; Khasi : ksaid’ ‘water fall’; mrad’
‘animal’, etc.
Rolled r
Khasi and Konkani, though genealogically, typologically, and
geographically very distant from each other share this feature among
themselves. Khasi r is however more rolled than Konkani r.
Consider:
Konkani
bairo ‘deap’
bare ‘good’
gharat ‘at home’
rastyan ‘on the road’
10 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
Khasi
mrad’ ‘animal’
rospa ‘rich’
rben ‘be thick’
shtnrang ‘male’
«seers
“==: IWSYN 13M0A S3N3NOHd
UO/GNY
WS8VN
SIVUALVT
XITIOULIY
dew
Z
<In0g
: “yy uefnuewey
pue ulOD Bose (6961)
Introduction 13
NOTE
''U. Weinreich (1968).
CHAPTER II
The question we can ask is if all the languages of the world employ
expressives then what is so great about these structures as far as we
are concerned? The answer to the question is seen in the typical
socio-cultural states of Indian community. The most significant
aspect of Indian expressives is that they indicate five senses of per-
ceptions of.Indian speakers. Secondly, the expressives behave and
function like any regular word and thus forma part of the lexicons of
Indian languages. Regular verbal paradigms are formed by adding
verbal affixes to the expressive word; e.g. Hindi taptap ‘dripping
sound’ can be formed into a regular verbal paradigm as fap
tapata (m) tap tap-ati (f) ‘drips’ or tap tapa- hat ‘dripping’
etc. The nature and abundance of use of expressives in Jndian
languages can be visualized by the examples given below.
Expressives:
1. Acoustic Noises
(a) Animal Noises (for monkey’s chattering)
Methei : u?u?;
Hindi : khaav khaawv
(b) Noises of Natural Phenomena (for rain pattering)
Hindi ; tap tap
Meithei : tap tap
Mizo : klek kpek
(c) Noises made by Humans (laughing sound)
Hindi 2 khi khi
Meithei F khe khe
Mizo ; hek hek
(d) Noises made by miscellaneous inanimate objects
(jingling of anklets)
Methei 3 tchrin tchrin
Mizo : tchek tchek
Hindi : chun chun
4. Sense of smell
Tamil:
samay ai aarail irundu gama gamanu
vusanai varadu
kitchen in from exp. good smell coming
‘A nice aroma is coming out of the kitchen’
5. Sense of taste
Hindi:
cirpira : spicy hot’
cat pata ; ‘tangy’
Expressives : Khasi
I. Non-reduplicated
1. CVC with no derivative suffix:
II. Reduplicated
1. Identical reduplication with or without derivative suffix.
(a) With no derivative suffix:
cor cor ‘walking on dry leaves’
cur cur ‘while roasting meat’
dam dam ‘drum beating’
cur curn ‘boiling hot’
pat patn ‘tears falling in abundance’
CDIAL 5342
Punjabi jham jham ‘glittering’
Hindi jham jham ‘glittering’
Punjabi jhamak-na ‘to glitter’
Hindi jhamak-na ‘to glitter’
CDIAL 6092
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit thara thar-aya ‘to tremble’
Prakrit thara thar-edi ‘feel giddy’
Bangla thara thar ana- ‘to tremble’
Marathi thartharne ‘tremble’
Areal Typology of Expressives 21
‘reddening with anger’ civa civa-in tamtam ana sen tawn tawn
‘eyes filled with water’ kangal dab daba mithui parawl
; kulamayina
Reddening with anger:
Tamil civa civa-in/civa ‘red’
Hindi tamtam ana ‘to reddin with anger’
CDIAL 5779
Hindi tamra ‘copper coloured’, ‘dark red’.
Pali tamba ‘red’, ‘copper’
Prakrit tamba red (adjective and noun)’
Dameli tramba ‘red’
Sinhalese tamhba ‘reddish’
Hence there is a possibility that the Hindi onomatopoetic
tamtam-ana had the origin in the word *tamra that means copper or
red.
Eyes filled with water:
In Tamil there is no onomatopoetics as such for this. It is expressed
in the sentence kangal kulamayina ‘eyes became pool’. The word for
‘pool’, however becomes onomatopoeic in other languages.
Hindi dab dab a-
aTaVL
1:
saatssaidxy
ul ueipuy sa8en3ury]
yetpueg
= uepunyw O19qI],
OzI
ueuling
eUlaS eSeN
eT punog
jo Suimoy ypes| ypes ins jn3 eles eyed [ex Tey [ey [ey rey rey
JOA
o¢, punos
JO MOJO ACY ARY rey Jey ey ey rey Jey key Avy
Ae
ye
ey
€ Surjoouy 0} 0} YO) 40} eI ed FoI YO} Fey yeyy yney yney YOY YOY
, s39aq BUIZZNq uns eueunsuns un3 mo mo uns uns uns uns TA 1A Surq Suiq
"G sy Suryoeso - . ied jed ivy jez jeo jeo yeu yeyi S8und 8und
‘9 punos
JO SpiIg pp 9999 WPT oY pp xDD detyo detyo s1y9~—s ayo
ft 1995 S][2q ureyd wureyo weyd wey [eo [eo ureyo ureyo
=| ureyd wey deyua deruy Iny Iny
°g BSulsuts
Jo ay) [[9q
| UIPH UIptj
= SUL SuLI uep uep Sur} Sur} ur} ue} ITY Jtyo Suey) Suey)
6 193em Sutddup doj doi dei dej dei dej di dij dei dei dey dey yod teyeyy
‘OI punos
JO uinip wre} we} 8urpis 3urpis
| wepwep sunyjes wep wep uinp uinp Suap Suap
Bunyies
24 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
CDIAL 5530
*dabbara ‘mud’, ‘pool’, ‘vessel’
Bangla dabar ‘water vessel’
Hindi dabar ‘low, hollow ground where
water collects’
Old Marwari dabara ‘pool’
Marathi dabura ‘hole dug for water’
DED 2428
CDIAL 6704
CDIAL 5522
“dag ‘tremble’
Prakrit dagamagai ‘trembles’
Punjabi dagmag ‘trembling’
dagdagauna ‘to tremble’
Nepali dagmag ‘to tremble’
Assamese dagmag “‘unsteadiness’, ‘sparkle’
dagmagaiba ‘to glitter’
Bangla dagmag ‘trembling’
dagdagiya ‘glowing’
Oriya dagadaga ‘briskly’, ‘hastily’
Hindi dagdagana ‘burn brightly’
dagmagana ‘to tremble’
It is more striking to note that the word is also used as a noun and
stands for a lucky plant.
chat pat (N) ‘A small plant’
word. Most often it copies the initial vowel of the base word; hence
Hindi sag vag ‘vegetables’ etc. has-a-which is copied in the echo word
also. Dravidian languages, however do not follow the vowel copying
rule but copies the length of the vowel of the initial syllable of the
word, e.g. Telugu cinna ‘small’ and cinna ginna ‘small etc’. but
cu:ttam ‘to see’ cu:ttamgi:ttam ‘to seeetc.’ Dravidian replaced
syllable is gi or ki. Please refer to examples given below. Echo word
echoes the sense of the base word and provides a semantic
extension.
ECHO FORMATIONS
Nominals
Tamil puli ‘tiger’ puli gili ‘tiger, etc.’
Telugu puvu ‘flower’ puvu givu ‘flower, etc.’
Hindi phul ‘flower’ _phul vul ‘flower, etc.’
Adjectives
Tamil pacca ‘green’ _pacca gicca ‘green and the like’
Telugu cinna ‘small’ cinna ginna ‘small, etc.’
Hindi mota ‘fat’ mota-vota ‘fat and plump’
Pronominals
Tamil avan ‘he’ avan givan ‘he’ etc.’
Telugu atanu ‘he atanu gitanu ‘he, etc.’
Hindi mé ‘7 me vé ‘I, etc.
Verbals
Tamil vandu ‘come’ _ vandu gindu ‘come, etc.’
Telugu vintam ‘hear’ _vintam gintam ‘hear, etc.’
Hindi jana ‘go’ jana vana ‘go, etc.’
Aadverbials
Telugu tondarga ‘fast’ tondarga gindarga ‘fast, etc.’
Hindi jaldi ‘fast’ jaldi valdi ‘fast, etc.’
While IA languages, more or less conform to the structure expli
cated above for forming echo words, Dravidian languages have
additional strategies to form such words. For instance, in Telugu,
Areal Typology of Expressives 29
For further detail see M. Sastri (1969) and Selvam (1988). Other than
gi- Telugu uses go-, sa (:)-, so-, su- ti-, be- as replacer syllables of the
echo words. It may also use lexically empty putra, natra, gatra added
to the word in question to denote generality.
Nouns are the most echoed grammatical category. Verbs, adjec-
tives, pronouns and personal pronouns are echoed but the frequency
is much less than found in the nominal category.
Malayalam
paamba ceemba (snake+ vegetable [tuber]) snakes and the like’.
vendi kindi (cost + bronze vessel [used in rituals]), ‘vessels etc.’
vali kili (way+ small cloth purse) ‘way or such thing’
The last two examples, like in case of Tamil, could also be the
instances of replacer syllable of echo word ki- and not of
independent lexical units. If they are independent lexical units, then
Areal Typology of Expressives 31
the question is, should they be considered echo words on the basis of
their semantic import? If yes, we must include collocationally
restricted and lexically selective expressions like the following which
are frozen expressions in the language:
Malayalam:
aana ceena (elephant + vegetable (tuber) ‘unimportant
matters and the like’
tengnga mangnga (coconut + mango) ‘nothing and such’
Hindi:
gajar muli (carrot + reddish) ‘insignificant’
Why the word for ‘vegetable’ is used for denoting generality and the
concept of ‘unimportant’ is anybody’s guess.
Steever (1987) opines that: ‘Echo compounds have two facets of
meaning. First, like other reduplicated compounds, they have
distributive meaning so that the compound conveys the idea, entities,
or actions of which echoed word refers to a random example from
general range. Secondly, echo compounds conventionally carry a
pejorative nuance to the effect that the speaker neither likes nor cares
enough about the entity or action to specify it any further
(744-45).’
The relevant question before us is: should we define echo
formations from the semantic point of view or from the point of view
of phonological structuration? If the basic criteria is semantic then
we must also include collacationally restrictive compounds that we
have just examined in Malayalam and Tamil. However, if we
consider the criterion of phonological structuration, 1.e. the principle
of replacer syllable followed by the canonical shape of the word
under consideration then we have to take into account only those
formations in which one of the words is partially repeated and
semantically non occurring on its own in the language. Linguists
have generally restricited themselves to the latter types of formations
while defining echo formation. We, in this book, are concerned with
the ‘structural cognates’ —the identity relation that exists between
words that have common meaning-structure relation across
languages.
32 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
Hindi Khasi
kabhi -na-kabhi sano-pa-sano
‘sometime or the other’ ‘sometime’
koi-na-koi uno-re-uno
‘someone or the other’ ‘someone’
aye-na-aye
‘he might come or might not’
Kharia
Tibeto Burman
Kabui komai la?na dundune
Meitei mahak fam-na fam-na cok th-ram-y
Paite gma tutulai opukta
Munda
Birjia huni duru duru thokayena
Kharia hokker doko doko thakke gotki
Mundari enhore dubdub logaIn
Dravidian
Kannada ovonu ku:tu ku:tu sustada
; es
VWane
(
VISAVIV
O31V9IIdNIWe8Y3A
G3y @Yy3A0V
G3LV9ITdNaSy SSYNLONY
NI LS 1V493N39
¢ dey
Adon AIOA, SUTYTeM SULATEM, oul OU, skoq sXoq,
ieuu3 ieuus = jedured j (sured
Spay, SY
weluoy wefuoy ey ey npuapou npuepeu
OM}, OM} 31q 31q, ASPJ SRY, 3 oY 94, .Poolq poo;g,
npues npued eAtiad eAtiad e3oA e3A ueae ueAe Ww yer weq}e1 [Ruel
pol pod, BUIOS, nok nof,
eBIWIO} BIWIO}
Say, OY
niy43 njy3 Tel [el ajof aj0f
sq 31q, Aevou IvoU, OM OM, asnoy asnoy,
esueg
OM}, OM}
ojnp oinp 019q 010q ayoey syoey elwe vIUIe a10ys a10y43
yonu, <yonuw .Ppo ppo, suryyem suryyem, nok nod,
1yyxd tYyyAo epjeo epyeo ny 1 ny
IL skoq shoq,
epel epel
Oya au, JSPJ SJ,
iqefung
‘6
sodensuery
Op
sIsyMUeN?)
S v € (4
I
L
soaloolpy SQIOAPY sunouolg sunON
ee ie sea a a De eR Se eS
ie EE
sadenduvy] ueisy ynog ul uoHBddnpay P10
¢ ATaVL
asnia], ur ur ue TuUea Is:nd IS:Nd 1pa
Ipaa exo Tjeyo
ssnoy, oSnoy wry, TY das, das 104, Joy dUO, UO
eppnu eppnw esIopuo} ella eselio
duny, dun, eBSIOpUuo} pos, .Pa1
ISBJ, ASBS
weledeeyp]
eA LI€A a];oUT Q[[aUr eqye[eA ere eve
SMOJ, SMOI Apjos, Anjos eqe[ea yey, Jey
joy9) 104 3} 9UdIOY QUdIDy ITey, ATey
SYSOIQ, SYIOTQ Zuldaom, Ssuldoem
yyniny ued wed BXIO eXI0 O1exnul OJexnwW
Teueu
SUIUIOW SUIUIOUL, pols, <PEHS YORI, PRIQ
jyey,
BAO exYO
9U0,
,2U0
op
Jey9ju09ju0
eueyy
Gyesuury) <Preye
J0q 10q (nqeJ) rt
1e330q, yeym Jeym suoye Zuoje 1INq "IN
fey
{nex
Suryyem
:20IN0g
14QV
S861
sad&] Jva180j0ydiopy
sadQqng
jeotsojoyudiopy gy SOAIssaldx
1
1
snonuuoosiq
0102:
42 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
Taizang
NOTES
'The entries listed in this and following pages are from Turner’s Comparative
Dictionary of Indo Aryan Languages.
2Dravidian Etymological Dictionary ed. by T. Burrow and M.B. Emeneaul,
1960
>Dravidian Etymological Dictionary- Supplement, ed. by T. Burrow and M. B.
Emeneau, 1968.
CHAPTER III
Semantic Typology
Although, there has been much debate and little agreement among
writers on the most-general function of the class of explicators, there
is no doubt that individually in the various South Asian languages
where they occur, explicators indicate similar ‘types’ of meanings. At
the highest level these meanings may be classified into aspectual,
adverbial, and attitudinal types. Each of these types can further be
seen in terms of several sub-types: attitudinal meaning for instance,
may mean the marking of humility, respect, contempt, anger or
surprise that the speaker or narrator feels towards the actor or action
concerned. Consult (Table 5). Aspectual meaning is manifested in
perfictvity, completion or action being seen as a whole (Table 4).
Adverbial subtype may indicate manner (Table 6b) benefactive and
other types (Table 6a).
Consider some examples of ECV in Indian languages (explicators are
translated in capital letters).
IT Adverbial
Malayalam (8) raju sinima kandoa karahné pooyi
Raju film see-pst-prt cry GO
Hindi (9) raju sinema dekh-kar ro para
Raju film, see-CP cry FALL
‘Seeing the film Raju cried (could not control)
III Attitudinal
Functional Characteristics
TABLE4
Aspectual
Santhali NA
Kharia godna ‘pluck’, cena ‘go’
Gta? we ‘go’, bi? ‘give’
TIBETO-BURMAN
Ariqessapuy
yesuag ysoq als,
TUIeILJy Seq Als,
NVICIAVAG
[rue], [OY ,UTeJUOD, DY Je}, [nse 0RIs, niood and, rejo2 198, ASO]
ood 08, 170 ystiad,
joy
ood
jnue
eeey
Bjeey
nsnjay
038,
uooinny
ais, Mee 3Ip,
.20e18,
MOI),
mori,
edyeyn?
epeuury
ureyuod,
Aonsap,
NSooy
,08,
ysnd-ejj:27
wieyedepeyy
nyeey and,
{nan ¢19 PM18, | reece
jeey 08,
NVWaNg-OLAGIL
TayMIW IG DAI8, UIs 28ueLe, yoy? axa,
10 doo, Iq (2at8,
mqey ey lOD go
—_—_—_—_—
TaVL eo-A
[BIqIZApY (JouuBUI-UON])
NVAUV-OGNI
IpulH 3 O4P1, ap als, poop and, 4304 deay, 9) 24k) ap Als,
iqefung 10] OTP}, ap Ald, jins Mo1y}, 10] 241, ap PAIB,
NVICIAVUG
NVWuUNd-OLASLL
yew 19% A138, oIs/uls wnys dooy,
0}, ,Adoo
Jo
0}, 9q .Ul
ATAVL
(9)9
[BIqI9Apy (sauuB]A])
eee Ee
a
o8ensueq /ueppng INO UOM]OA ajeroqtfaqou0q-~—YIM= ou0q Ajisea
= suoq /YUSTOTA, Ajaatsuajuy
ydniqe Aynouytp /Ajjenseo /2AIsIoap AJaANSNeYyX
A[ssaporeo oNseip auop
NWAUV-OGNI
IpulH yin Osu, wd [lej, jpop and, 4049 aavay
= joop and, j00p and,
aod le}, ap OAIS,
iqefung
ppoyo sAea],jins MOIYI,
y LIMyse uodd ey,— unysjp3
08, undy Oki, ununys} ununys}vam
yjo
Jeom,
asl,
40d
jayd
ej,
esueg
MOI},
MOI},
SOQ
jaydjayd
IS,
MOIU},
tyyerey|
nja
[rue
njjoj
24k,
880},
~—s
Njood
ysnd,
00d00d
03,08,
NVICIAVUd
DIDDY
DIDDY
vjjv}
MOI},
.ysnd,
MOIY},
saan and, Sainod MOI},
DYDDPUN
O4DUL,
Says saam
We|eARTEP
AGMB
Moy},and,
epeuuey nsooy08, NP1G DARI], NPI PARI], nyooy and, nyovy and,
NPIG AR9],
yyniny (19 Pal, (19 Pals,
(19
«
OAIB,
yoasg, 290x
OILVISV-OULSNV
yes {708 nid,
poy dis,
poy
dis,
NWWUNg-OLAGIL
PyVoW [!s/urs ney JO .yeo1q, 1DY]
0}, Adoo MOd8, <urolsip,
Inqey wog Aeys,
eee See—k—
54 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
NOTES
the object, and a patient noun which specifies the object possessed.
Let us consider the ‘possessive constructions’.
Possessive
Inalienable
Meithei ram-gi makut-ama lay
ram-Gen. hand one be
‘Ram has a hand’ (SKC)
Marathi tya-la: don hat a:het
he - Dat hands be
‘He has two hands’
(Lit: To him two hands are) (RP)
Kannada avani-ge eradu kannive
he-Dat two eyes
‘he has two eyes’ (SNS)
Hindi mere do hath hain
I-Gen. two hands be
‘I have two hands’
Alienable -
Kharia hokra?-te moloy kunru aij-ki
he-Dat/Acc five children be-
‘He has five children’ (VM)
Meithei ram-gi famli-ama loy
Ram-Gen. family one be
‘Ram has a family’ (SKC)
Malayalam kuttikka dha:ra:lam panam unta
child-Dat _ plenty money have-pres.
‘the child has plenty of money’ (K.P.M)
Identity Crisis of Dative Subjects 61
Attributive
Out of Control
So far we had been considering the constructions where a nominal
element is in a certain ‘state’, where he does not perform an action
but an action is performed on him or say, the ‘effects’ of an action are
directed to him. Now we would take into account those cons-
tructions where an action is being performed by a nominal element
on which he has no control whatsoever. The constructions are
passive syntactically and semantically. The NP under consideration
takes typically an instrumental marking. Consider:
Hindi 30. neha-se botoal tuut gal
Neha-Instr bottle break-go past.
Bottle was broken by Neha (inadvertently)
31. papa-se gacri chuut gail
papa-Inst. train leave go-past
Papa missed the train.
(Lit: The train was missed by papa)
The Incapabilitative Passives involving ‘intransitive’ verbs will also
come under ‘out of control’ constructions as these also take the NP in
Identity Crisis of Dative Subjects 65
Non Experiential
Possessive Progenetic
[+ Alienable]
[+ animate]
noun (given in bold) which specifies the stimulus for or the content of
the experience. Consider the following examples (43) and (44).
Hindi (43) mujhe dhol ki avaz sunai de rahi he
1+DAT drum GEN sound hear give-prog
‘I can hear the sound of the drum’
Hindi (44) mujhe thakanho roahi_ he
I+ DAT exhaustion be prog
‘I am feeling tired/exhausted’.
Marathi, Hindi and Mundari examples indicate that ‘I’ had been
in the state of experiencing the trauma of sitting for two hours. “To
sit’ is an activity which has its agent coreferent to the experiencer of
the state of ‘sitting’. By all méans, (45), (46), and (47) are as much
experiential constructions as (33) - (44) have been. We can thus define
a Stative Action Process Experiential (SAPE) Verb as that which
_ specifies that an experiencer is in a certain state or condition with
respect to an action undertaken by himself. In this respect it is always
reflexive. Almost all Indo-Aryan languages have SAPE
constructions.
To review, either we can have State Experiential verbs, or Process
Experiential verbs or Stative Action Process verbs. The only
difference between the first and the last one is that SE verbs are basic
verbs while the SAPE verbs become stative after being derived so, by
resultative unit. In both cases, the verbs describe the experiential
state of the nouns under consideration. Whether a verb is State
Experiential or Process Experiential would be decided by the
semantic nature of the verb itself. Thus Hindi bhukh ho ‘be hungry’ is
state experiential while bhukh lag ‘get hungry’ is process
experiential verb. Interestingly, both types can take dative
experiencer nominals.
An Experiential Construction is then a construction which has an
experiencer verb accompanied by one experiencer noun and one or
zero patient noun. These constructions express our experience of the
phenomenon of the ‘real world’ as well as those of the ‘inner world’
of our consciousness.
Identity Crisis of Dative Subjects 71
Ill
Semantic Typology
Let us consider the various types of experiential constructions
available in South Asian languages. My attempt has been to have as
clear cut division as possible but some overlapping seems to be
inevitable. The divisions between the various types have been made
solely on the semantico-cognitive parameters. Some of the
parameters, however, have already been discussed by Klaiman
(1986) earlier.
1. Sensory and Mental Experiences
2. Physical and Biological Experiences
3. Emotional Experiences
4. Compulsive/Obligattonal Experiences
5. Temporal Situational Experiences
The list is neither exhaustive nor very accurate, because what may be
considered an emotional experience may also be considered a type of
sensory and mental experience, or what may be considered a
temporal situational experience may be part of emotional or physical
experience. Nonetheless, I am going to adhere to these divisions to
account for the data given here. It is a well known fact that minute
hairline distinctions between sensory experiences are difficult to
make even for psychologists. Linguists can do only a partial justice
based on the analyses of linguistic structuration.
IV
The Linguistic Encoding
Having identified the experiential verbs and experiential con-
structions semantically, let us now consider what linguistic encoding
76 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
Consider:
Kannada (87) appanige sigretu sedua sbhyasavida
father + DAT cigarette smoking habit is
‘Father is in the habit of smoking’.
80 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
V
Dative or Accusative or any other - ative ?
Now we come to the crucial question whether nominals of non
experiential and experiential constructions are ‘subject’ or not.
Should one call these nominals ‘dative subjects’ at all? Are these
nominals subjects? The answer to these questions are important but
not easy as obl.m. nominal constructions in Indian languages expose
a new semantic analysis of verbs as well as raise issues in the realm of
syntax as to of identifying the category ‘subject’. We have already
analysed the semantic nature of the experiential and non-experiential
verbs (Benefactive, Attributive and Out of Control). We must now
look into the constructions from the point of view of seeking answer
to the question of identity of the oblique marked nominals. For this,
we would like to consider the phonomenon of ‘subject’ both at
semantic and syntactic axies. We will begin with the argument
whether it is justifiable to term these constructions as Dative
at all?
The nominal under question in many Indian languages is encoded by
accusative and in others there is no overt difference between Accusa-
tive and Dative markings. How do we decide what is which? The
problem is not a new one as the question of the distinctness between
the two cases had disturbed Otto Jespersen to remark, ‘It is, however,
impossible to keep these two things apart, at any rate in the best
known languages’ ‘(1968: 185). He opines that word order is often
sufficient to indicate the case in a sentence, ‘a case is a purely
grammatical (syntactic) category and not a notional one in the true
sense of the word’ (1968: 185). However when it comes to distinguish
between the Dative and the Accusative his own suggestion of word
order hierarchy crumbles down as he puts it in the following
statement:
... It is impossible to recognize positional dative in ‘I gave it him’
for we have the inverse order ... if we were to speak of separate
datives and accusatives in English, I for one do not know where in
the list the dative goes out and the accusative comes in, and I find
no guidance in those grammars that speak of these two cases ... we
Identity Crisis of Dative Subjects 81
about’ the latter and the said statement is about the oblique marked
nominal.
The best indicator of the state of cofusion and indeterminacy that
prevail in defining subject is seen in the quotes from a noted
psychologist Stout who, in a famous passage (AP 2. 212 ff) starts
defining it but later takes us at a point which admittedly very far from
the conventional grammarian’s conception of subject and
predicate:
Consider.
(88) ram roti kha raha hai
Ram (m) bread (f) eat mas. sg-prog-aux
Ram is eating the bread. (verb agrees with Ram)
(89) ram-ne roti khaaii
Ram-Erg. bread (f) eat-f.sg. perf.
Ram ate the bread. (verb agrees with ‘bread’)
Moreover, languages like Malayalam and Bangla and many others
do not show verb agreement. In that case how do we decide on the
“grammatical subject’ ?
Identity Crisis of Dative Subjects 87
The first and the last sentence have transitive verbs where verb is co
indexed with the second (last) nominal in the former and with the first
nominal in the latter because verbs cannot agree with the case
marked subject nominals. This is also true of experiential
constructions like (91) where verb does not agree with the first
Identity Crisis of Dative Subjects 89
nominal but with the last or second nominal buxar ‘fever’. There is no
controversy over the subjectivity of ma in (90) and (92) [inspite of the
lack of verbal agreement with md in (90). The problem is only with
the nominal ma in (91) which is followed by Dat/Acc case marking.
If agreement is the only clue I find no reason why md in (90) can be
considered ‘subject’ but not in (91). Both the constructions do not
allow cross referencing with subject nominals. In fact, in languages
like Hindi and Punjabi in postpositional sentences* verb agrees with
the last nominal in the sentence. If the verb is of conjunct type
(Adj/Noun + verb) then the verb agrees with the nominal
constituent of the conjunct verb. For instance in sentence 15 from
Punjabi (given earlier) the verb mil ‘to receive’ is coindexed with
object noun roti ‘bread’ because the benefactive nominal is marked
by dative case post positional marking. Similarly in Marathi sentence
7 (also given earlier) verb ‘be’ agrees with masculine plural kapre
‘clothes’ because the first nominal of the sentence which is a
benefactor is in oblique case. See also sentences of Stative
Experiential types (45-47) where verbs agree with the temporal nouns
rather than oblique marked animate nouns. See also Process
Experiential verbs (43, 44). In fact, even in compulsive/obligational
constructions verbs agree with the direct object (72). In case of
intransitive verbs of ‘locational’ type verb is in third person singular
which is a neutral form.
The experiential constructions which allow parallel sentences in
direct and oblique marked nominals (such as 33 : 33a, 42 : 42a, 44:
44a, 82 : 82a) have different focussed nominals. We saw in the earlier
section that verb always agreed with the focussed nominals whether it
is the experience or the patient.
Thus, to summarize, verb agreement is not a very reliable criterion
to determine subjectivity because : (1) Not all Indian languages have
verb coindexing features of subject, i.e. verb does not show agree
ment for gender, number and person. (2) Those languages which do
allow such coindexing allow so only partially, i.e. in one of the tenses
or in few of the pronominally marked sentences. (3) In postpositional
sentences verbs agree with the object noun or with the last nominal of
the sentence.* This statement holds true for languages specified in (2)
above. (4) The existence of explicator compound verb in a sentence
90 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
Anaphoric Control
We can consider three important devices of anaphoric control. They
are : (a) Reflexive, (b) Conjunctive participle (CP) and (c) Redupli
cated adverbs — all refer to the subject of the sentence. Consider
“sentences (93) (Reflexive), (94) (CP), (95) (Reduplicated adverbs) in
which the anaphoric strategies are in bold.
Hindi (93) mujhe apna becca yad aya
I-DAT self child memory came
‘I remembered my own child’
(93a) vo bar bar apne desh ko yad kor rahi thi
she + NOM again again self country Acc. remmember
do prog past.
‘She was missing her country again and again’
(94) use khana bonta dekh kar zoro se bhukh logne
logi
he+ DAT food cook see CP much hunger began
‘Seeing the food being cooked, he started feeling
hungry’
(94a) vo khana bonta dekh kar vohi beth goi
she + NOM food prepare see CP there sit go past
‘Seeing the food being prepared she sat right there’
(95) mujhe yo bethe bethe shorm a rohi(f) he
I+ DAT like this sitting sitting shyness come prog.
‘I am feeling embarrassd sitting like this’
(95a) vo yi bethe bethe shorma raha tha (m)
he + NOM like this sitting sitting shy prog. past
“He was feeling embarrased sitting like this’
The counterpart (a) sentences make use of direct forms and thus
verbs agree with experiencer nouns in gender and number.
Identity Crisis of Dative Subjects 91
deleted but is coindexed in the finite verb (m. sg.). Similarly, in the
next sentence (98) ‘Hari’ is in dative and so is the equi NP which is
deleted later. As suggested earlier since postpositions block
agreement, the finite verb no longer agrees with the experiencer NP
‘Hari’ nor it agrees with deleted dative NP ‘Hari’ but with the last
nominal of the sentence ‘yad (f) ‘memory’. Agreement with the
deleted NP in (97) and nonagreement with the first nominal in (98)
both prove that dative subjects or experiential nominals have subject
properties.
Position in a Sentence
The fourth criterion to identity subject nominal is by its position in a
sentence. The agentive subjects normally assume the sentence initial
position. Dative subjects or oblique marked nominals also assume
the same position as is clear from all the 98 sentences from different
languages. Any change in the position is brought only for pragmatic
reasons specially for emphasizing. This brings in the question of
‘topicality’:
Point of View
There have been arguments that the difference between the two types
of parallel constructions such as in 33 and 33a where in one expe-
riencer NP is encoded with oblique marking and in the other it is not is
that in the latter the situation is described from the point of view of
an observer or the speaker while in the former the speaker is
reporting a situation which may not be perceivable to an outsider
(Joshi 1988). The two of them are distinguished by the ‘point of view’
factor on external-internal perspective factors. This argument is too
simple to be accepted. Let us consider sentences 34 and 35 again. In
both the constructions ‘IT’ is in a state of biological/physical ailing
state. Both the sentences are of internal perspective. Where should
we draw the line and how? Similarly one can take almost all the
parallel cases of oblique marked subjects and non oblique marked
subjects analysed in sections I, II for discussion but we can not prove
beyond doubt what is external and what is internal perspective
factor. In fact, all experiential constructions and to some extent all
benefactive and attributive constructions have internal perspective
factors as far the experiencer nominal or benefactor nominal or the
nominal in the state of attribution is concerned. Even if the causing
factor of the experience is outside the domain of the experiencer, the
experiencer perceives the ‘effect’ of the factor and thus is an ‘affected’
party or is an ‘internalized experiencer’. As we have seen, the
difference between 33 and 33a or 34 and 35 is not of ‘volition’ nor is it
of ‘point of view’ but is of FOCUS. The basic difference between the
two parallel constructions emerges due to non focussed element
encoding the oblique marking.
The Solution :
We already know that there is one or the other kind of oblique
marking (mostly dative and accusative) wich follows the subject
nominal of the experiential constructions. The verbs in such
constructions are mainly of conjunct verb type which should be seen
as one whole lexical unit as semantically they are states and processes
rather than object and verb combinations. We can never equate
‘transitive verbs’ that obligatorily take objects with ‘conjunct verbs’
which have either an adjective or a nominal as an integral
96 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
S Te, este + \P
i 32
N < (Adj.) Complex: Verb
saToRJounO
sg Jo jONUOD sanNqLUny a1S SS3001g 9ANeIS UOT}OYV SS9
|
|
|
31S SSI001g -Iqedeout
§=ayejg_ saeoyouy />es SS9901g je1odwiay Jeuon
Saatssed
= Ae]
conceal
SAISSOSSOgules SSO]
H
datsyndurod Alosuas peotskug [euono
pue pue pue
jeuonesi|qo [equa [eo1sojorg
aqeuarye
©= g[qeualeur
“BLT
‘¢ UON aanuasy anbijqQ payer S[EUIWION
Identity Crisis of Dative Subjects 99
NOTES
" Some of the example are cited from the various handouts distributed at the 17th
South Asia Conference held at Madison, Wisconsin in Nov. 1988. The parenthesis
against each sentence referstc the author’s apbreviated names. These are :
DM David Magier
KP Krishna Pradhan
KPM K.P. and Tara Mohanan
MKM Mithilesh K. Mishra
MKV Mainindra K. Verma
RB Rakesh Bhatt
RP Rajeshwari Pandharipande
SLC Shobha L. Chelliah
SNS S.N. Sridhar
HU Helen Ullrich
The papers presented in the said conference have been published by the Stanford
Linguistic Association. See Verma and Mohanan 1990. Nahali examples are from
Kuiper’s Nahali: A Comparative Study, and Kharia sentences are from Veena
Malhotra’s Ph.D. dissertation ‘The Structure of Kharia’.
100 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
Conclusions
As Woolard (1989: 357) rightly puts ‘the will for maintenance and for
purity do seem to have the same roots’.
Other than the drive by ‘languages purists’ the linguistic and the
social solidarity of the speech community also help preserve some
characteristic features of the language. The typical examples are in
the realm of phonetics and phonology. The lamino-dentals in Khasi,
the glottal stop in Munda and Kurux, the implosives in Sindhi, the
glottal fricatives in Assamese, the vioced apirates in Indo Aryan are
cases in point. These features are individual language identity
markers. The areal features, on the other hand, are area identity
markers. Each language in a typical language contact situation, thus
preserves both individual as well as group identity. The group
identity helps it-to be distinguished from the identity of the
languages of the other neighbouring areas.
Our investigation into the semantic structures of expressives, echo
formations, word reduplication, explicators, and non agentive
subjects reveal a very significant aspect about the Indian languages
and its users. It is mostly those semantic constructs which pertain to
perceptive and sensory abilities of a human being that materialize in
structural cognates. These abilities are predetermined by specific
socio-cultural environment of the speakers of the region. We can ask
ourselves that why don’t we find structural resemblances without
parallal resemblances in meaning? Or why don’t we find varying or
different linguistic structurations for same or similar semantemes?
Why five senses of prceptions manifest themself in expressives ? Why
passivity or out of control situation is encoded by obligue marking
on the subject nominal? Or why inadvertent action is manifested in
the use of an explicator? Surely, these are neither chance resemb
lances nor genetic inheritences. These are language contact induced
phenomena which, having crossed the barriers of history and
geography, have sustained in the various speech communities over a
long period of time.
What is obscure till date is the process of this diffusion and
convergence. But what is transparent is the fact that in a language
contact situation many of the languages change drastically. Drastic
enough to surprise any historical linguist. To him they might appear
as ‘sister’ languages, not being able to segregate historical affinity
104 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages
NOTE
'Eric Allardts (1984 : 195-205) rejects the idea that restricts the use of the word
‘minority’ to a fixed percentage or a proportion that a linguistic minority cannot
exceed. The decisive factor in making them linguistic minorities is not the size but
rather the social organization and their ‘place in society’. A language can be
subordinate to a dominant language to be claimed to be a minority language.
Select Bibliography
Aronoff, Mark (ed.). 1984. Language, Sound and Structure, M.I.T. Press
Cambridge.
Asher, R.E. 1985. Tamil. Croom Helm Descrptive Series. Routledge.
London.
Bach, Kent. 1987. ‘Thought and Reference, Clarendon Press. Oxford.
Bhatia, Tej. 1988. ‘The Notion ‘Subject’ in Punjabi and Lahanda’. Paper
presented at 17th South Asia Conference, Madison.
Bhatt, Rakesh. 1988. ‘Dative Subjects in Kashmiri Paper presented at 17th
South Asia Conference, Madison.
Bhattacharya, S. 1975. Studies in Comparative Munda Linguistics. 1.1.A.S.
Simla.
Bloch, Jules. 1965 (Eng. Ed.) Indo Aryan: From the Vedas to Modern Times.
Libraire d’ Amerique et d’ orient Adrien Maisonnenue Paris.
Botha, Rudolf, P. 1988. Form and Meaning in word formation. A Study of
Afrikaans Reduplication. Cambridge University Press. New York.
Briggs. Charles L. 1986 (reprinted 1989), Learning How to Ask. A
Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science
Research. Cambridge University Press. New York.
Burrow, T. and Emeneau, M.B. 1960. A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary.
Clarendon Press Oxford. 1968 Supplement.
Butterworth, Brian, B. Comrie and Osten Dahl (eds). 1984. Explanations for
Language Universals Mouton Publishers New York.
Caldwell, Robert. 1856. A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South
Indian Family of Languages. Harrison London.
Campbell, L.T. Kaufman and T.C. Smith-Stark. 1986 ‘Meso-America as a
Linguistic Area’. Language. vol. 62, no. 3 (530-70).
Chatterji, S.K. 1942. Indo- Aryan and Hindi, Gujarat Vernacular Society.
Calcutta (reprinted in 1960 & 1969).
Chelliah, Shobhna L. 1988. ‘Experiencer Subject in Manipuri’. Paper
presented at 17th South Asia Conference, Madison.
Chomsky, N. and H. Lasnik. 1977. ‘Filters and Control’. Linguistic Inquiry.
vol. 8 (425-504).
Chomsky, N. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Amesterdam.
Foris.
Chomsky, N. 1988. Language and Problem of Knowledge the M.I.T. Press,
Messachuttes.
Cole, P. & J.M. Sodock. 1977. Syntax and Semantics : Grammatical
Relations. vol. 8. Academic Press. New York.
Comrie, B. 1977. ‘In Defense of Spontaneous Demotion : the Impersonal
Passive (47-58) in Syntax & Semantics. vol. 8.
——. 1989. Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Syntax and
Morphology. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Cruse, D.A. 1986. Reprinted 1989. Lexical Semantics. Cambridge Textbook
in Linguistics
Select Bibliography 107
Zide, N.H. 1976. ‘A Note on Gta? Echo Forms’ in Austro-Asiatic Studies (ed
by Nzide Jenner, L.C. Thompson and Stanley Starosta), Pt. 11. Oceanic
Linguistic, Special Publication No. 13. University of Hawaii Press,
Hawaii.
Zide, N.1987 (1984). Robert Colebrook and the first linguistic notice of the
Andamanese Languages. South Asian Review. 8 : 5. (95-100).
Zide, N. and Vishvajit Pandya. 1989. ‘A Bibliographical Introduction to
Andamanese Linguistics’. Journal of the American Oriental Society. 109.4
639-51
= Baber. 6 PeAvereahs pl 2 Duties : i) ee ; msSA Atae ol
A ee
aA ianett. wn cei iT i enarqiattant Niaee a te ~
Mie law
. ee
f syn ; : 7. | ae | Giant’
rR Eire 2 Prins rene ace
Hl Sy Flee Atala af Me, wi ote Cling ei ;
ul Wu 2G | Wegget Te » a
i Heertonny: te. ieAe
* 2 A ‘oh
a
=,
, itsa
“ee
7
+
i Ay A
we
he
Anvita Abbi is Associate Professor of Linguis-
tics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Educated at the University of Delhi, Cornell
University, U.S.A., she has widely travelled and
given extensive lectures at the universities in
Europe and America.