Alignment and Ergativity in New Indo-Aryan Languages

Alignment and Ergativity in New Indo-Aryan Languages

Author: Saartje Verbeke

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-03-22

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 311029267X

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The volume investigates the different alignment patterns in Indo-Aryan and shows that the variation of alignment patterns in Indo-Aryan goes beyond the opposition between accusativity and ergativity. The book includes a thorough discussion of the concepts and terminology relating to alignment patterns. The study draws extensively on new language data from Indo-Aryan. It includes discussions of examples taken from Hindi, Sanskrit, Apabhramsa, Asamiya, Bangla, Oriya, the Bihari languages, Nepali, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Siraiki, Poguli, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marwari, Harauti, the Hindi varieties, and Shina. The volume offers a comprehensive overview of various alignment patterns in Indo-Aryan based on a wide range of data. By focusing on lesser known Indo-Aryan languages, the study questions the central position of Hindi-Urdu in the research on ergativity. Each language is treated in its own right, with a focus on language-specific data and analyses, rather than relying on a notional format that starts with pre-established linguistic concepts. In accordance with this methodology, much attention is paid to "indirect" connections between ergative constructions and other syntactic and semantic patterns in the various languages.


Indo-Aryan Ergativity in Typological and Diachronic Perspective

Indo-Aryan Ergativity in Typological and Diachronic Perspective

Author: Eystein Dahl

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2016-06-14

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 9027267162

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This volume presents a state-of-the-art survey of synchronic and diachronic dimensions of Ergativity in the Indo-Aryan language family. It contains an introduction drawing on the most important recent typological and theoretical contributions to this field, plus seven papers about the origin, development and distribution of ergative alignment in ancient and modern Indo-Aryan languages written by well-established expert authors. The articles provide detailed explorations of language-specific synchronic systems or patterns of change, and large-scale studies of the distribution of ergative morphosyntax across the Indo-Aryan languages. The papers have a typological-functional approach and are based on thorough fieldwork experience and/or philological investigation. As the Indo-Aryan language family has played a paramount role in recent theories of Ergativity and of alignment typology and change, this volume is highly relevant to experts working on these languages and to scholars interested in grammatical relations and it will figure in all future debates in these fields


The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia

The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia

Author: Hans Henrich Hock

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2016-05-24

Total Pages: 964

ISBN-13: 3110423383

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With nearly a quarter of the world’s population, members of at least five major language families plus several putative language isolates, South Asia is a fascinating arena for linguistic investigations, whether comparative-historical linguistics, studies of language contact and multilingualism, or general linguistic theory. This volume provides a state-of-the-art survey of linguistic research on the languages of South Asia, with contributions by well-known experts. Focus is both on what has been accomplished so far and on what remains unresolved or controversial and hence offers challenges for future research. In addition to covering the languages, their histories, and their genetic classification, as well as phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, and sociolinguistics, the volume provides special coverage of contact and convergence, indigenous South Asian grammatical traditions, applications of modern technology to South Asian languages, and South Asian writing systems. An appendix offers a classified listing of major sources and resources, both digital/online and printed.


The Oxford Handbook of Ergativity

The Oxford Handbook of Ergativity

Author: Jessica Coon

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-07-13

Total Pages: 1328

ISBN-13: 0191059781

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This volume offers theoretical and descriptive perspectives on the issues pertaining to ergativity, a grammatical patterning whereby direct objects are in some way treated like intransitive subjects, to the exclusion of transitive subjects. This pattern differs markedly from nominative/accusative marking whereby transitive and intransitive subjects are treated as one grammatical class, to the exclusion of direct objects. While ergativity is sometimes referred to as a typological characteristic of languages, research on the phenomenon has shown that languages do not fall clearly into one category or the other and that ergative characteristics are not consistent across languages. Chapters in this volume look at approaches to ergativity within generative, typological, and functional paradigms, as well as approaches to the core morphosyntactic building blocks of an ergative construction; related constructions such as the anti-passive; related properties such as split ergativity and word order; and extensions and permutations of ergativity, including nominalizations and voice systems. The volume also includes results from experimental investigations of ergativity, a relatively new area of research. A wide variety of languages are represented, both in the theoretical chapters and in the 16 case studies that are more descriptive in nature, attesting to both the pervasiveness and diversity of ergative patterns.


Alignment Change in Iranian Languages

Alignment Change in Iranian Languages

Author: Geoffrey Haig

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9783110195866

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The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics.


Variation in South Asian Languages

Variation in South Asian Languages

Author: Pritha Chandra

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-09-08

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 9819911494

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The book addresses some raging questions in linguistics today: What kind of variation do typologically related languages display? Do we expect to find the same variation in genealogically unrelated languages spoken in the same area? What makes dialects different? The current book answers these questions using data from languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent—an area known for its linguistic richness and diversity. Each chapter in the book presents a wealth of data collected through extensive fieldwork or controlled experimental setups. The chapters examine macro-variation in relative clauses, word order and negation found among Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman languages. It also investigates meso-level variation among related Eastern Indo-Aryan languages and intra-language and dialectal changes. It encourages scholars to probe deep into the mechanisms that underlie the immense intra- and inter-language variation in the area. It serves as a resource book for postgraduate and research scholars of linguistic typology, theoretical syntax, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics and for scholars interested in South Asian languages.


Iranian Syntax in Classical Armenian

Iranian Syntax in Classical Armenian

Author: Robin Meyer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-02-29

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 019885109X

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This book draws on a detailed corpus analysis of fifth-century historiographical texts to explore the influence of the Iranian languages on the syntax of Armenian. Robin Meyer argues that the Armenian periphrastic perfect was created on the model of similar constructions in Parthian via a long period of language contact.


Argument structure in Kashmiri

Argument structure in Kashmiri

Author: Saartje Verbeke

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-11-20

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 9004346783

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Argument structure of Kashmiri is a study of the grammatical patterns one finds in the Indo-Aryan language Kashmiri. Kashmiri shows several unique linguistic features which sets it aside from more well-known Indo-Aryan languages. The book focuses on the grammatical relations and their coding in case marking and in verb agreement. The occurrence of pronominal suffixation in Kashmiri is related with the universal feature of referential hierarchies and the phenomenon of verb second word order. The grammatical structure of Kashmiri is situated in the linguistic area of the Himalayas, and minority languages in the area are discussed as well. The book draws on a wealth of examples from field work, local manuscripts and secondary sources and it is a first comprehensive overview of the grammatical features of Kashmiri from a typological point of view.


Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

Author: Stefan Müller

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published:

Total Pages: 1632

ISBN-13: 3961102554

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Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) is a constraint-based or declarative approach to linguistic knowledge, which analyses all descriptive levels (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) with feature value pairs, structure sharing, and relational constraints. In syntax it assumes that expressions have a single relatively simple constituent structure. This volume provides a state-of-the-art introduction to the framework. Various chapters discuss basic assumptions and formal foundations, describe the evolution of the framework, and go into the details of the main syntactic phenomena. Further chapters are devoted to non-syntactic levels of description. The book also considers related fields and research areas (gesture, sign languages, computational linguistics) and includes chapters comparing HPSG with other frameworks (Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Construction Grammar, Dependency Grammar, and Minimalism).


The Oxford Handbook of Ergativity

The Oxford Handbook of Ergativity

Author: Jessica Coon

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 1297

ISBN-13: 0198739370

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This volume examines the phenomenon of ergativity, a grammatical patterning whereby direct objects are in some way treated like intransitive subjects, to the exclusion of transitive subjects. It includes theoretical approaches from generative, typological, and functional paradigms, as well as 16 language-specific case studies.