The decline of labile syntax in Old Indo-Aryan

A diachronic typological perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID10296239
AuthorsLeonid Kulikov, Леонид Куликов (0000-0002-7825-4866, Ghent University, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume52
Issue4
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLinguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0024-3949 • E-ISSN: 1613-396X
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/ling-2014-0018
OpenAlexW2118338893
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited7

The ancient Indo-European languages, such as early Vedic or (Homeric) Greek, are usually considered to be characterized by a high degree of lability. According to the communis opinio, they had a considerable number of labile verbs or verbal forms that could be labile, cf. rudrā́ r̥tásya sádaneṣu vāvr̥dhuḥ ‘Rudras have grown [intransitive] in the residences of the truth’ ~ índram ukthā́ni vāvr̥dhuḥ ‘The hymns have increased [transitive] Indra’. This paper offers a general overview of the Vedic verbal forms for which labile patterning is attested. I will argue that, for most of these forms, the secondary character of lability can be demonstrated. Thus, for many labile forms with middle inflection (in particular, forms belonging to the present system), labile patterning results from the polyfunctionality of the middle diathesis (self-beneficent / anticausative). The secondary transitive usages of some fundamentally intransitive verbs such as puṣyati ‘prospers; makes prosper’ originates from the syntactic re-analysis of content accusative constructions of the type ‘X prospers (in) Y’→‘X makes Y prosper’. I will further demonstrate that, within the Old Indo-Aryan period, we observe the decline of the labile type. Already in the second most ancient Vedic text, the Atharvaveda, we find very few labile forms. Thus, most of the active perfects which show labile syntax in the R̥gveda are either attested in intransitive usages only, or in transitive usages only, or do not occur at all. I will also discuss the main mechanisms of the loss of labile pattern in Old Indo-Aryan

Art · Causative · Inflection · Lability · Linguistics · Literature · Syntax · Transitive relation · Verb · Chemistry · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Mathematics · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation