Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: THEORY: two questions

From:BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Friday, March 31, 2000, 10:05
At 16:18 30.3.2000 -0600, Thomas R. Wier wrote:
> > > > > I may be wrong though. But IIRC, some IE languages have now > > > mixed ergative if not completely ergative systems, > > > > Which languages would that be? > >There are a couple Indo-Aryan languages, particularly Hindi, which >have some aspects of ergativity.
Historically speakers of Middle Indo-Aryan ceased to use the old Perfect, instead using an analytic passive construction, which is used also in Sanskrit: _;si.syo 'caaryena d.r.s.ta.h_ pupil-NOM teacher-INSTR seen-PPP Literally this means "pupil (is) seen by teacher", but in Middle Indo-Aryan the construction lost its passive sense, becoming the usual way of expressing the perfect. In New Indo-Aryan the reflex of the past passive participle has lost its nominal character, and functions as a finite verb form taking its subject in an oblique case and its object in the nominative. Thus an ergative! /BP B.Philip Jonsson <mailto:bpj@...>bpj@netg.se <mailto:melroch@...>melroch@my-deja.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__ Anant' avanaute quettalmar! \ \ __ ____ ____ _____________ ___ __ __ __ / / \ \/___ \\__ \ /___ _____/\ \\__ \\ \ \ \\ \ / / / / / / / \ / /Melroch\ \_/ // / / // / / / / /___/ /_ / /\ \ / /Melarocco\_ // /__/ // /__/ / /_________//_/ \_\/ /Eowine__ / / \___/\_\\___/\_\ I neer Pityancalimeo\ \_____/ /ar/ /_atar Mercasso naan ~~~~~~~~~Cuinondil~~~\_______/~~~\__/~~~Noolendur~~~~~~ || Lenda lenda pellalenda pellatellenda cuivie aiya! || "A coincidence, as we say in Middle-Earth" (JRR Tolkien)