LINGUIST List 25.3166
Mon
Aug 04 2014
Diss: Indo-Aryan;
Historical Linguistics: Reinöhl:
'Grammaticization and
Configurationality...'
Editor for this issue:
Danuta Allen <danutalinguistlist.org>
Date: 03-Aug-2014
From: Uta Reinöhl
<uta.reinoehl
uni-koeln.de>
Subject: Grammaticization and
Configurationality - The Emergence of
Postpositional Phrases in Indo-Aryan
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Institution: Universität zu Köln
Program: Department of General Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2013
Author: Uta Reinöhl
Dissertation Title: Grammaticization and
Configurationality - The Emergence of
Postpositional Phrases in Indo-Aryan
Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
Historical
Linguistics
Language Family(ies): Indo-Aryan
Dissertation Director:
Hans Henrich Hock
Nikolaus Himmelmann
Dissertation Abstract:
In my dissertation, I study the change from a
largely non-configurational language (Vedic
Sanskrit) to a part-
configurational one (Hindi, representing New
Indo-Aryan languages). While it is a
long-standing fact of Indo-
Aryan studies that the morphological case
system eroded in the course of Old and Middle
Indo-Aryan and
was functionally in part replaced by
postpositional phrases in New Indo-Aryan, the
precise mechanisms
behind this overhaul have not been studied.
This dissertation presents the first detailed
corpus study of the
gradual emergence of postpositional phrases
through the Old, Middle, and Early New Indic
periods. It is
shown, contrary to what has been claimed, that
the Indo-Aryan postpositional phrases arise
along paths
altogether different from those of
prepositional phrases attested in other
branches of Indo-European. In
particular, it is not groups of adverbs and
local case forms that are reanalyzed as phrasal
units, but
relational nouns, participles and other
denominal and deverbal forms in conjunction
with their morphological
dependents are revamped as postpositional
phrases. The emergence of the very first
configurational
structures in this branch of languages -
postpositional phrases - is shown to be
intimately tied to the
grammaticization of this broad assortment of
lexical items, recruited as grammatical items
at different points
in the history of Indo-Aryan.
Page Updated: 04-Aug-2014