Cover not available
Part of
Historical Linguistics 2015: Selected papers from the 22nd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Naples, 27-31 July 2015
Edited by Michela Cennamo and Claudia Fabrizio
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 348] 2019
► pp. 149–170

Chapter 8
Diachrony and morphological equilibrium

The case of the southern New Indo-Aryan verb

Marathi-Konkani varieties exhibit a series of verbal formations that derive from the univerbation of a participle plus a form of ‘be’. In the creation of these new, resynthesised, sections of the verbal paradigm, several instances of systematic homonymies arose, which recurrently involve the cells of the first and second person plural and affect several dimensions of the paradigm (aspect syncretism, mood syncretism and gender-agreement syncretism are all observed). At the same time, in inherited synthetic verb forms, the first and second person plural cells show neutralisation of inflection-class distinctions. According to the analysis proposed here, these homonymies can be exhaustively explained neither in terms of phonological development, nor with reference to the characteristics of morphosyntactic properties, but are at least in part due to a general tendency to “morphological equilibrium” that disfavours non-syncretic cumulative exponents uniquely associated with critically rare paradigm-cells.

Keywords: New Indo-Aryan, Marathi, Konkani, syncretism, morphology, verb
Article outline
  • 1.Compensatory syncretism and morphological equilibrium
  • 2.Old and new synthetic verb forms in Southern New Indo-Aryan
  • 3.Inflection class neutralisation in primary formations
  • 4.Aspect and mood syncretism in secondary formations
  • 5.Patterns of syncretism involving gender and number
  • 6.Person syncretism interacting with gender syncretism
  • 7.Some person syncretism patterns independent of the hypothesised equilibrium tendency
  • 8.Cumulative exponence of gender and person in the singular of Marathi secondary inflections
  • 9.General observations
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 September 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.348.08mil
References
Abbott, Justin E.
1905 The Kātkari language (a preliminary study). In The Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The Centenary Memorial Volume, 78–126. Bombay: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Almeida, Matthew
1989  A description of Konkani . Panaji: Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr.Google Scholar
Anderwald, Lieselotte
2002 Negation in Non-Standard British English. Gaps, regularizations and asymmetries. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Aronoff, Mark
1994 Morphology by itself: Stems and inflectional classes. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Baerman, Matthew, Dunstan Brown & Greville G. Corbett
2005 The syntax morphology interface. A study of syncretism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bloch, Jules
1920 La formation de la langue marathe. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar
1954 The grammatical structure of Dravidian Languages (transl. by Ramkrishna Ganesh Harshé). Poona: Deccan College Post-graduate and Research Institute.Google Scholar
Bloch, Jules & Alfred Master
1965 Indo-Aryan from the Vedas to modern times. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve.Google Scholar
Brøndal, Viggo
1940 Compensation et variation, deux principes de linguistique générale. Scientia 68.101–109.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan
2007 Frequency of use and the organization of language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Calabrese, Andrea
2013 The irregular forms of the Italian “Passato Remoto”: A synchronic and diachronic analysis. In Sergio Baauw, Frank Drijkoningen, Luisa Meroni & Manuela Pinto (eds.), Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2011. Selected papers from ‘Going Romance’ Utrecht 2011 17–58. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cardona, George & Dhanesh Jain
(eds.) 2003 The Indo-Aryan languages. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Carstairs, Andrew
1984 Outlines of a constraint on syncretism. Folia linguistica 18.73–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dhongde, Ramesh Vaman & Kashi Wali
2009 Marathi. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Doderet, William
1927 The grammar of the Jnanesvari. Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 4:3.543–573. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Emeneau, Murray B.
1971 Dravidian and Indo-Aryan: the Indian linguistic area. In Andrée F. Sjoberg (ed.), Symposium on Dravidian Civilization 33–68. Austin: Jenkins/Pemberton.Google Scholar
Ghatage, Arit Madhav
1966 Kuṇabī of Mahāḍ. Bombay: State Board for Literature and Culture.Google Scholar
Ghatage, Amrit Madhav
1968 The present tense in some Marathi dialects. In Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (ed.), Studies in Indian Linguistics: Professor M. B. Emeneau Sastipurti Volume 99–102. Poona: Cent. of Advanced Study in Linguistics.Google Scholar
1968b Konkani of Kankon. Bombay: State Board for Literature and Culture.Google Scholar
1969 Warli of Thana. Bombay: State Board for Literature and Culture.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph
1963 Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Joseph Greenberg (ed.), Universals of Language 73–113. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
1966 Language universals, with special reference to the feature hierarchies. The Hague: Mouton. [Repr. 2005 Berlin: de Gruyter].Google Scholar
Hacker, P.
1963, Die Seinsbegriffe des Hindi: hotā hai und hai. Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der Indogermanischen Sprachen 78:3/4.249–295.Google Scholar
Hagège, Claude
1982 La structure des langues. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin
2006 Against markedness (and what to replace it with. Journal of Linguistics 42:1.25–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hock, Hans Henrich
2014 A morphosyntactic chain shift in the Hindi-Panjabi area: Explications and implications. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 1:1.5–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jacobi, Hermann
1886 Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Mâhârâshtrî. Leipzig: Hirzel.Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman
1939 Signe zéro. In Mélanges de linguistique, offerts à Charles Bally, 143–152. Genève: Georg.Google Scholar
Joshi, Ramachandra Bhikaji
1900 A comprehensive Marathi grammar, 3rd ed. Poona: Arya-Bhushana.Google Scholar
Katenina, Tatiana E.
1963 Očerk grammatiki jazyka maratxi [Outline of the grammar of the Marathi language]. Moscow: Izd. literatury na inostrannyx jazykax.Google Scholar
Katre, Sumitra Mangesh
1942 The formation of Koṅkaṇī. Bombay: Karnatak.Google Scholar
Kieckers, Ernst
1960 Handbuch der vergleichenden gotischen Grammatik. 2nd ed. Munich: Hueber [1st ed. 1928].Google Scholar
Konow, Sten
1902 Note on the past tense in Marāṭhī. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Apr. 1902.417–421.Google Scholar
Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju & J. P. L. Gwynn
1985 A grammar of Modern Telugu. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju
2003 The Dravidian languages. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kubrjakova, Elena S.
2000 Submorphemische Einheiten. In Geert Booij, Christian Lehmann & Joachim Mugdan (eds.), Morphologie / Morphology. 1. Halbband 417–426. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
LSI VII
= George Abraham Grierson (ed.) 1905 Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. VII. Indo-Aryan Family. Southern Group. Specimens of the Marāṭhī Language [prepared by Sten Konow]. Calcutta: Government Printing.Google Scholar
Macdonell, A. A.
1910 Vedic grammar. Strassburg: Trübner.Google Scholar
Maiden, Martin
2005 Morphological autonomy and diachrony. In Geert Booij & Jaap van Marle (eds.), Yearbook of Morphology 2004 137–175. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Masica, Colin P.
1991 The Indo-Aryan languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2005 Defining a linguistic area: South Asia. 2nd ed. New Delhi: Chronicle Books.Google Scholar
Master, Alfred
1964 A grammar of Old Marathi. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Miestamo, Matti
2000 Towards a typology of standard negation. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 23: 65–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milizia, Paolo
2013 L’equilibrio nella codifica morfologica. Roma: Carocci.Google Scholar
2014 Semi-separate exponence in cumulative paradigms. Information-theoretic properties exemplified by Ancient Greek verb endings. Linguistic Issues in Language Technology 11:4.95–123.Google Scholar
2015 Patterns of syncretism and paradigm complexity: The case of Old and Middle Indic declension. In Matthew Baerman, Dunstan Brown & Greville G. Corbett (eds.), Understanding and Measuring Morphological Complexity 167–184. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 Sincretismo compensativo ed esponenza semiseparata in alcuni paradigmi verbali del dominio italoromanzo centromeridionale. Archivio glottologico italiano 1. 88–119.Google Scholar
2018 Sul presente neoindoario a doppio verbo finito. Atti del Sodalizio Glottologico Milanese 12(2017). 93-111.Google Scholar
Miranda, Rocky
1978 Caste, religion and dialect differentiation in the Konkani area. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 16.77–92.Google Scholar
2003 Konkani. In George Cardona & Dhanesh Jain (eds.) 2003, 729–765.Google Scholar
Navalkar, Ganpatrao R.
1880 The student’s Maráṭhí grammar. Bombay: Education Society.Google Scholar
Oberlies, Thomas
2001 Pāli. A grammar of the language of the Theravāda Tipiṭaka. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Oranskaja, Tatiana I., Julia V. Mazurova, Andrej A. Kibrik, Leonid I. Kulikov & Aleksandr Ju. Rusakov
(eds.) 2011 Jazyki mira: Novye indoarijskie jazyki [Languages of the world. New Indo-Aryan languages]. Moskow: Academia.Google Scholar
Pandharipande, Rajeshwari V.
2003 Marathi. In George Cardona & Dhanesh Jain (eds.) 2003, 698–728.Google Scholar
Peterson, John
2011 Konkani jazyk [The Konkani language]. In Tatjana Oranskaja et al.. (eds.) 2011, 616–637.Google Scholar
Pischel, Richard
1900 Grammatik der prakrit-sprachen. Strassburg: Trübner. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Plank, Frans & Wolfgang Schellinger
1997 The uneven distribution of genders over numbers: Greenberg Nos. 37 and 45. Linguistic Typology 1:1.53–101.Google Scholar
Rix, Helmut
1992 Historische grammatik des griechischen. Laut- und Formenlehre. 2nd ed. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.Google Scholar
Rohlfs, Gerhard
1966–69 Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti, 3 vols. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Schirru, Giancarlo
2013 Lo sviluppo della flessione di genere nel verbo iranico. Atti del Sodalizio Glottologico Milanese 7. 98–113.Google Scholar
Southworth, Franklin C.
1976 The verb in Marathi-Konkani. International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics 5:2.298–326.Google Scholar
2005 Linguistic archeology of South Asia. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tagare, Ganesh Vasudev
1948 Historical grammar of Apabhraṁśa. Poona [Repr. 1987 Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass].Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah Grey & Terrence Kaufman
1988 Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Whitney, William Dwight
1891 A Sanskrit grammar. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.Google Scholar
Zograf, Georgij A.
1976 Morfologičeskij stroj novyx indoarijskix jazykov [The morphological structure of the New Indo-Aryan languages]. Moskow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Zograf, Georgij A. & Nina G. Krasnodembskaja
2011 Maratxi jazyk [The Marathi language]. In Tatjana Oranskaja et al.. (eds.) 2011, 596–616.Google Scholar