Development of Ergativity in Hindi: Passive Origin
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2022.v07.i08.001Keywords:
Ergativity, Passive, Hindi, Feature checking, Markedness ShiftAbstract
The diachronic analysis of ergativity in Indo-Aryan languages has been under a debate for a long period of time. The dispute is whether the ergativity exits in Indo-Aryan languages because of the historical change (passive origin) or is a matter of historical stability (already existed in the OIA). In this study, it is assumed that the passive construction historically gave rise to the ergative construction in Indo-Aryan languages. All Indo-Aryan elements of split ergativity arose as a result of a reanalysis of the –ta construction in Sanskrit as perfective aspect. This paper will demonstrate that how the markedness shift is allowed from the passive to the ergative in terms of syntactic structure.
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