Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton September 18, 2020

The lexicalization of the adjective class as an innovative feature in the Indo-European family

  • Luca Alfieri EMAIL logo

Abstract

The threefold division noun-verb-adjective is often considered a hallmark of the IE family from the remote PIE phase. However, Alfieri (2016, 2018, forth.) claims that this view is incorrect: while in Latin three major classes of lexemes are found (nouns, verbs and adjectives), in the Sanskrit language of the Rig Veda only two major classes are found (verbal roots and nouns) and the most typical “adjective” (i.e. the Quality Modifier) is a derived stem built on a verbal root meaning a quality. As a consequence, a deep and previously neglected typological change should be reconstructed in the IE family, namely the lexicalization of the adjective class and the change from a parts of speech (PoS) system “without” adjectives and quality concepts verbally encoded, which is still preserved in the RV, to a PoS system with “true” adjectives, which is found in Latin and in almost all other, especially modern and Western, IE languages. In this case, the data in Alfieri (2016, 2018, forth.) are confirmed focusing on the Quality Argument and the Quality Predicate, so as to show that the presence of a lexical class of adjectives is a common development that has come about independently in different branches of the IE family.


Luca Alfieri Universita degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi Via Plinio 36 Rome, 00136 Italy

References

Alfieri, L. 2009. “La categoria dell’aggettivo in vedico”. Archivio Glottologico Italiano 94(1). 3–41.Search in Google Scholar

Alfieri, L. 2013. “L’ipotesi indoeuropea di Bopp e il problema del contatto tra grammatiche”. In: Mancini, M. and L. Lorenzetti (eds.), Le lingue del Mediterraneo antico. Culture, mutamenti, contatti. Roma: Carocci. 15–36.Search in Google Scholar

Alfieri, L. 2014. “The birth of a grammatical category: the case of the adjective class”. Studi e Saggi Linguistici 60(1). 141–175.10.1515/opli-2015-0007Search in Google Scholar

Alfieri, L. 2014b. “The arrival of the Indian notion of root into Western Linguistics. From Colebrooke (1805) to Benfey (1852)”. Rivista degli Studi Orientali. Monographic issue 2: A. Keidan (ed.), The study of South Asia between antiquity and modernity – Parallels and comparisons. Pisa & Roma: F. Serra. 59–84.Search in Google Scholar

Alfieri, L. 2016. “The typological definition of the (apparently historical) notion of root”. Archivio Glottologico Italiano. 102(1).Search in Google Scholar

Alfieri, L. 2018. “La definizione tipologica della radice e la teoria del segno lessicale”. In: Alfieri L., M.C. Benvenuto, C.A. Ciancaglini, A. De Angelis, P. Milizia and F. Pompeo (eds.), Linguistica, filologia e storia culturale. Studi in memoria di Palmira Cipriano. Roma: Il Calamo. 25–44.Search in Google Scholar

Alfieri, L. Forthcoming. “Parts of speech, comparative concepts and Indo-European linguistics”. In: Alfieri L., G. Arcodia and P. Ramat (eds.).Search in Google Scholar

Alfieri L., G. Arcodia and P. Ramat (eds.). Forthcoming. Linguistic categories, language description and linguistic typology. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.Search in Google Scholar

Aronoff, M. 1994. Morphology by itself. Stem and Inflectional classes. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Avery, J. 1976. “Contribution to the history of verbal inflection in Sanskrit”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 10 (1872–1880). 219-324.10.2307/592130Search in Google Scholar

Belardi, W. 1985. “Considerazioni sulla ricostruzione dell’indoeuropeo”. In: Ambrosini, R. (ed.), Tra linguistica storica e linguistica generale. Scritti in onore di Tristano Bolelli. Pisa: Giardini. 39–66.Search in Google Scholar

Belardi, W. 1990. “Genealogia, tipologia, ricostruzione, leggi fonetiche”. In: Belardi, W. (ed.), Linguistica, filologia e critica dell’espressione. Roma: Il Calamo. 155– 218.Search in Google Scholar

Belardi, W. 1993. “Sulla tipologia della struttura formale della parola nelle lingue indoeuropee”. Rendiconti dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 9(4/4). 525–570.Search in Google Scholar

Bhat, S.D.N. 1994. Adjectival categories. Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.24Search in Google Scholar

Bhat, S.D.N. 2000. “Word classes and sentential function”. In: Vogel, P.M and B. Comrie (eds.), Approaches to the typology of word classes. Berlin: Mouton deGruyter. 47–64.10.1515/9783110806120.47Search in Google Scholar

Benveniste, É. 1950. “La phrase nominale”. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 46(1) (fasc. 132). 19–36. [Repr. in Benveniste, É. 1966. Problèmes de linguistique générale. Paris: Gallimard. 151–167.]Search in Google Scholar

Bisang, W. 2008. “Precategoriality and syntax based parts of speech: the case of Late Archaic Chinese”. Studies in Language 32(3). 65–86.10.1075/bct.25.04bisSearch in Google Scholar

Bloch, J. 1906. “La phrase nominale en sanscrite”. Mémoire de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 14(1). 27–96.Search in Google Scholar

Bozzone, C. 2016. “The origin of the Caland System and the typology of adjectives”. Indo-European Linguistics 4. 15–52.10.1163/22125892-00401003Search in Google Scholar

Breunis, A. 1990. The nominal sentence in Sanskrit and Middle Indo-Aryan. Leiden: Brill.Search in Google Scholar

Corbett, G.G. 2006. Agreement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Cowgill, W. 1963. “A search for universals in Indo-European diachronic morphology”. In: Greenberg, J.H. (ed.), Universals of language. Cambridge: MIT Press. 114–141.Search in Google Scholar

Croft, W. 2001. Radical Construction Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198299554.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Delbrück, B. 1888. Altindische Syntax. Halle a. S.: Waisenhause.Search in Google Scholar

Dixon, R.M.W. 2004. “Adjective classes in typological perspective”. In: Dixon, R.M.W. and A.Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), Adjective classes: A cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1–50.Search in Google Scholar

EWAi = Mayrhofer, M. 1986–1996. Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.Search in Google Scholar

Grassmann, H. 19765. Wörterbuch zum Rig-Veda. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.Search in Google Scholar

Gren-Eklund, G. 1978. A study of nominal sentences in the Oldest Upaniṣad. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Search in Google Scholar

IEW = Pokorny Julius. 1959. Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bern-Stuttgart: Francke Verlag.Search in Google Scholar

Jamison, S.W. and J.P. Brereton. 2014. The Rigveda. The earliest religious poetry of India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Joshi, S.D. 1967. “Adjectives and substantives as a single class in the parts of speech”. Journal of the University of Poona, Humanities Section 25. 19–30.Search in Google Scholar

MacDonell, A.A. 1917. A Vedic reader for students. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar

MacDonell, A.A. 1975 [19101]. Vedic grammar. Delhi/Varanasi: Bhartiya Publishing House.Search in Google Scholar

Meillet, A. 1906. “La phrase nominale en indo-européen”. Mémoire de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 14(1). 1–26.Search in Google Scholar

Lazzeroni, R. 1990. “La diatesi come categoria linguistica: studio sul medio indoeuropeo”. Studi e Saggi Linguistici 30. 53–72.Search in Google Scholar

Lazzeroni, R. 2002. “Transitivi, causative e incoativi nel sistema verbale vedico”. Incontri Linguistici 25. 105–122.Search in Google Scholar

Lazzeroni, R. 2004. “Inaccusatività indoeuropea e alternanza causativa vedica”. Archivio Glottologico Italiano 89(2). 139–165.Search in Google Scholar

Lazzeroni, R. 2018. “I presenti in -ya del Rigveda: alla ricerca dell’intransitività scissa”. Archivio Glottologico Italiano 102(1). 1–20.Search in Google Scholar

Lyons, J. 1979. Semantics. (2 vols.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Morgenroth, W. 19772. Lehrbuch des Sanskrit. Grammatik – Lektionen – Glossar. Leipzig: Max Hueber Verlag.Search in Google Scholar

NIL = Wodtko, D.S., B. Irslinger and C. Schneider. 2008. Nomina im indogermanische lexicon. Heidelberg: Winter Verlag.Search in Google Scholar

Panagl, O. 1982. “Produktivität in der Wortbildung”. Folia Linguistica 16. 224–240.10.1515/flin.1982.16.1-4.225Search in Google Scholar

Panagl, O. 1987. “Productivity and diachronic change in morphology”. In: Dressler, W.U. et al. (eds.). 127–152.Search in Google Scholar

Panagl, O. 2006. “Zur verbale Konstruktion Deverbativer Nomina”. In: Crespo, E., J. De la Villa and A.R. Revuelta (eds.), Word-classes and related topics in Ancient Greek. Louvain-La Neuve: Peeters. 47–57.Search in Google Scholar

Ramat, P. 1999. “Linguistic categorization and linguists’ categories”. Linguistics 37(1). 157–180.10.1515/ling.1999.002Search in Google Scholar

Ramat, P. 2014. “Categories, features and values in the definition of word-classes”. Studi e Saggi Linguistici 52(2). 9–24.Search in Google Scholar

Renou, L. 1952. “Grammaire de la langue védique”. Lyon-Paris: IAC.Search in Google Scholar

Renou, L. 1965. “Remarques générales sur la phrase védique”. In: Drewniak, S. (ed.), Symbolae linguisticae in honorem Georgii Kuryłowicz. Wrocław, Warszawa & Kraków: Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich. 230–234.Search in Google Scholar

Speijer [alias Speyer], J.S. 1998 [18861]. Sanskrit syntax. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Search in Google Scholar

Speijer [alias Speyer], J.S. 1974 [18961]. Vedische und sanskrit Syntax. Graz: Akademische Druck.Search in Google Scholar

Stassen, L. 1997. Intransitive predication. Oxford: OUP.Search in Google Scholar

Wakernagel, J. 1905. Altindische Grammatik. (Vol. II.1 Einleitung zur Wortlehre. Nominalkomposition. Göttingen.Search in Google Scholar

Whitney, W.D. 2000 [18791]. Sanskrit grammar. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Search in Google Scholar

Whitney, W.D. 2000 [18871]. The roots, verb-forms and primary derivatives of the Sanskrit language. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass].Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2020-09-18
Published in Print: 2020-09-25

© 2020 Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

Downloaded on 29.3.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/psicl-2020-0013/pdf
Scroll to top button