Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton October 23, 2018

Complex predicates in Betta Kurumba

  • Gail Coelho EMAIL logo

Abstract

This paper discusses various types of complex predicates found in Betta Kurumba, a South Dravidian language spoken in southern India. The constructions discussed include causativising and valency-modifying affixes, phrasal compound verbs, and compound verb stems. Compound verb stems are unusual for the language area, as they combine verb roots word-internally rather than as independent words, and have undergone varying degrees of grammaticalization. The origin of the compound verb stem construction is investigated, with the paper demonstrating that this construction was also originally a phrasal structure containing separate verb words. In addition, the history of valency modification and compound verb stem formation is shown to have contributed to the structure of simplex verb words in this language.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my Betta Kurumba consultants for their incredible patience and diligence in working with me to gather data on their language, as well as the Betta Kurumba community in Theppakkadu for the warm welcome they have given me. I gratefully acknowledge the feedback received from the audience at the seminar on complex predicates held in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 2016, where I first presented parts of this paper. I am especially grateful to an anomymous reviewer of my manuscript for the excellent feedback I received, as well as to Nick Nicholas and Leonid Kulikov for their valuable comments and their work on copyediting this paper.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations used in the text are:
BK

Betta Kurumba

CDr

Central Dravidian

CV

compound verb

IA

Indo-Aryan

NDr

North Dravidian

PDr

Proto-Dravidian

PhrCV

phrasal compound verb

PSDr

Proto-South Dravidian

RVM

root valency modifier

SCDr

South-Central Dravidian

SDr

South Dravdian

StCV

compound verb stem,

TF

theme formative.

References

Agesthialingom, S. & G. Srinivasa Varma (eds.). 1980. Auxiliaries in Dravidian (Seminar papers). Annamalainagar: Annamalai University.Search in Google Scholar

Amberber, Mengistu, Brett Baker & Mark Harvey. 2010. Introduction. In Mengistu Amberber, B. Baker & M. Harvey (eds.), Complex predicates: Cross-linguistic perspectives on event structure, 1–12. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511712234Search in Google Scholar

Annamalai, E. 1979. Aspects of aspect in Tamil. International Journal of Dravidian Languages 11(1). 260–267.Search in Google Scholar

Annamalai, E. 1982. Dynamics of verbal extension in Tamil. International Journal of Dravidian Languages 8(2). 22–176.Search in Google Scholar

Annamalai, E. 2016. Expanded verbs in Dravidian. In Hans Henrich Hock & Elena Bashir (eds.), 2016. Language and linguistics of South Asia: A comprehensive guide (The World of Linguistics 7), 550–559. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar

Burrow, Thomas & Murray B. Emeneau. 1984. A Dravidian etymological dictionary, 2nd revised edn. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar

Butt, Miriam. 1995. The structure of complex predicates in Urdu. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Search in Google Scholar

Butt, Miriam. 2010. The light verb jungle: Still hacking away. In Meningistu Amberber, B. Baker & M. Harvey (eds.), Complex predicates: Cross-linguistic perspectives on event structure, 48–78. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511712234.004Search in Google Scholar

Butt, Miriam & Aditi Lahiri. 2013. Diachronic pertinacity of light verbs. Lingua 135. 7–29.10.1016/j.lingua.2012.11.006Search in Google Scholar

Cardona, George & Dhanesh Jain. 2003. The Indo-Aryan languages. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203214961-20Search in Google Scholar

Coelho, Gail. 2003. A grammar of Betta Kurumba. Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Coelho, Gail. 2012. The re-emergence of finite serial verbs in South Dravidian. In Rajendra Singh & S. Bhattacharja (eds.), Annual review of South Asian languages and linguistics, 45–78. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110279757.45Search in Google Scholar

Coelho, Gail. Forthcoming–a. Annotated texts in Betta Kurumba. Leiden: Brill. [Expected publication: 2019].Search in Google Scholar

Coelho, Gail. Forthcoming–b. Betta Kurumba. In Sanford Steever (ed.), The Dravidian languages, 2nd revised edn. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Emeneau, Murray B. 1956. India as a linguistic area. Language 32(1). 3–16.10.2307/410649Search in Google Scholar

Harris, Alice C. & Lyle Campbell. 1995. Historical syntax in cross-linguistic perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511620553Search in Google Scholar

Hock, Hans Henrich. 2016. Complex verbs: Introduction. In Hans Henrich Hock & Elena Bashir (eds.), Language and linguistics of South Asia: A comprehensive guide (The World of Linguistics 7), 549–550. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110423303Search in Google Scholar

Hook, Peter. 1974. The compound verb in Hindi. Ann Arbor: Center for South and South-East Asian Studies, University of Michigan.Search in Google Scholar

Hook, Peter. 1991. The emergence of perfective aspect in Indo-Aryan languages. In Elizabeth Closs Traugott & B. Heine (eds.), Approaches to grammatialization, Volume II: Focus on types of grammatical markers, 59–89. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.19.2.05hooSearch in Google Scholar

Hook, Peter. 1993. Aspectogenesis and the compound verb in Indo-Aryan. In Manindra K. Verma (ed.), Complex predicates in South Asian languages, 97–113. New Delhi: Manohar.Search in Google Scholar

Hook, Peter. 2001. Where do compound verbs come from? (And where are they going). In Peri Bhaskararao & K. V. Subbarao (eds.), The yearbook of South Asian languages and linguistics, 102–130. New Delhi: Sage.10.1515/9783110245264.101Search in Google Scholar

Hopper, Paul J. & Sandra A. Thompson. 1980. Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language 56(2). 251–299.10.1353/lan.1980.0017Search in Google Scholar

Hopper, Paul J. & Elizabeth Closs Traugott. 1993. Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Joseph, Brian D. & Richard D. Janda. 1988. The how and why of dichronic morphologization and demorphologization. In Michael Hammond & M. Noonan (eds.), Theoretical morphology: Approaches in modern linguistics, 193–213. San Diego: Academic Press.Search in Google Scholar

Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju. 2003. The Dravidian languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511486876Search in Google Scholar

Lehmann, Thomas. 1989. A grammar of Modern Tamil. Pondicherry: Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture.Search in Google Scholar

Masica, Colin. 1976. Defining a linguistic area: South Asia. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Masica, Colin. 1991. The Indo-Aryan languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Meenakshisundaram, T. P. 1965. A historical grammar of Tamil. Poona: Deccan College.Search in Google Scholar

Paramasivam, K. 1979. Effectivity and causativity in Tamil. Trivandrum: Dravidian Linguistics Association.Search in Google Scholar

Raina, Achla M. 2011. The co-eventual verb in Hindi. In Omkar N. Koul (ed.), Indo-Aryan linguistics, 135–152. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.Search in Google Scholar

Slade, Benjamin. 2013. The diachrony of light and auxiliary verbs in Indo-Aryan. Diachronica 30(4). 531–578.10.1075/dia.30.4.04slaSearch in Google Scholar

Slade, Benjamin. 2016. Compound verbs in Indo-Aryan. In Hans Henrich Hock & Elena Bashir (eds.), Language and linguistics of South Asia: A comprehensive guide (The World of Linguistics 7), 559–567. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar

Steever, Sanford B. 1993. Analysis to synthesis: The development of complex verb morphology in the Dravidian languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Steever, Sanford B. (ed.) 1998. The Dravidian languages. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Steever, Sanford B. 2005. The Tamil auxiliary verb system. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Subbārāo, Kārumūri V. 2012. South Asian languages: A syntactic typology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139003575Search in Google Scholar

Subrahmanyam, P. S. 1971. Dravidian verb morphology: A comparative study. Annamalainagar: Annamalai University.Search in Google Scholar

Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Bernd Heine (eds.). 1991. Approaches to grammaticalization. (Typological studies in language 19). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.19.1Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2018-10-23
Published in Print: 2018-10-25

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 29.3.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jsall-2018-0007/html
Scroll to top button