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.
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