Aspect shifts in Indo-Aryan fileAspect shifts in Indo-Aryan Cleo Condoravdi and Ashwini Deo PARC and Yale University [email protected] [email protected] Formal Approaches

Aspect shifts in Indo-Aryan

Cleo Condoravdi and Ashwini DeoPARC and Yale University

[email protected]@yale.edu

Formal Approaches to Tense, Aspect and ModalityCIL 18

Korea UniversityJuly 24, 2008

Cleo Condoravdi and Ashwini Deo PARC and Yale University [email protected] [email protected]


Grammaticalization paths

I Large-scale typological studies have produced a number ofempirical generalizations about shifts in the meaning oftense-aspect categories.

I The categories involved in these shifts are stable acrosscross-linguistic instantiations.

I The paths of change are unidirectional.I These shifts are characterized as uniformly generalizing.

(1) a. RESULTATIVE� PERFECT� PERFECTIVE

b. PROGRESSIVE� PRESENT/IMPERFECTIVE




I But what is the semantic content of these categories at eachsynchronic stage?

I How can the shifts be characterized as generalizations?I What might be the motivations for such shifts?




I these questions may be better addressed withI detailed diachronic case studies

I of individual formsI of broader tense-aspect systems within which such forms are

embedded.I a characterization of the meaning of the categories that are the

input to or the output of grammaticalization processes



This talk

I focus on the instantiation of theRESULTATIVE� PERFECT� PERFECTIVE

path in Indo-Aryan as realized by -ta.I provide evidence that -ta realizes three distinct aspectual

categories at three stages in the history of Indo-AryanI Stage I: -ta realizes the resultative perfect aspectI Stage II: -ta realizes the perfect aspect, with resultative,

existential, and universal readingsI Stage III: -ta realizes a complex aspectual category with both

perfect and perfective uses

I Except for Jamison (1990), this change is not recognized in thevast literature in Indo-Aryan



This talk

I characterize the meaning of -ta at these three stagesI demonstrate the semantic relatedness of the three categoriesI explore the enabling factors for the change.



A brief reminder on the perfect and perfective readings

(2) John has put the cake in the oven. RESULTATIVE

The cake is in the oven.

(3) John has visited Korea many times. EXISTENTIAL

Many separate visits to Korea preceding now

(4) John has lived in Korea for the last three years. UNIVERSAL

Continuous living in Korea extending to now

(5) John iced the cake. He then went shopping. PERFECTIVE

(6) *John has iced the cake. He has then gone shopping.



Indo-Aryan Chronology

TIMELINE STAGE LANGUAGE SOURCE

1700BCE-1200BCE I Early Vedic R.gveda (RV)1000BCE-500BCE II Later Vedic Baudhayana Sutra (BS)

Atharvaveda (AV)300 BCE-700CE III Middle Indic Vasudevahimd.i (VH)



The expansion in the readings of -ta

READINGS Resultative Perfect PerfectiveStage I Stage II Stage III

Resultative perfect√ √ √

Existential perfect√ √

Universal perfect√ √

Eventive/Past√



Optionality of tense auxiliaries

I Present and past tense auxiliaries are optional with the -ta formin all three stages.

I -ta sentences without tense auxiliries are interpreted identicallyto those with overt tense auxiliries.

I The examples to come have no tense auxiliaries.



Early Vedic: Stage I

Distribution -ta appears as a prenominal modifier and as a mainclausal predicate. This holds constant across all stages.

Readings Uniformly exhibits the resultative perfect reading. Theresult state may hold in the present or the past.

Alternative forms The existential and universal perfect are expressedby the reduplicated perfect form.




I Resultative perfect (Reference time is present)

(7) agnıbhrajas-ofire.glowing-NOM.PL

vidyut-olightening-NOM.PL

gabhastiy-oh.hand-LOC.DU

sıpra-h.visor-NOM.PL

sırs.a-suhead-LOC.PL

vıta-taspread-PERF.M.PL

hiran.yayı-h.golden-NOM.PL

‘Lightenings glowing with fire are on your hands; visors wroughtof gold have spread on your heads.’ (RV. 5.54.11c-d)Visors wrought of gold are on your heads




I Resultative perfect (Reference time is past)

(8) yadwhen

aya-tamcome-IMPF.2.DU

divodas-ayaD-DAT.SG

varti-h....abode-ACC.SG

revadriches.ACC.SG

uvah-acarry-PFCT.3.SG

sacan-ogood-M.PL

rath-ochariot-NOM.SG

vamyou.GEN.DU

vr.s.abha-sbull-NOM.M.SG

caand

simsumara-sdolphin-NOM.M.SG

caand

yuk-tayoke-PERF.M.PL

‘When you (Asvins) came to Divodasa, (to his) abode, yourchariot had carried rich goods. A bull and a river dolphin hadbeen yoked to it.’ (RV 1:116:18)A bull and a dolphin had a yoke around their heads



Evidence for resultative status of -ta

I A striking asymmetry between telic and atelic verbs with respectto attestation of -ta forms (list of roots and their attested verbforms in Grassman 1964 and Whitney 1883).

VERBS TELIC ATELIC

BARE PREVERBED TOTAL

Number of roots 44 10 54 38PERF attested for 33 10 43 4% PERF forming roots 75% 100% 80 % 10.5%




I Unavailability of existential perfect or eventive readings with -taforms of frequently attested telic verbs.

verb -ta form Count Existential readingsu ‘press out’ sut 58 0yuj ‘yoke’ yukt 46 0idh ‘kindle’ iddh 30 0badh ‘bind’ baddh 15 0gr.bh ‘grasp’ gr.bhıt 15 0vi+tan ‘spread’ vitat 15 0




I No attestations of the -ta form with past-referring adverbials likepura and purvam, or frequency adverbials like purudha ‘often’.

I The only examples of such adverbials occur in the part of the textknown to be authored much later than the original text.

Adverbial Occurrence -ta modifierpura ‘of old, earlier’ 45 1purvam ‘before, in the past’ 8 1purudha ‘often’ 9 1



Late Vedic: Stage II

I The -ta form further extends to atelic predicates.I In addition to the resultative reading, it shows the existential and

the universal perfect readings, characteristic readings of theperfect.




I Resultative perfect

(9) ye-bhih.which-INS.PL

pas.-aih.fetter-INS.PL

parivit-toelder.brother-NOM.M.SG

vıbad-dhobind-PERF.M.SG

’ngeangalimb-by-limb

arp-itaencumber-PERF.M.SG

uts-itasshackle-PERF.M.SG

caand

‘By which fetters the older brother (whose younger brother hasmarried before him), has been bound, (with which) he has beenencumbered and shackled limb by limb...’ (AV 6.112.3)




I Existential perfect (reference time is present)

(10) nirn.odah.banishment-NOM.M.SG

sarva.papanamall.sin-GEN.M.SG

pavitramfilter-NOM.N.SG

r.s.ibhih.sage-INS.M.PL

smr.tamtaught-PERF.N.SG

‘A filter (for) banishment of all sins has been taught by sages.’(BS 3.6.5.1)




I Existential perfect (reference time is past)

(11) trıs.thrice

t.vayou.ACC.SG

devagod-NOM.PL

ajanayannıs.t.hi-tambeget-IMPF.3.PL

bhumy-amgrow-PERF.N.SG

adhiearth-LOC.SG uponThrice, the Gods begot you; (you) had grown up upon this earth.(AV. 19.34.6)




I Universal perfect

(12) loka.samgrahan.a.artha-mworld.adultery.purpose-ACC.M.SG

hiPRT

tadthen

amantra-h.non-mantra-NOM.F.PL

striy-oma-tah.women-NOM.F.PL think-PERF.F.PL

It is due to their adulterous nature that women have been thoughtun-entitled to knowledge of the Vedas. (BS 1.5.11.7)



Middle Indic: Stage III

I The perfect readings are retainedI The -ta forms can also be used in narrative discourse and with

definite past referring adverbialsI The reduplicated perfect and the aorist are lost.




I Resultative perfect

(13) amhe-himwe-INS.PL

man.ussajamma-ssahuman-life-GEN.SG

phala-mconsequence-NOM.N.SG

sayalamall

gihi-yamgrasp-PERF.N.SG

We have grasped all the consequence of human existence.(VH:KH.5.8)




I Existential perfect

(14) tubbhe-himyou-INS.SG

mama-oI-ABL

vieven

airitta-.mmore-NOM.N.SG

dukkha-msorrow-NOM.N.SG

pa-ttamreceive-PERF.N.SG

‘Have you received (experienced) even more sorrow than me?’(VH:DH.35.25)




I Universal perfect

(15) kimwhy

mannethink-IMPF.1.SG

devılady.NOM.SG

passa-man. ılooking-PART.NOM.SG

nicchalcchıunmoving-eyes.NOM.SG

t.hi-yastand-PERF.F.SG

Why, I wonder, has the watching lady, been standing with anunmoving gaze? (VH:KH.9.7)




I Use in narrative discourse

(16) a. tatothen

tethey.NOM.PL

mitta-bandhava-sahi-a...friends-relatives-with-NOM.PL

ga-yago-PERF.M.PL

Then they went there with their friends and relatives.b. chagal-o

goat-NOM.M.SG

vialso

yaand

man.d.e-umdecorate-INF

tatth-evathere-EMPH

ni-otake-PERF.M.SG

And the goat also was taken there to be decorated.




c. gandha-puppha-malla-puyavisesen.asandal-paste-flowers-worship-ingredients

yaand

acchi-yaworship-PERF.M.PL

devayagod-NOM.M.PL

The Gods were worshipped with sandalwood paste, flowers, theingredients of worship.

d. ghara-mahattara-ehihouse-elders-INS.PL

yaand

bhan.i-yamsay-PERF.N.SG

chagala-ogoat-NOM.SG

an.i-jja-ubring-PASS-IMP.3.SG

And the house elders said: Let the goat be brought.

e. tatothen

tassahis

putt-o...son-NOM.M/SG

chagalay-amgoat-ACC.SG

an.e-umbring-INF

ga-togo-PERF.M.SG

At that, his son... went to bring the goat. (VH:D 29.25-28)




I Occurrence with definite past-referring adverbials

(17) tato kaiva-esu divas-esu aikkan-t-esu...then

dit.-t.hamany-LOC.PL

meday-LOC.PL

tarun.ajuvatipass-PERF-LOC.PL see-PERF.F.SG I-INS young.woman.NOM.SG

‘Then, upon the passing of many days, I saw the young woman.

(18) tamm-i ya sama-e...that-LOC.SG

soand

mahis-otime-LOC.SG

n.-en.athat

kin.e-un.abuffalo-NOM.M.SG

mar-iohe-INS.SG buy-GER kill-PERF.M.SG

‘And, at that time, having bought that buffalo he killed it.’(VH:KH 14:21)



The expansion in the readings of -ta

READINGS Resultative Perfect PerfectiveStage I Stage II Stage III

Resultative perfect√ √ √

Existential perfect√ √

Universal perfect√ √

Eventive/Past√



Basic Assumptions

I Sentence radicals are either basic eventive or stative predicates,or four-place relations relating events, event types, state typesand states

I Aspectual operators apply to them to yield predicates of timeswithin which the properties denoted by sentence radicals areinstantiated

I In the absence of tense, a contextually determined reference timeis given as an argument to the temporal abstract

I The time of utterance is always available as a potential referencetime



Basic Assumptions

I Let E be a domain of eventualities and T a domain of non-nulltemporal intervals (with points as a special case) partiallyordered by the relation of temporal precedence ≺ and by thesubinterval relation v.

I A function τ from E to T gives the time span of an eventuality.I Instantiation

INST(P, t) ={∃e ∈ E [P(e) ∧ τ(e) ⊆ t] if P ⊆ EP(t) if P ⊆ T



Resultative Perfect

I Following Pinon (1999) and von Stechow (2003), we takepredications involving result states to involve relations with astative predicate as one of their arguments.

I The resultative perfect maps a four-place relation denoted bysentence radicals to the times at which the stative predicate thatis an argument of the relation holds.

I [[ -taVedic ]] = RESPERF

(19) RESPERF = λRλi∃e∃P∃Q∃s[R(e,P,Q, s) ∧ i = τ(s)]



Resultative Perfect

(20) RESPERF = λRλi∃e∃P∃Q∃s[R(e,P,Q, s) ∧ i = τ(s)]

I The reference time r, specified by tense or contextually, has to beone of the elements of RESPERF(R)

I r ∈ RESPERF(R) iff r ∈ Q[i],where Q[i] is the temporal correlateof Q:

(21) Q[i] = λi∃s[Q(s) ∧ i = τ(s)]P[i] = λi∃e[P(e) ∧ i = τ(e)]



Entailment of Resultative Perfect

I For any four-place relation R with eventive argument P andstative argument Q it holds that

I for every i ∈ RESPERF(R) there is an interval j of which i is afinal subinterval such that it contains an event e of the type Pwhich does not overlap i

(22) λi ∃e∃s[R(e,P,Q, s) ∧ i = τ(s)] ⊆ λiNFINST(P, j, i)

(23) NFINST(P, j, i) is defined only if i is a final subinterval of jNFINST(P, j, i) = ∃k[INST(P, k) ∧ k v j ∧ ¬(i ◦ k)] if defined



From Resultative Perfect to Perfect

I The entailment of the resultative perfect gets conventionalized asthe meaning of the perfect morphology ta in Late Vedic

I [[ taLVedic ]] = PERF

I Unlike [[ taVedic ]], [[ taLVedic ]] can apply to basic eventive andstative predicates as well as temporal predicates

(24) PERF = λPλi∃j[i vfinal j ∧ NFINST(P, j, i)]

I This is, in effect, the ‘extended now’ analysis of the perfect(McCoard 1978, Dowty 1979, Iatridou et al. 2001 among others)



Existential readings

I Supposing P is a basic eventive predicate and the reference timeis the time of utterance

(25) (PERF(P))(Now) = ∃j∃k∃e [P(e) ∧ ¬(Now ◦ k) ∧ τ(e) vk ∧ Now vfinal j]

I For a class of predicates P, such as basic eventive predicatesI for every element t of P or its temporal correlate there is a subset

Subt(PERF(P)) of PERF(P) such that for everyt′ ∈ Subt(PERF(P)), t ≺ t′

I For such predicates PERF(P) will only yield the existentialreading, involving backshifting from the reference time



Universal readings

I For another class of predicates P, such as basic stativesI PERF(P) is a superset of P or its temporal correlate

I For such predicatesI PERF(P) will yield the existential reading if it is assumed that the

reference time r is in PERF(P) but not in P itselfI PERF(P) will yield the .universal reading if it is assumed that the

reference time r is also in P



Resultative readings

I Although PERF cannot apply directly to sentence radicalsdenoting relations R of the type seen earlier, it can apply toRESPERF(R)

I PERF(RESPERF(R)) = PERF(Q)I Q[i] \ glb(Q[i]) ⊂ PERF(Q)



From Perfect to Perfective

I In the transition from Late Vedic to Middle-Indic the conditionfor non-final instantiation is generalized to instantiation

I [[ -taMI ]] = PERV

(26) PERV = λPλi∃j [i vfinal j ∧ INST(P, j)]

I PERV subsumes the readings of PERF and in addition allows forinstantiation within the reference time



This talk

I characterize the meaning of -ta at these three stagesI demonstrate the semantic relatedness of the three categoriesI explore the enabling factors for the change



Motivations for the shift

I The relatedness of the resultative, the perfect, and the perfectivesemantic categories explains the naturalness of the shift.

I A necessary factor for the shiftI What motivates the actual instantiation of this shift in the case of

-ta?I The enabling factor for the shift



Motivations for the shiftI The larger tense-aspect system of Stage 1:

I The reduplicated perfect form realizes the perfect: resultative,existential, and universal readings.

I The aorist form exhibits the eventive past reading.I The -ta form realizes only the resultative perfect.

I The larger tense-aspect system of Stage 2:I The reduplicated perfect expands to show eventive past readings

(overlapping with the aorist form) (Avery 1875; Whitney 1892).I The -ta form exhibits resultative, existential, and universal

readings.

I The larger tense-aspect system of Stage 3:I The reduplicated perfect and the aorist are entirely lost.I The -ta form exhibits resultative, existential, and universal and

eventive past readings



Motivations for the shift: A drag chain

I The semantic generalization of -ta appears to go hand-in-handwith the loss of the reduplicated perfect and the aorist.

I The loss of semantically general forms can be the enabling factoror trigger for the expansion in the meaning of a specific form.



Conclusion

I An explanation for the cross-linguistic resultative to perfect toperfective shift:

I A nested semantic content for each categoryI Semantic generalization

I A potential motivation for the instantiation of such a shiftI The loss of existing morphology for marking general semantic

content



Documents

Aspect shifts in Indo-Aryan fileAspect shifts in Indo-Aryan Cleo Condoravdi and Ashwini Deo PARC and Yale University [email protected] [email protected] Formal Approaches