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Carlotta Viti

STRATEGIES
OF SUBORDINATION
INVEDIC

FRANCOANGELI

Comitato di direzione: Anna Giacalone Ramat, Giuliano Bernini, Marina Chini, Sonia
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Jezek.

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Alia memoria di Licia Sisti

Contents

Preface

11

Abbreviations

13

1. Introduction

1.1 . Objective
1.2. The framework
1.3. Subordination according to the functional-typological approach
1.4. Hallmarks of subordination in Vedic
1.5. Previous studies on Vedic subordination
1.6. A functional approach to Vedic subordination
1. 7. Data: The Rig-Veda
1.8. Organization ofthe present study

15
15
16
21
25
26
27
30
31

2. Heterogeneous structures of clause linkage

2.1. Evolution of subordinating strategies
2.2. Verbal accentuation
2.3. Particles
2.4. Relativizers

33
33
33
37
46

3. Relative clauses
3.1. The correlative diptych
3.2. The relative pronoun
3.3. The Accessibility Hierarchy
3.4. Phenomena of attraction
3.5. Nominal RCs
3 .6. Functional properties: restrictive vs. appositive RCs
3.7. Preferred types of ARCs in the Rig-Veda
3.8. Preferred. types ofRRCs in the Rig-Veda
3.9. Different domains for RRCs and ARCs

55
55
57
61
63
70
77
80
82
84

3.10. "Restrictive compounds" in the Rig-Veda

3 .11. Iconicity of Vedic relativization
3 .12. Evolution of RCs and compounding in Old Indian

85
87
88

4. The temporal relation

4.1. Semantics oftemporal clauses
4.2. Strategies of succession
4.3. Strategies of simultaneity-succession
4.4. Strategies of simultaneity
4.5. Tense, aspect and actionality in Vedic
4.6. Competition between the subordinators yadh and yadi

92
92
94
98
I 00
104
109

5. The conditional relation

5.1. Semantics of conditional clauses
5.2. Morpho-syntactic strategies of conditionals
5.3. Given conditionals
5.4. Hypothetical conditionals
5.5. Counterfactual conditionals
5.6. Relationship between conditionals and temporals

119
119
121
125
127
129
131

6. The causal relation

6.1. Grammatical sources
6.2. Semantics ofVedic causal clauses
6.3. Automorphism between cause and purpose

134
134
142
147

7. The purposive relation

7.1. Disparity between finite and non-finite structures
7.2. Nominal features ofthe Vedic infinitive
7.3. The influence ofpragmatics on the distribution ofthe infinitive
7.4. Double datives
7.5. Purposive clauses marked by a particle
7.6. Evolution from purposive nominalizations to purposive finite
clauses
7. 7. Purposive clauses marked by a relativizer
7.8. Cognitive markedness ofpurposive and consecutive relations

150
150
152
155
158
161
163
166
177

8. The concessive relation

8.1 Rarity of concessive subordinate clauses
8.2. Semantics of concession
8.3. Morpho-syntactic structures for CCs and CCCs
8.4. Concession in the noun phrase

181
181
183
186
188

8.5. Basic values of the concessive particles cid and canti

8.6. The semantics of contrast in the conjunction ea "and"
8.7. Cognitive markedness of the adversative relation

192
196
207

9. Completive relations
9 .1. Semantics of complementation
9.2. Development ofhypotaxis for comp1etive relations
9.3. Utterance predicates
9.4. Predicates ofknowledge
9.5. Propositional attitude predicates
9.6. Commentative predicates
9.7. Predicates offearing
9.8. Pretence predicates
9.9. Achievement predicates
9.10. Immediate perception predicates
9.11. Modal predicates
9 .12. Desiderative predicates
9.13. Phasa1 predicates
9.14. Manipulative predicates
9.15. Morpho-syntactic binding of complementation in Old Indian

211
211
214
224
229
233
238
239
241
242
244
245
252
255
259
264

10. Conclusions
I 0.1. Prospect
10.2. Summary ofthe study
10.3. The relevance ofVedic for a theory of subordination

271
271
272
278

Index of translated passages

281

Index of subjects

285

References

289

Preface

This book represents the revision of my doctoral dissertation, discussed in

2003 at the University of Pisa. Some parts of it have been presented at the XI
Convegno Nazionale di Studi Sanscriti (Milano, 2002), at the V Convegno di
Studi Vedici e Papiniani (Genova, 2006), and at various meetings of the Circolo Linguistico Fiorentino.
I express my gratitude to Romano Lazzeroni, who first inspired my interest
in linguistics, and to Saverio Sani, who taught me how to appreciate the intricacies of Old Indian language and literature.
I am much indebdted to the scholars who read this book and provided me
with detailed and helpful suggestions: Sonia Cristofaro, Anna Giacalone
Ramat, Rosemarie LUhr, Silvia Luraghi, and Alberta Nocentini. Of course,
none of them is responsible for inaccuracies or shortcomings.

/]

Abbreviations

GER=Gerund
Germ. = German
Goth. = Gothic
Gj. = Gujarati
GV = Gerundive
HN = Head noun
Hit. = Hittite
IE = Indo-European
IF = Infinitive
IND = Indicative
INJ = Injunctive
INSTR =Instrumental
INT = Intensive
IP = Interrogative pronoun
IPF = Imperfect
IPV = Imperative
IT = Iterative
Ks. = Kasmiri
Lat. =Latin
Latv. = Latvian
Lith. = Lithuanian
LOC = Locative
LS =Located situation
M = Masculine
Ma. = Marathi
MID=Middle
N=Neuter,
NEG =Negation
NOM = Nominative
NP =Noun phrase

A == Adjective
A.Gr. =Ancient Greek
ABL == Ablative
ACC = Accusative
ADV=Adverb
AH =Accessibility Hierarchy
AOR= Aorist
AP =Adjective phrase
ARC = Appositive relative clause
Av. = Avestan
Bg. = Bengali
CC = concessive clauses
CCC = concessive conditional
clauses
co = coordinand
COMP = comparative
CRS = Currently relevant state
CS = Causative
CTP = Complement taking predicate
OAT= Dative
DES = Desiderative
DIR= Direct
DP = Demonstrative pronoun
DS = Different Subject
DU =Dual
Engl. = English
F =Feminine
FUT= Future
GEN = Genitive
13

MID=Middle
MOD = Modifier
O.Bg. = Old Bulgarian
O.C.S. =Old Church Slavonic
O.E. = Old English
O.I. =Old Indian
O.lr. = Old Irish
OP = Optative
O.P. =Old Persian
P = Participle
Pa. = Pali
PIE= Proto-Indo-European
PL =Plural
POSS = Possessive
PP = Past participle
PPF =Pluperfect
PR= Present
PRC = Precative
PRE = Preverb
PROH = Prohibitive
PS= Passive
PTC = Particle
PVF = Perfective aspect

QUOT = Quotative
RC = Relative clause
REL = Relativizer
RRC = Restrictive relative clause
RP = Relativ pronoun
RT =Reference time
SB = Subjunctive
SEQ = Sequential
SG =Singular
SP =Species
SS = Same subject
SUP = Superlative
TENNR = temporal-effizierendnoch-nicht realisiert (from Hettrich
1988: 219ff.)
TER = temporal-effizierend
realisiert (from Hettrich 1988:
2] 9ff.)
V =Verb
VOC =Vocative
*=non-recorded
** = ungrammatical or unacceptable

Passages are selected from the Rig-Veda, unless otherwise specified. Abbreviations of other Old Indian texts can be found in Monier-Williams ( 1899).

14

1. Introduction

1.1. Objective
The topic of the present study is subordination in Vedic, which is the most
ancient dialect of Old Indian, and particularly in the Rig-Veda, one of the earliest recorded texts of the Indo-European languages.
Vedic is provided with a rich lexicon and with a robust morpholog)', showing a productive array of inflectional, derivational, and compositional devices.
However, it has a rather free syntax, and a weak system of subordination. Although subordinators are attested since the earliest documents, they have a
low occurrence with respect to other clause linkers such as coordinators or
particles, and display a lowly gramma.ticalized distribution. First, the same
subordinator represents different clausal relations. In particular, yad, which is
the nOminative-accusative neuter singular fonn of the relative pronoun, works
as a factotum conjunction, introducing a number of adverbial and completive
clauses. Second, the verb in the subordinate clause is not distinguished from
the verb in the main clause by any tense, aspect, or modality constraint. Third,
a fixed position does not exist either for- the various constituents of the subordinate clause or for the subordinate clause as a whole with respect to the main
clause.
Since Indian grammarians aimed at describing their language via a set of
precise rules, they were not particularly interested in subordination, and more
generally prefeJTed phonology and morphology to syntax. They signalled even
external sandhi, i.e. post-lexical phonetic combinations, and meticulously labeled each ending or affix involved in word formation, while their contributions to syntactic issues are limited to the study of simple clauses. As far as it
is not amenable to strict grammatical principles, Vedic subordination transparently presents semantic and pragmatic motivations, and therefore acquires
a particular interest for a functional analysis.

15

1.2. The framework

Although ancient IE languages have been extensively explored, they still
can be inspiring for a scholar, to the extent that they are revisited according to
the current trends in linguistic research outside the Indo-Europeanist field.
The present study adopts a functionalist approach. "Let us define a functionalist as one who strives to account for those aspects of grammar that are nonarbitrary in terms of functional principles that lie outside the system of signs
per se and are related to language use." (Noonan 1999: 16) Functionalism is
often described in opposition to formalism, as it represents a challenge to the
research tradition that has dominated in the United States since the second
half of the XX century around Chomsky and the MIT. Therefore, a responsible acceptance of functionalist tenets imp] ies knowing to what extent they differ from their formalist counterparts, and how they can provide a better solution to the case under investigation. This prerequisite is particularly relevant
to a syntactic matter, like that of the present study, since syntax is traditiona1ly
the privileged domain of formalism. On this account, we will point out the
reasons that led us to follow functionalism 1 rather than formalism, and we will
briefly outline the theoretical differences between them.
First, the syntactic weakness of Vedic subordination can hardly be analyzed according to a formalist framework, which focuses on the rules generating the form of linguistic phenomena. Although formalists do not exclude the
possibility for a given structure to have a function, they do not assume it either, and ultimately finding a function for a form is not their favorite goal.
Lasnik ascribes an "agnostic spirit" to formalists. "It is in this agnostic spirit
that one might rationally investigate a structure in advance of determining its
function, or, indeed, without knowing if it even has a function, while leaving
open the possibility that we might discover something about the function of
the structure that would advance our understanding of its form, or vice versa."
(Lasnik 1999: 33-34) Admittedly (cf. Newmeyer 1999: 471 ), formalists usually focus on system-internal solutions.

I. Different opinions exist in functionalism (for a discussion, sec Croft 1995), even more thwl
in formalism, since the former has not a unique leader ligurc as the latter has in Chomsky.
However, all functionalist streams share the feature described in 1.2. Moreover, the boundary
between formalism and functionalism is not clear-cut. In addition to Newmeycr, who has been
defined as "the functionalist Chomskyan" (Haspelmath 2000: 235), some theories unequally
combine formalist and functionalist Wlalyscs. such as Role and Reference Grammar (Folcy and
Van Valin 1984; Van Valin Wld La Polla 1997), Functional Grammar (Dik 1981), Wld HeadDriven Phrase Structure Grammar (Pollard Wld Sag 1994). We refer to the type of functionalism that is further away from formalism, which NoonWl ( 1999) calls West Coast Functionalism,
underlying the geographical distWlce from the major centcr of formalism, located in Boston.

16

on the contrary, functionalists consider of critical importance the study of

language in relation to its communicative function. According to Givon, "the
best point of departure for functionalism is to be found in biology, the motherdiscipline that has been profoundly functionalist for over two thousand years"
(2001: I, 2). lt would be nonsensical for one who studies living beings, say, a
physician, to consider anatomy, i.e. the description of the structure of the human body, without referring to physiology, i.e. the science dealing with the
function of the various organs. From this point of view, language function is
necessarily meant as external to grammar. In addition to communicative purposes, it is related to cognition (mnemonic storage, processing devices, inferencing, etc.), which also involves a number of sensorial-perceptive activities
other than language. We will see (4-8) that the spread of adverbial subordination in Vedic, and in particular the functional heterogeneousness of the subordinator yad, diachronically follows a cognitive pattern of increasing complexity and presuppositionality, which usually parallels the inference procedures found in child language acquisition.
Whereas a functionalist study of language makes use of the cooperation of
psychological and social sciences, fonnalists posit the autonomy of syntax
with respect to extra-grammatical domains. From a formalist point of view,
the syntactic component of grammar is (largely) arbitrary, systematic, and
self-contained with respect to the semantic and pragmatic components. Croft
( 1995) points out that the real cause of disagreement between the two fields is
self-containedness, while even functionalists concede (a partial degree of) arbitrariness and sistematicy.
Arbitrariness implies that syntactic structures are not derivable from semantic or pragmatic functions, and cannot be replaced by them. Sistematicy is
the set of grammatical regularities due to the arbitrary mapping between structure and semiotic function, according to the well-known De Saussurean motto
tout se lient. It is undeniable that grammar is at least in part systematic, as can
be seen in the large regularity of grammatical paradigms. Otherwise, if grammar were created on the fly, learning and mastering a language would be intolerable for the limited capacity of human memory. For this reason, a position as that held in Emergent Grammar, which put forward "a view of structure as always provisional, always negotiable, and in fact as epiphenomenal"
(Hopper 1987: 142), is isolated in the functionalist field. However, functionalists see grammatical regularity not as the expression of some abstract principles of Universal Grammar that one must explicit, but rather as the consequence of the entrenching of communicatively more frequent patterns. In the
same vein, arbitrariness is completely rejected only in "extreme functionalism" (so called in Croft 1995: 509-51 0), which considers syntax entirely derivable from discoursive principles. The functionalist mainstream admits a
17

certain degree of arbitrariness, not only in the lexicon, but also in the grammar.
Nevertheless, phenomena are considered more interesting when a motivation
is available. Among the possible motivations, functionalists consider iconicity,
i.e. the idea that a given form "resembles" a given meaning (as to internal
complexity, length, etc.), or that two or more forms are related to each other in
the same way as their respective meanings (as to linear order, distance, etc.)2
We will see in 3 and in 9 how Vedic subordination is iconically arranged,
to the extent that syntactically looser structures are employed to convey semantically looser functions, while syntactically tighter structures are employed to convey semantically tighter functions.
.
Iconicity is especially evident in the first stages of a linguistic structure,
which later undergoes grammaticalization and therefore is obscured in its motivation. The original function of a given structure can be detected in the light
of diachronic research, whereby what is synchronically idiosyncratic may receive an explanation. Some functionalists see the current shape of grammar as
the result of a phylogenetic and ontogenetic process leading from discourse to
syntax, and from syntax to morphology (Giv6n 1979). On the contrary, structuralism (both a la De Saussure and a la Chomsky) privileges the study of
language as a synchronic and static system, granted that the speaker has no
access to information about previous states of the grammar.
Linguistic variation is also difficult to incorporate in structuralism, which
focuses on the knowledge of grammar possessed by an ideal speaker in an
ideally homogeneous community (langue in De Saussure, competence in
Chomsky), rather than on the actual linguistic practice of a real speaker interacting in a real social environment (parole in De Saussure, performance in
Chomsky). The generativist attempt to provide a simple and general model of
competence has been occasionally accused, even inside generativism, of aiming at elegant description per se, that is, to prefer consistence to credibility.
"Some formalist works seems to me to be driven by just exactly the wrong
sense of formalism: that is, formalism for its own sake, an approach to the
field that allows linguistic research to be driven by the aesthetics of a nota2. Obviously, it is an over-simplification to state that formalists do not accept iconicity. Newmeyer (1992) argues that the generative model has always posited a certain degree of iconicity
between structure and concept, among other things in the formulation of deep structure. Clauses
with a raised subject ("John seems to have won the race") do not iconically represent the propositional content, since the argument John is displaced from the predicate won and from the
other argument the race, with which it forms a syntactic unit. Considering "John seems to have
won the race" a surface structure derived from the deep structure "It seems that John won the
race" allows an iconic and therefore a more natural representation of the same content. (p. 770)
Nevertheless, the major works on iconicity have been developed within functionalism (cf.
Haiman 1980; 1983; 1985a; 1985c; Verhaar 1985; Dik 1989: 16-17; Giv6n 1990: 21; 1991;
Croft 1990: 7).
18

tion." (Anderson 1999: 112-113) Quite differently, functionalists are suspicious of the empiric tenability of the distinction between competence and performance, and particularly of a concept of competence abstractly detached
from language use. In other words, they treat performance, and consider sociolinguistic variation a crucial piece of evidence against the putative selfcontainedness of syntax.
The importance of diachronic and social factors in functionalist works is a
further reason for which functionalism has been here adopted. We will consider subordination a system diachronically evolving from Vedic to Classical
Sanskrit. Moreover, the Rig-Veda is composed of different layers tracing back
to different epochs and to different social levels ( 1. 7).
Adherence to actual texts, which is necessary for one who deals with a
dead language, is also a methodological tenet of functionalism, which has
been deeply investigating discoursive (both conversational and textual) strategies. By contrast, formalism gives priority to simple clauses, which rather
than being documented in a natural text or conversation, are usually elicited
from a scholar's intuition and presented to an informant in order to test their
grammaticality. According to functionalists, such clauses are too grammatical,
since they only occur in grammars rather than in natural discourse. We do not
speak with simple isolated clauses, but rather with complex interlocking sentences. Thus, the study of simple clauses is sound only if considered as a preliminary operation. Giv6n (1979: 22fT.) blames the "sanitization" of the data
committed in the generative research tradition, and compares its analyses to in
vitro experiments. The latter are controlled tests which involve a considerable
degree of abstraction and simplification, and are regarded only as a first step
in analyzing phenomena with a multitude of variables interacting with each
other.
A given structure can be grammatical and nonetheless scarcely used, as
well as ungrammatical and nonetheless largely accepted. Both cases are related to performance, and therefore are deliberately neglected in the formalist
research tradition. "If what the linguist is interested in is capacity of the human language faculty, as most current schools of formalist syntax would
maintain, then data about usage and frequency - or even the issue of whether
a given possibility is ever actually instantiated in any language - may be of at
most rather marginal interest." (Anderson 1999: 120-121) Criticism on usagebased models of grammar has been recently expressed by Newmeyer (2003;
2005). This has aroused a defense of stochastic grammar, i.e. a view of
grammar that incorporates probabilistic information, in Clark (2005), Laury
and Ono (2005), Meyer and Tao (2005). Frequency data are an ordinary prac~
tice in psychology (Tomasello 1998), and are crucial to functionalism. Structures that in one language are prohibited by competence, and in another lan19

guage are admitted by competence but are extremely rare in performance;

show the same communicative tendency. In this case, a functionalist would be
interested in the (discoursive or cognitive) reason that accounts for the low
frequency of the analyzed structures. Frequency data are particularly important when one has to deal with languages, like V edic, for which a grammatical
standard does not exist yet. To follow the development of subordination in
Vedic, it behoves to consider the frequency of the various subordinate structures as compared to alternative structures of clause linkage.
In our corpus, we will only take into consideration the "surface" level.
Empty categories or multistratal syntactic models (deep structure, logic form,
etc.), postulated by formalists in order to account for root transformations,
will be left out of the present study. According to Occam's razor (entia non
sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem), functionalists posit only those categories that are necessary to account for the data. Moreover, in the formalist
tradition categories are discrete, and do not have an internal structure between
more or less prototypical members. Allegedly, the lack of a certain feature in
some members of a category implies that the feature is not necessary to define
the category at issue, since a category is supposed to manifest only the distinctive features of the physical signal and not the other possible correlates. As a
result, subordination, as well as verb, transitivity, and a number of other traditional grammatical categories that apparently are quite heterogeneous, are regarded as not necessarily unitary phenomena, which may be alternatively accounted for as separate categories, each of them internally consistent (cf.
Anderson 1999: 126-127). In advocating a "modular" view of grammar, formalists accuse functionalists of resorting to "fuzziness" only because they are
incapable of offering an explicit account of linguistic phenomena. However,
discrete categories, as formulated firstly by Aristotle, are seriously questioned
by the research findings of psychology and cognitive linguistics. The pioneering work of Rosch (1973) showed that human beings tend to organize their
knowledge according to radial categories, consisting of a prototype and of a
periphery. A non-prototypical element may be viewed as belonging to different categories, as well as the same category may consist of dissimilar members and may overlap with other categories. This view has also a diachronic
effect, as far as language change proceeds from the less stable periphery to the
more stable prototype of a category. Fuzzy categories turn out to be particularly appropriate for Vedic subordination, which displays phenomena commonly associated with independent sentences (2.4.3), and therefore cannot
be accommodated into the categorial dichotomy of subordination vs. coordination.

20

1.3. Subordination according to the functional-typological

approach
The dichotomy between coordination and subordination, which is maintained in both the classical and the structuralist grammatical tradition, has
been challenged in the functional-typological approach. Traditionally, a subordinate clause was described in terms of dependency and embedding, referring to the impossibility for a clause to occur isolated, and to the reduction of
a clause to be a cpnstituent of another clause. A typical marking of subordination, frequently attested in the lE languages, is the use of conjunctions and
relative pronouns. In other words, the identification of subordination has
commonly been grounded on morpho-syntactic criteria, and particularly on
those morpho-syntactic criteria found in the Western lE languages. The deficiency of the traditional conception is pointed out in Bossong ( 1979), which
represents the first study on subordination performed in the typological
framework 3
BezUglich einer Klassifizierung von Arten der Hypotaxe besteht im allgerneinen
Einhelligkeit darUber, daB unter diesen Begriff nicht nur Nebensatze im Ob lichen, das
heiBt indoeuropaischen, Sinne fallen, sonder daB es in anderen Sprachen und
Sprachfamilien trotz der Abwesenheit von sogenannten Nebensatze dennoch hochsl
komplexe syntaktische Gefllge mit vielfacher lJnterordnung gibt. (Bossong 1979: 36)

According to Bossong, subordination can be implicitly or explicitly encoded. In the former case (Implikatiort), the semantic relation between two or
more clauses is not formally signalled. In the latter, the subordinate clause can
3. A comparison between lE and non-lE languages occasionally appears in the studies of the
most insightful lndo-Europeanists. For example, Benveniste ( 1957) compares the relative
clauses of the lE languages with the relative clause of Ewe, Tunica. Navaho, Chipewa, Sumerian, and Arabic. "Nous avons simplement voulu donner quelques sp6cimens de langucs, choisics ~ dessein dans des types tres contrastcs [...] Nous n'examinons qu'en demier les faits indoeurop6cns, pour nous lib6rer d'une analyse traditionnelle et pour tbnder la definition sur des
criteres d'une plus grande objectivite." (p. 40) Benveniste also acknowledges the importance of
a preliminary semantic definition of the relative clause, independently of given morphosyntactic strategies. "(Ill ne s'agit pas de comparer entre elles lcs expressions formclles de pareilles phrases li travers des langues varices. ce qui serail denue de sens: la difference entre lcs
types linguistiques se manifeste justement dal)s l'agencement different des parties de la phrase,
et dans le rapport chaque fois different entre la fonction syntaxique et les elements formels qui
l'expriment. Une telle comparaison echouerait, ne pouvant se fonder sur des unites comparables entre les langues rapproehees. La methode est tout autre. Dans diverses langues considerecs separement. chacune pour elle-mame et dans son fonctionnement propre, }'analyse de la
phrase relative montre une structure formelle agencee par une eertaim: function, qui n'est pas
toujours visible. Le probleme est de deceler cette fonction." (p. 39)

21

ked by means of word order (Position) or conjunctions (Grammemik).

~ mar er a conjunction may be morphologically free and have the entire

I oreo~n its scope or alternatively it may be bound, modifying the verb or the

c ause
t h e su bord"matwn
system, Bossong
uments. In case' of syntactic change m
~~~79: 45ff.) predicts a shift from implicit to e~plicit devices and, among the
. . . .
various explicit means, from bound to free ~ark~ng.
An intermediate structure between coordmat10n and subordmatwn IS Identified in clause chaining (Foley and Van Valin 1984: 256-263). In ( 1.1 ), only
the last clause shows a verb endowed with tense and mood marking. To the
extent that the preceding clauses cannot occur in isolation, they can be considered subordinate. At the same time, however, since they do not have the
function of argumental or adverbial constituents with respect to the final
clause, they resemble coordinate clauses. While coordinates are- dependent
and - embedded, and subordinates are + dependent and + embedded, nonfinal clauses in a clause chain are+ dependent and- embedded. These "constructions which blur the distinction between coordination and subordination"
(Van Valin 1984: 543) are labeled "cosubordinate".
(I.I)Chuave(PapuaNewGuinea; Van Valin 1984: 543)
Yai kubu i-re
kei si-re
fu-m-e
man stick get-SEQ.SS dog hit-SEQ.SS go-3SG-IND

"The man got a stick, hit the dog, and went away."
Whereas Foley and Van Valin (1984) surpass the traditional distinction between coordination and subordination with the identification of a third type of
clausal nexus, other studies surpass the tripartition of Foley and Van Valin.
The acknowledgment of an increasingly higher and variable range of structures that may be associated with subordination in different languages led
some functionalists to abandon any formal definition of subordination and to
opt for a semantic or pragmatic account of the examined phenomenon. In
Haiman and Thompson ( 1984 ), subordination is related to a set of structural
properties such as the reduction or incorporation of a clause, the inclusion of a
clause into the same intonational contour as another clause, the identity of
subject, tense, or mood between the two clauses, the identity of speech act
perspective, etc. These properties, however, are neither necessary nor sufficient for a definition of subordination, since they may not only lack in a subordinate structure, but may also extend to a non-subordinate linkage. For example, in the sentence "Leaving her family behind, she fled", the participial
clause share subject, tense, and mood of the main clause, and therefore leaves
these categories unspecified. Still, this operation commonly found for gerunds
is used in many languages to express a sequence of events that can be paraphrased by means of coordinate constructions. This occurs e.g. in the Dravidian stock, and because of area) contact in some Neo-lndian languages (Tik22

kanen 1987). As a result, Haiman and Thompson (1984) abandon the notion
of subordination as a grammatical category, and consider it a negative term
describing composite phenomena that may be better viewed as deviation from
certain main clause norms.
Other functionalists prefer a positive definition of subordination. Lehmann
( 1988) conceives subordination as a continuum of non-discrete formal properties clustering around a prototype. Accordingly, the distinction coordinate vs.
subordin_ate is an opposition between two prototypes on the same scale. Both
a coordinate and a subordinate clause belong to a complex sentence, although
they differ in the type of linkage. Coordination implies that the two conjoined
clauses are put on the same level, with a sociative relationship, so that two
constituents of the same type fonn together a further constituent of the same
type. By contrast, "X is subordinate to Y iff X and Y fonn an endocentric
construction Z with Y as the head". (p. 182) Lehmann uses the labels of subordination and hypotaxis in two different senses. While subordination is
broadly meant as a relation of dependency between two clauses, hypotaxis is
limited to dependent finite clauses marked by a conjunction. A subordinate
structure can be analyzed according to the criterion of autonomy vs. integration into the main clause. In Latin, for example, the correlative diptych
(tarn ... quam) is less integrated into the main clause than the structure of the
accusativus cum infinitivo. A given subordinate may be more or less desententialized, and may present a weak or a strong interlacing with the main
clause, with a more or less explicit linkage. The more a subordinate is compressed, the less it is similar to the structure of an independent clause in the
coding of the verb and of the arguments.
In Lehmann ( 1988), the category of subordination continues having a theoretical significance. The same holds true for Haspelmath (1995), who emphasizes that many grammatical phenomena typical of Western lE languages are
also cross-linguistically valid, not iiJ. the sense that they occur in every language, but rather that they are commonly found in languages genetically and
areally unrelated. Haspelmath (1995: 12) provides a set of criteria for subordination, here listed in (1.2), which are conceived as non-necessary but sufficient conditions. That is, a given structure does not need to fulfill all of them
to be considered a subordinate clause, but non-subordinate structures do not
fulfill any of them.
( 1.2.1) Clause internal word order: subordinate clauses can appear inside the
main clause, which becomes discontinuous ("The players, while everybody
was silent, began their sonata").
(1.2.2) Variable position: while coordinates are iconically interpreted, subordinates also admit a counter-iconic interpretation. The sentence "After playing
23

their sonata, the players were applauded" conveys the same propositional content as the sentence "The players were applauded, after playing their sonata".
(1.2.3) Possibility of backwards anaphora: only a subordinate clause allows
backwards control of the subject. Cf. "When hei plays the piano, Emanuel Axi
is the happiest man in the world" vs. **"Hei plays the piano and Emanuel Axi
is the happiest man in the world".
(1.2.3) Restrictiveness and focusability: only subordinate clause can be interpreted restrictively, i.e. modifYing the main c1ause in such a way that its reference is narrowed ("Only after he went home Mr. Ax realized what had happened to his strong-box").
(1.2.4) Possibility of extraction: if a clause falls within the scope of another
clause, it permits the extraction of the main clause ("After he noticed the robbery, Mr. Ax called the police" vs. "Whom did Mr. Ax called after he noticed
the robbery?"). By contrast, coordinate clauses cannot be extracted ("Mr. Ax
noticed the robbery and called the police" vs. **"Whom did Mr. Ax noticed
the robbery and call?").
While Haspelmath usually follows a mixed formal-functional approach to
grammatical categories, Cristofaro (2003) adopts a purely semantic definition
of subordination. She argues that using a set of syntactic structures as defining
features for subordination implies leaving out the languages where those syntactic structures are not employed, and alternative devices encode complex
sentences and express the notion of subordination. Besides, the same structures do not always have the same functions in different languages, so that focusing on formal data could lead to compare dissimilar linguistic phenomena.
Even the same language can possess different structures in different periods to
encode a given subordinating relation, or alternatively it can possess a specific
construction at a given stage, but not previously or subsequently. While structures are subject to decay, subordination is considered a universal "cognitive
relation between two events, such that one of them (which will be called the
dependent event) lacks an autonomous profile, and is construed in the perspective of the other event (which will be called the main event)". (Cristofaro
2003: 2)
According to the "Asymmetry assumption" (Cristofaro 2003: 29ff.), only
the state of affairs represented in the main clause can be asserted, and therefore opened to challenge, by means of sentential negation, sentential questioning, tag questions, etc., while a subordinate is typically incapable of expressing its own illocutionary force. If we utter the statement "Martha went to the
beach", we commit ourselves to the truth of the proposition that Martha went
to the beach. By contrast, if we utter the same clause inside a superordinate
clause, as in "If Martha went to the beach, somebody may have seen her leaving", or in "Do you believe that Martha went to the beach?", we are not corn24

mitted to this statement. The loss of illocutionary force in subordination is

called Assertionsblockierung in Bossong (1979: 34-35) and "desentialization"
in Lehmann (1988: 193). As Foley and Van Valin (1984: 40) remark, "the illocutionary force is a feature of the superordinate junct, and the subordinate
junct is unaffected by it". They regard illocutionary force as the outermost peripheral operator in the layered structure of a clause (p. 208ff.). Accordingly,
the presence or absence of illocutionary force is considered in Cristofaro
(2003) the main tool to distinguish between independent and subordinate
clauses. While retaining the traditional distinction of relative, adverbial, and
complement subordinates, she does not analyze them as types of clauses characterized by certain syntactic features such as relative pronouns, conjunctions,
or non-finite verb forms, but rather as types of relations between two states of
affairs, regardless of the clause linkage they select.

1.4. Hallmarks of subordination in Vedic

In Vedic a clause is considered subordinate if it exhibits an accented verb
and a relative pronoun or a conjunction derived from the stem of the relative
pronoun. Whereas the use of relative pronouns or conjunctions is typical of a
number of lE and non-lE languages, the accented verb is typologically unusual, and therefore deserves an elucidation. In Vedic, the finite verb of an independent or main clause is regularly unaccented (except when it is placed at
the beginning of the clause). By contrast, the finite verb of a subordinate
clause, as well as the various non-finite forms of the verb, always carries the
accent (cf. Delbriick 1888: 35; MacDonell 1916: 466-68).
In Classical Sanskrit, this distinction is lost, and accent is never graphically
signalled. This is likely to reflect the change from Vedic free accent (inherited
from PIE) to Classical Sanskrit fixed accent, which is regulated by the penultimate syllable, similarly to what happens in Latin. Accordingly, the penultimate syllable carries the accent if it is long; otherwise the accent shifts on the
preceding syllable. Unlike in Latin, however, in Old Indian the accent may
also go beyond the third from the last syllable, if this is short, e.g. duhitaram
"daughter" (ACC.SG). Since it is automatically determined by syllable quantity, accent in Classical Sanskrit does not require an explicit marking. Instead,
accent marking is important in Vedic, where the accent has a phonological i.e.
a distinctive funCtion (e.g. a~a- "axis" vs. a~a- "die for gambling").

25

1.5. Previous studies on Vedic subordination

Vedic subordination has always been studied according to a structuralist
approach, with particular reference to the criteria of moods or subordinators.
Delbriick (1888) discriminates between indicative and non-indicative subordinates. Non-indicative subordinates are succinctly described in the section
devoted to word syntax, inside the chapter discussing moods. After relative
clauses with the subjunctive (p. 317), Delbrlick deals with the conjunctions
yad, yadi, yadd, yatra, yatha, and ea with the subjunctive, and analyzes each
of them according to the mood of the main clause verb. These and other conjunctions reappear in the discussion on optative (p. 34 i ff.), injunctive (p.
359ff.), and conditional moods (p. 367ff.). Differently, indicative subordinates
are illustrated at length in the last part of the volume, focused on clause syntax.
In regard to adverbial clauses (p. 572ff.), the author also contemplates tense in
the subordinate as well in the main clause.
Albeit exhaustive and accurate, Delbriick's argumentation is not always
cohesive. Formally, the same subordinator is examined in different parts of
the book (the discussion of yad is split into six parts), so that the values it
conveys are presented as unrelated to each other. Semantically, the same relation is discontinuously analyzed: remarks ontemporal clauses, for example,
which may be introduced by several subordinators, are interspersed through
the book. Temporal clauses are occasionally examined together with completives (Inhaltsiitze, p. 573ff.), despite their radically different meaning, because
they may share similar structures, e.g. the subordinator yad plus indicative.
Thus, the reader does not have a comprehensive vision of a clausal relation,
and does not easily draw inferences on the competition among the different
strategies. Moods do not provide a formal criterion that is sufficiently characteristic of a given subordinate with respect to the other subordinates, or of
subordinates in general with respect to main clauses. Vedic moods retain their
deontic values (cf. 9 .11) and are scarcely grammaticalized, so that they are
semantically or pragmatica11y, rather than syntactica11y, determined. In Vedic,
no particular mood is used in dependence on a given conjunction, as occurs
with Latin subjunctive, or in dependence on the main clause verbal tense, as
in the case of Ancient Greek oblique optative. Vedic subordinates are not homogeneous with respect to tense or mood.
Subordinators are apparently a more reliable criterion to single out subordinate clauses from independent clauses, since both in Vedic and in Classical
Sanskrit subordinators are mainly identifiable as derived from the stem of the
relative pronoun. Accordingly, Speyer (1886: 451; 1896: 267ff.) separates
the clauses introduced by the relative stem ya-, either relatives or adverbials,
from all other types of clause linkage, including subordinates merely charac26

terized by an accented verb. The different meanings of each conjunction are

listed together with their attendant examples. However, the stem of the relative pronoun is not adequately distinctive of the various subordinate clauses,
since subordinators present a high degree of vagueness. From a synchronic
point of view, the majority of adverbial relations are introduced by the subordinator yad, and this process, already observable in Vedic, is even more enhanced in Classical Sanskrit.
A step ahead is accomplished in Hettrich (1988: 216ff.), which like Speyer
is based on the form of a subordinator, but unlike Speyer sets apart various
types of subordinates by combining further structural criteria, such as tense
and mood, position with respect to the main clause, presence vs. absence of a
correlative element, etc. Thus, a subordinate clause that is introduced by a
vague subordinator may be identified by means of precise structural features.
As an example to illustrate Hettrich's methodology, consider the clauses
marked by yadi, which may have both a temporal and a conditional value.
Through a rigorously documented count, Hettrich detects distributional differences between the two values (p. 234-242), so that. e.g. conditional clauses
have an initial subordinator more often than temporal clauses. In the latter, the
verb is usually inflected in the aorist indicative or present injunctive, whereas
in the protasis of conditional clauses the future indicative is also attested.
Temporal clauses are commonly postposed to main clauses, and conditional
clauses are commonly preposed. In the main clause of a temporal subordinate,
the verb is inflected in imperfect, aorist, perfect, or injunctive, white in the
apodosis of a conditional clause tenses and mood characteristic of irrealis are
found, in particular future, subjunctive, optative, and imperative. Correlative
forms are attested in clauses governing a temporal, but not a conditional subordinate. Hettrich is the most careful investigator of Vedic subordination.
However, he continues the structuralist approach of his predecessors, since he
proceeds from the form to the functions of a given subordinator.

1.6. A functional approach to Vedic subordination

Unlike the aforementioned scholars, we follow a method of analysis from
function to form. Rather than starting with the analysis of a certain subordinator (for instance, yadi) and showing which meanings it can express (temporal,
conditional, etc.), we start with a certain relation (for instance, the temporal)
and investigate the different forms through which it is expressed. We especially focus on non-asserted constructions, which include not only finite
clauses introduced by a subordinator (i.e. hypotaxis stricto sensu), but also
nominalizations such as infinitives and participles. Vedic, however, may lack
27

non-asserted constructions for relations that cross-linguistically present morpho-syntactic features associated with subordination. Similarly, such relations
may be expressed less frequently by non-asserted than by asserted constructions. In these cases, we will also deal with paratactic devices, where the two
clauses may be linked by coordinators or emphatic particles, or may be juxtaposed to each other with no explicit marking, so that their relation must be inferred from the context.
As Cristofaro (2003: 46) put it, "languages seem to rely on contextual inference much more than one would expect, and this not only as far as subordination is concerned". She reports the case of Gumbaynggir, where no specific relative structure exists, and where the relative notion can only be expressed with the juxtaposition of two clauses, which can be interpreted either
as relative or as coordinate clauses (p. 21). She also mentions the case of
Mandarine Chinese (1.3}, where a temporal relation, expressed in English
with a subordinate structure, is rendered by means of two independent clauses.
(1.3) Mandarin Chinese (Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic; Cristofaro 2003: 2)
ta he le jiii jiu shuf zhao le
3SG drink PVF wine then sleep succeed CRS

"Afters/he drank wine, she went to sleep."

As in the typological approach it is inappropriate to limit the concept of
subordination to Western lE hypotactic strategies, a discussion on Vedic subordination would be undennined if restricted to conjunctional clauses. From a
synchronic point of view, Vedic would seem incapable of expressing anumber of clause relations. One of these is indirect report, which in Vedic as in
many other languages (Cristofaro 2003: 46-47 mentions Arapesh, Ancient
Egyptian, 1-lixkaryana, Ho, Kobon, Kolokumi, Manarayi, Maori, Huallaga
Quechua, Ute, Wayapi, and Yoruba) is rendered by means of direct report.
The latter is an asserted structure, neither syntactically nor semantically included in the clause containing the verbum dicendi. Syntactically, it cannot
show a complementizer or a case-marking affix indicating that the verbum
dicendi is transitively used with the direct report as its object. Semantically, it
entails two separate points of view, i.e. that of the speaker and that of the person quoted. "However, if direct report is the only means available in a language to express the content of somebody's utterance (or thoughts, or command), one should assume that the direct report construction cover.s the whole
of the conceptual space divided between direct and indirect report in other
languages." (Cristofaro 2003: 47) In this sense, direct report is considered
relevant to subordination.
The languages mentioned by Cristofaro (2003: 46-47) as only admitting
direct report do not have a long tradition of written literacy. This might be related to the tact that direct report represents a lower degree of syntacticization
28

with respect to indirect report. While direct report loosely juxtaposes the ver/Jrllll dicendi and the quoted speech without any "transformation", indirect report requires the use of a subordinating conjunction and the switch of deictic
elements. Explicit subordinate strategies epitomize a relatively late stage with
respect to implicit ones, as argued in Bossong (1979: 45ff.). They represent an
instance of the syntactic communicative mode that Giv6n (1979: 223) conceives as diachronically derived from and synchronically opposed to the
pragmatic communicative mode. This principle involves the relationship of
formal vs. informal register, adult language vs. child language, and Creole vs.
Pidgin.
Ontogenetically, explicit subordination develops late in both first and second language acquisition. As phylogenetic evidence of the recentness of explicit subordination, "there are some languages extant to this day - all in preindustrial, illiterate societies with relatively small, homogeneous social units where one could demonstrate that subordination does not really exist, and that
the complexity of discourse-narrative is still achieved via chaining or coordination, albeit with an evolved discourse-function morphology." (Giv6n
1979: 298) In a small society of intimates, language change proceeds at a slow
rate, and this notably occurs for syntax, which is slower than the lexicon to
change. The development from coordinate and loosely bound constructions to
tight subordinating devices can be also identified by analyzing the early
documents of languages provided with a long diachronic record, such as Old
Indian.
Although Vedic texts are not nai"ve and display an elegant use of language,
their sophistication is a matter of lexicon rather than of syntax. They favor
puns and figures of speech, in particular repetition or similarity of sounds,
which is typical of the poetic oral tradition in many primitive speech communities. Their free syntax, as weJJ as their quite simple meters, is reminiscent of
pragmatic communicative modes, where parataxis prevails over hypotaxis,
and even hypotactic constructions maintain traces of a paratactic linkage.
Many clauses that are considered subordinate in the Vedic grammatical tradition present morpho-syntactic phenomena typical of asserted sentences. This
is more frequent for clauses marked only by verbal accent (2.2) or by verbal
accent plus a particle ( 2.3 .1, 2.3 .2), but it also occurs for clauses marked by
verbal accent plus a relativizer (2.4.3). These clauses should not be included
in a purely semantic approach to subordination, like Cristofaro (2003). However, they can be relevant to functionalist studies which view subordination as
a cluster of semantic and syntactic properties partially shared by coordination,
like Haiman and Thompson (1984), Lehmann (1988), and Haspelmath (1995).
The interest of the Rig-Veda for a study of subordination is that it shows how
clause linkage becomes more and more syntactically regulated over time.
29

1.7. Data: The Rig-Veda

The Rig-Veda, i.e ...the wisdom (veda) of the stanzas or sacred verses (fc)",
is the earliest Vedic text. It is a collection of 1.028 hymns, mainly of eulogistic character, divided into ten books called marz(ialas "circles". An absolute
dating of this work is uncertain. The index compiled by Indian grammarians,
called anukramarzi (lit., "going step by step"), provides detailed information
on the incipit of every hymn, on the number and type of verses used, on the
deity to which it is addressed, and on the poet to which it is ascribed. Nevertheless, it does not contain any chronological indication. According to the
most accredited hypothesis, the Rig-Veda, at least in its first nucleus, traces
back to the second half of the second millennium B.C. (Sani 2000b: 15).
A relative dating is less controversial. Books 11-VII are the most ancient,
whereas book I and notably book X are the most recent. In book VIII, besides
an ancient part, there is a group of hymns (VIII, 49-59, called Valakhilya)
which are acknowledged as a later addition. Book IX gathers materials belonging to different epochs, which share the topic of the Soma, the divinized
intoxicating drink correspondent to the Haoma of the A vesta. The relative age
of the different books of the Rig-Veda is established according to phonetic
and morphological criteria. Some sandhi rules and some endings of the tenth
book, for example, differ from those appearing in books 11-VII but resemble
those found in Classical Sanskrit (Talageri 2000: 35ff.).
For a linguistic analysis, using the Rig-Veda as a source of data presents
several advantages. Besides being early attested, it also has a highly conservative language with respect to PIE. Obviously, antiquity of records and conservatism do not necessarily coincide: for example, Lithuanian is by far more
conservative than Classical Armenian, even though the former happens to be
more recently recorded than the latter (since the XVI and the V century of our
age, respectively). The religious register of the Rig-Veda is a further reason of
conservatism. Indian languages are uninterruptedly recorded since the RigVeda until today, and this occasionally allows comparisons with later linguistic stages.
Apparently, a disadvantage of the Rig-Veda is its poetic style, since poetry
is less close than prose to spontaneous language. However, poetry affects the
choice of lexical rather than grammatical words such as subordinating conjunctions. Moreover, Vedic meters substantially reflect the articulation of discourse. Metric and syntactic units usually coincide, since the clause is comprised inside the borders of the stanza, hemistich, or verse (piida). Clauses involving more than one stan7.a are rarely found, and the few cases of enjambment appear in dramatic contexts for expressive reasons (Gonda I 958). Larger
types of stanzas, e.g. the triJ/ubh and the jagali (formed by four verses of
30

eleven and twelve syllables, respectively) exhibit complex sentences linked by

coordination or subordination. By contrast, a stanza consisting of brief verses,
e.g. the giiyalri (consisting of three octosyllabic verses), contains syntactically
simple clauses. For detai Is on Vedic meters, cf. Arnold ( 1905).

1.8. Organization of the present study

First we will analyze the competition among subordinators, coordinators,
and particles used in Vedic clause linkage (2). Then, we will contemplate the
three types of subordinate relations, i.e. relatives (3), adverbials (4-8), and
completives (9).
Relatives are here assigned a primary position with respect to adverbials
and completives because in the Rig-Veda the vast majority of subordinates are
relative clauses, and because in Old Indian, as in other lE languages, subordinators are derived from the stem of the relative pronoun. In the Rig-Veda,
relative pronouns more frequently give rise to adverbial subordinators than to
complementizers. Accordingly, we will particularly investigate those aspects
of Vedic relative clauses that favored an evolution toward adverbial clauses
rather than toward completive clauses (3).
In the Rig-Veda, finite subordinates introduced by a relativizer express the
adverbial functions of time (4), condition (5), cause (6), purpose (7), and
concession (8). Nevertheless, their devices are differently entrenched for
these relations, and compete with non-hypotactic structures, which may even
Jack an explicit formal marking. A cognitive motivation will be identified behind the spreading of the subordinator yad in the adverbial domain. In semantic studies, clausal relations which imply futurity and contrast, such as purposives and concessives, are considered cognitively complex. It appears that
yad-clauses represent purposives and concessives relations later than semantically simpler relations such as temporals and causals.
In the third part (9), we discuss the relations among states of affairs that
cross-linguistically, and also in the lE domain, are represented by completive
clauses, whereas in Vedic they do not display the typical syntactic properties
of subordination. It is appropriate to consider also defectiveness, if independent evidence exists that the absence of a structure is not merely accidental.
We do not claim that the rise of finite clauses marked by the subordinator
ya- in Vedic represents the original development of hypotaxis in this language.
Conjunctions renew, as Meillet (1916) notices, and nothing excludes that
other subordinating strategies were previously exploited. The competition between yd-subordinates and further strategies of clause linkage, such as parti-

31

cles or juxtaposition, is a case of mundane syntactic change, which, however,

might cast some insights on the grammaticalization of a subordinating linkage.
We do not aim to provide an exhaustive description of subordination in
Old Indian. This would be useless, since traditional works on Old Indian syntax (Speyer 1886; 1896; DelbrUck 1888; 1900; MacDonell 191 0; 1916; Renou
I 952 et al.) cover this topic with excellent results. These scholars, who for the
first time composed grammars, dictionaries, and translations without presentday technical facilities, have been our primary references. A further instrument we availed ourselves ot: especially for data consultation, is Hettrich
(1988). A glance on the indexes - one of them (p. 791-816) provides a complete list of die clauses occurring with the various subordinators - suffices to
have an idea of the precious information gathered in the book.

Our study is addressed to two kinds of readers. The functional typologist

will find diachronic evidence of the evolution of subordinate stmctures, which
is consistent with research on language acquisition, creology, and aphasia.
The lndo-Europeanists will find familiar data presented in an updated linguistic framework. Hopefully, this work will be useful to some of them.

32

2. Heterogeneous structures of clause linkage

2.1. Evolution of subordinating strategies

Vedic displays a wide and idiosyncratic range of subordinating strategies,
which differ in productivity at the stage of the Rig-Veda, and even more from
Vedic to Classical Sanskrit. Vedic illustrates the evolution posited in Bossong
(1979: 45ff.) from implicit to explicit subordination, and from bound to free
overt markers. (Cf. 1.3) In particular, implicit subordination in the Rig-Veda
is expressed by supra-segmental means (2.2), while explicit subordination is
marked by bound particles (2.3.1), free particles (2.3.2), and relativizers
(2.4). The last strategy prevails over time, and is substantially maiptained in
the Middle-Indian languages.

2.2. Verbal accentuation

As we mentioned in 1.4, Vedic constructions traditionally identified as
subordinates present verbal accentuation and a subordinator. Strictly speaking,
the former is the only necessary feature, since there are no clauses introduced
by a subordinator without an accented verb, whereas clauses with verbal accent without a subordinator are recorded in the Rig-Veda1 This suggests that

I. However, verbal accentuation does not suffice to identify a subordinate clause, since accent
also marks the verb of a main or independent clause when it is placed at the beginning of the
clause or of the verse. Accent marking in clause initial position manifests a raised pitch that
both in Vedic and in PIE "seems to have possessed a demarcative value, signalling a new startup and serving iconically and pragmatically as an attention-getting device" (Kiein 1992: 2).
The same marking was analogically extended from clause initial position to verse initial position, since in most cases the borders of the clause and ofthe verse coincide in the Rig-Veda. A
verb is also marked as clause initial when it is placed after a vocative, which does not have an
argumental function and behaves as a separate constituent. Moreover, contiguous verbs are

33

the strategy of verbal accent diachronically precedes that of conjunctions in

marking subordination. Verbal accent more frequently expresses an adversa~
tive function (2.1 ), although manner (2.2), temporal-causal (2.3), and con~
secutive-purposive (2.4) relations also appear. For a collection of such clauses
sec Delbriick (1888: 37ft'.), Oldcnberg (1906), Renou (1952: 383ff.), Hettrich'
( 1988: 155-69), and Klein ( 1992).
piparty
anrtaTfl
ni tiirit
(2.1) rtam
order.N-ACC.SG fulfiii-IND.PIUSG disordcr.N-ACC.SG PRE ovcrcomc-INJ.AOR3SG

"While fulfilling the order, he overcame the disorder." (1.152.3d)

ea no
mimltatfl
vifjavatyai
(2.2) riiye
richncss.F-DAT.SG and us-ACC prcparc-IPV2DlJ consisting.of.a.prizc-DAT.F.SG

J.:e

ea no

mimitafTI

dhenumcityai

oflcr.F-DAT.SG and us-ACC prcparc-IPV2DlJ consisting.of.cow-DAT.F.SG

"As you prepare us for a richness consisting of a prize, prepare us for an

offer consisting of cows." (1.120.9bc)
(2.3) brhaspatir bhinad
adrim
vidad
gif.h
B.rhaspati-NOM cleave-INJ.PR3SG rock.M-ACC.SG find-INJ.AOR3SG cow.F-ACC.PL

sam usrfyiibhir

viivasanta

narafz

PRE cow.F-INSTR.PL bellow-INJ.PPF3PL hero.M-NOM.PL

"When Brhaspati cleft the rock and found the cows, the heroes bellowed
with the cows." (1.62.3cd)
(2.4) etii
dhfya/1
krflcJViimii
sakhiiya/1
come-IPV2PL pious.thought.F-ACC.SG make-SB.PRIPL friend.M-VOC.PL

"Come, let us make a pious thought, 0 friends!" (5.45.6a)

Verbal accentuation signals that two clauses belong to the same intonational contour. In spoken languages as well, the presence of an intonational
link between two adjacent clauses is a typicaJ feature of subordination,
whereas coordinates always maintain a separate clause accent. In Vedic, the
representation of a continuous utterance is achieved via an ascending - descending intonation. Most clauses marked only by verbal accent are preposed
to the main clause: particularly, 149 preposed and 12 postposed instances are
counted in Hettrich (1988: 791-92). In the former, the accented verb represents the peak of the intonational contour, and indicates that the utterance is
incomplete. "Das Verbum des ersten Satzes wird dann betont, wenn der
Gedanke noch nicht abgeschlossen ist, derart, dass zur VervollsUindigung ein
zweiter Satz notig isl." (Delbriick 1888: 37-38; see also Klein 1992: 87) Typologically, intonation rising is an indication of a non-finished utterance.

considered equivalent to independent clauses, and therefore receive the accent, except for the
first verb (cf. Macdonell 1916: 466-68).

34

S . e it Jacks an overt subordinator, the relation expressed by verbal ac.

. o f tI1e ent1re
. context to be
t JilC
s ambiguous, an d reqmres
tI1e cons1'deratJon
cen ~rly interpreted. for example, the adversative relation in (2.1) arises fiom
ft~~~ntinomy between the nouns fla- "order" and anrta- "disorder" contained
. each clause, which establishes two opposite states of atTairs. The manner
111 ration in (2.2) emerges from the identity of the two verbs and from the simi~rity of the adjectives vajavat- "consisting of a prize" and dhenumat- "con~sting of cows", built with the two allomorph suffixes -vat and -mal. Het~ich's rendition is here "ebenso wie ihr ... bestimmen sollt". ( 1988: 158)
Contrast and similarity represent the two sides of a comparison between states
of atTairs. When compared, two situations lose their individual character and
contribute to create a unitary concept. This may be perfonned in various ways:
"muss man die Betonung im einzelnen Falle zu verstehen suchen". (DelbrUck
)888: 37-38)
In the same vein, Oldenberg ( 1906) admits that verbal accent does not
abide by precise rules, so that a verb may be accented or unaccented in apparently similar environments. However, he also points out that the more evident
is the contrast, the higher is the probability to find an accented verb ("'je
entschiedener die Gegeniiberstellung ( ... ] iiuBerlich hervorgehoben ist, umso
groBer die Neigung ist, das Verb zu betonen", p. 708). A set of syntactic, metric, and semantic features is identified in Klein ( 1992) that favors verbal accentuation in adversative clauses, such as the presence of two symmetrical
members, comprised inside the borders of the verse, linked by asyndeton and
isolated from the adjacent verses. Conversely, verbal accent has higher probabilities to be unmarked if one of the two members is larger than the other, if
more than two members are counterposed, or if the verb appears before the
first member has been mentioned, and therefore does not represent the peak of
the intonational contour. These factors flatten intonation; and prevent the first
member to be seen as incomplete. Similarly, if a conjunction links the two
members, v.erbal accent commonly appears in the pattern X ea Y ea (2.2),
where the two members are presented as symmetrical and the former is cataphoric of the latter. Ca "and" is a postposed conjunction: its presence entails
that a further member will appear, and that the clause is not finished. On the
contrary, in the pattern X Yea, the mention of X per se does not imply that Y
will follow. Accordingly, verbal accent is absent in this case.
The presence of a coordinating conjunction and of an imperative mood in
(2.2) shows the scarce grammaticalization of clauses marked only by verbal
accentuation as compared to clauses marked. by verbal accentuation and by a
relativizer. Although the latter clauses occasionally express an independent
illocutionary force (2.4.3), they do not contain an imperative mood. Clauses
35

marked only by verbal accent may also present an interrogative illocutionary

force (2.5).
(2.5) kif!'l svid vak;syami
kim u nil man(sye
what PTC say-IND.FUTISG what PTC now think-IND.FUTISG

"What shall I say, and what shaiJ I think?" (6.9.6d; cf. also 1.81.3d)
Scholars hesitate to classify clauses marked only by verbal accentuation as
subordinate. Oldenberg (1906) considers subordinate those clauses that express a conditional or a temporal relation as in (2.3), where "dcr erste Satz ist
die Grundlage des zweiten" {p. 725). This is because such clauses are semantically similar to the typical adverbial subordinates that in Old Indian are introduced by a relativizer. Hettrich ( 1988: 155-169) labels clauses marked only
by verbal accent in toto as Ergiinzung...siitze, i.e. clauses that on the one hand
are incomplete with respect to the adjacent clause, like prototypical subordinates, and on the other hand are provided with their own illocutionary force,
like prototypical independent clauses.
Rather than two different categories, clauses marked only by verbal accent
and clauses marked by verbal accent and by a relativizer represent two different diachronic stages of subordination in Vedic. According to Klein (1992:
90), the generalization of verbal accent in explicit subordinates starts from
those contexts where a relative clause was preposed to the main clause, and its
final verb occupied the verse boundary. This is the position where an intonational rising would be expected in implicit subordinates.
Vedic clauses marked only by verbal accent differ from the typical subordinates of Standard Average European, and many of them should not be considered subordinates, since they do not present the typical criteria of subordination identified in Haspelmath (1995: 12; cf. 1.3). They are adjacent, rather
than incorporated, to the main clause. They present neither back-anaphora nor
extraction. Moreover, when they are postposed to the main clause, they always have a consecutive or purposive meaning, as in (2.4). This is a manifestation of iconicity, whereby the sequence of the two clauses reflects the temporal order of the two denoted events. Clauses marked only by verbal accent
lack the possibility of an anti-iconic order, which is typical of subordination.
All this is a telltale of their originally non-backgrounded information.

36

23 particles
]. J.l. Bound particles
Traditional grammars state that an independent clause may be exceptionlly marked by verbal accent if its verb is immediately followed by the partiates id or cana, and ascribe this to an emphatic use of the verb (Macdonell
~916: 467). In the same vein, Klein's (1992) monograph on verbal accentuation in the Rig-Veda explains the accent caused by id with the same principle
as the accent found in initial position, "the phonetic correlate of which is a
raised pitch (prehistorically, no doubt, increased stress) and the meaning of
which is, roughly, this is important." (p. 86-87; cf. 2.2 note 4) Allegedly,
this is completely unrelated to the heightened intonation of subordinate
clauses signalling that the utterance is incomplete.
However, verbal accent is triggered not only by id, but also by the two particles kuvid and ned, where id is added to the interrogative stem ku- and to the
negation na. The particles kuvid and ned are considered clause tinkers rather
than emphatic particles (2.3.2). Renou's succinct remark in regard to kuvidclauses ("verbe tonique en raison de id', 1952: 382) contains the valuable observation that the way in which kuvid affects verbal accent is similar and consequent to the way verbal accent is influenced by id. Hettrich ( 1988: 143) replies to this that the conditions under which id and kuvid bring about verbal
accentuation are different, since id must be immediately preceded by the verb,
whereas kuvid is not constrained to a particular position. Kuvid is commonly
placed at the beginning of a clause and, in the rare case it follows another constituent, this is never a verb. Apparently, the emphatic function of id and the
clause-linking function of kuvid are unrelated, and require a separate explanation.
Nevertheless, the clause initial position that kuvid and ned (unlike id) may
occupy is predictable, given their interrogative and negative sources. Interrogative and negative markers are regularly focalized at the beginning of the
clause, both in the IE domain and in many other genetically and areally unrelated languages. In this regard, the effect that the particle id exerts on the verb
differs in scope, rather than in nature; from the effect exerted by the particles
kuvid and ned. Whereas kuvid and ned have the entire clause in their scope,
the sphere of influence of id is limited to the verb, and even excludes the preverb: in case of a preverbed verb, id does not determine the accent on the immediately preceding verb (Renou 1952: 375).
What foremost distinguishes id from the derived particles kuvid and ned is
that the function of clause tinker of kuvid and ned is very marginal for id ( 11
37

out of 209 instancesf with respect to its basic emphatic function. However,
the amount of cases in which a verb is accented because of id is not dramatically inferior to the amount of cases in which a verb is accented because of
kuvid (45 instances. cf. Hettrich 1988: 142ff.), and slightly outnumbers cases
of verbal accent produced by ned (4 instances, cf. Hettrich 1988: 169-70).
Verbal accentuation resulting from these emphatic particles is a recessive
strategy in the Rig-Veda.
Texts show that the verbs followed by id are not only emphasized constituents, but are also linked to the adjacent clauses by different relations, such
as cause, consequence, simultaneity, contrast, etc. similarly to the clauses
marked only by verbal accent analyzed in 2.2. The non-specialization of the
particle id, which takes various lexical categories as its hosts (nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and numerals), prevented it from establishing
a particular nexus. In (2.6) a clear relation exists between the fact that
Brhaspati does not grant anything good to the mischievous and the fact that he
punishes him.
(2.6) na du(ihiye
anu dadiisi
vamam
NEG malevolent-DAT.M.SG PRE give-IND.PR2SG lovely.thing.N-ACC.SG

brhaspate

ctiyasa

it

piyiirum

Brhaspati-VOC punish-IND.PR2SG PTC spitefui-ACC.M.SG

"To the malevolent you do not give any lovely thing, 0 Brhaspati, you
punish the spiteful." (1.190.5cd)

2. 3. 2. Free particles
The particles hi, kuvid, and ned have the functions of causal, intcrrogativepurposive, and negative purposive ljnkers. They appear in clauses regularly
maked by verbal accent, like typical subordinate clauses, which still display
relevant main clause phenomena, such as illocutionary force. Because of this,
Hettrich (1988) includes constructions marked by hi, kuvid, and ned in the
category of Ergiinzungssiitze, which are intermediate between independent
and subordinate clause. For example, the kuvid-clause in (2.7) is linked to a
declarative clause, although it maintains its own interrogative illocutionary
force. The non-factuality of the denoted event is underscored by the subjunctive mood, which is very frequent in kuvid-clauses (Hettrich 1988: 152).
2. We refer to lhe passages 1.149.1, 1.190.5, 4.7.9, 5.32.5, 5.55.7, 6.23.10, 6.34.3, 7.32.8,
8.12.10, 8.12.12, and 9.96.15. Further instances reported in GR 206 present verbs that are
placed in initial position, and therefore verbal accent cannot be unambiguously ascribed to the
following id.

38

(2.7) indrarrz s6masya

pztaye

st6mair

ihri

Jndra-ACC soma.M-GEN.SG drinking.F-DAT.SG praise.M-INSTR.PL here

haviimahe I ukthebhi/:1

kuvid iigamat

cali-JND.PRlPL hymn.N-INSTR.PL PTC come-SB.AOR3SG

"Hither with songs of praise we call Indra to drink the soma juice: Will
he not come to us by lauds?" (3 .42.4; Griffith 1889: 184)
The ambivalence of kuvid-clauses comes out of texts, translations, and
grammars. In texts, verbal accent does not appear in three passages (2.35.1,
5.3.1 0, and 5.36.3). Although they represent a scarce percentage with respect
to the 48 occurrences of kuvid, such passages cannot be undervalued, since
they are placed in the most ancient parts of the Rig-Veda. In these three cases,
the kuvid-clause is presented as an independent clause, as any other direct interrogative clause. In two further cases located in the most ancient books
(4.51.4 and 7.91.1), a main clause is absent. Here we cannot apply the meaning of "completion", whereby kuvid-clauses "einen Nachbarsatz implizit erganzen" (Hettrich 1988: 145). However, because of their rarity, these cases
are commonly considered simpleAusnahmen (ib., 149).
In translations, kuvid-clauses are commonly expressed with independent
clauses. Geldner considers kuvid an asseverative rather than an interrogative
particle. His rendition of (2. 7) is the following: "Den Indra rufen wir hierher
zum Somatrunk mit Preisliedern. Gewif3 wird er kommen." (1951: 1, 384; emphasis added) Out of 48 kuvid-clauses, Geldner resorts to a direct interrogative
clause in two cases (1.143.6 and 4.51.4), and to an expression of doubt such
as vielleicht in one case (1.33.1 ). He translates the remaining occurrences of
kuvid as gewif3 or sicher, which does not convey the uncertainty implied in the
interrogative stem ku-. This is better expressed by Renou ("lndra nous
l'appelons [ ... ]par des hymnes; se peut-il qu'il ne vienne point?", EVP XVII:
84) and by Griffith, whose translation of(2.7) is reported above.
Contrasting opinions appear in the literature. Except for two cases (8.91.4
and 8.75.11), DelbrUck (1888: 315; 550-51) deems kuvid-clauses as
subordinates depending on something unexpressed ("lch nehme an, daB sie
von einem nicht ausgesprochenen Gedanken innerlich abhangig sind", p. 551).
The idea of implicit subordination reappears in Renou, who implies: "Ge me
demande) si par hasard?,j'espere que" (1952: 382). In Etter (1985) the subordinating nexus is not between the kuvid-clause and the preceding clause (except for a single case in 1.143.6, kuvid-clauses are always postposed), but
rather between kuvid per se and the subsequent clause. Allegedly, the clause
preceding kuvid is an independent sentence. The particle kuvid is a sort of interjection expressing uncertainty, and the following subordinate clause,
marked only by an accented verb, represents the object of this uncertainty, i.e.
"ist es wohl so, daB ... ? 1st es denn nicht so, daB ... ?" (Etter 1985: 221 ff.)
39

The synchronically anomalous contrast between interrogative illocutionary

force and accented verb, which signals subordination, must be explained diachronically. Verbal accent is the epiphenomenon of an established semantic
relation between two propositions, and the interrogative illocutionary force
represents one of these propositions as still unaccomplished and therefore unceJtain. This does not imply that a kuvid-clause must be interpreted as a true
interrogative clause. The main clause never contains a verbum rogandi.
Rather, it often denotes an act of preaching, sacrificing, singing, etc. with an
indicative (2.7) or an imperative (2.8). The kuvid-clause represents the consequence that the speaker wants to obtain by means of his action. Semantically,
kuvid-clauses are tantamount to purpose clauses. Delbrtick (1900: 295) notices
that the typical position of kuvid-clauses after their main clause resembles that
ofpurpose clauses, which are regularly postposed (cf. also Hettrich 1988: 149;
cf. below 7 .5).
sv rse
stuhi
(2.8) asvinii
0

Asvin-ACC.DU PTC poet.M-VOC.SG praise-IPV2SG

kuvit te sravato

havam

PTC your hear-SB.AOR3DU caii.M-ACC.SG

"0 poet, praise the two Asvins, in order that they may hear your call."
(8.26.10ab)

2.3.3. Sources of the particles

2.3.3.1. Deictic sources
Both in the lE domain and typologically, deictic stems frequently represent
the sources of particles and conjunctions. Deictics commonly develop an anaphoric or cataphoric function, and can refer to propositions. "By creating a
cohesive link between two clauses, anaphora in both its senses approximates
in function another fundamental cohesive process of language: conjunction."
(Klein 1985a: 19) At the same time, deictics are often used as emphatic particles, to strengthen a command or exhortation. Obviously, not every deictic
particle accomplishes the entire route up to conjunction, and not every conjunction built on an ultimately demonstrative stem always maintains its basic
deictic use. The Rig-Veda presents a situation where the border is not watertight among emphatic particles, anaphoric pronouns or adverbs, noun phrase
conjunctions, and clause conjunctions, and where a high experimentalism exists, with a number of particles replaced or renewed by morphological increment.

40

Some particles are limited to the functions of deixis, emphasis, and noun
phrase conjuncti,on, without the possibility of joining clauses. This occurs, for
example, with ii, which can be used as a preverb indicating approach toward
the speaker (gam "go" vs. ii-gam "come"). The particle d may be also emphatically employed, as in 6.59.2 "Sure it, is: your greatness, 0 Indra and Agni,
is the most laudable indeetf' (pani$.tha ii). The function of noun phrase conjunctio!l emerges in (2.9), where the emphatic usage is, however, still evident,
since ii is placed after the repetition of the adjective "great".
(2.9) mahan
garbho
mahy
ii jiitam
e$iim
great-NOM.M.SG embryo.M-NOM.SG great-NOM.N.SG PTC birth.N-NOM.SG their

"Great is the embryo, and great is their birth." (3 .31.3c)

Other particles also show the capability of conjoining clauses. This mainly
occurs for particles derived from the proximal demonstrative stems a-, *ei- I i-,
and *so- I to-.
The stem a- is the base of atha I athii, atho, and adha I adhii (KEWA: I, 13;
28; 31) . .Atha I athii and atho (< athii + u) present the manner suffix -thii,
which also appears in yathii "how" from the relative stem ya-, in tathii "thus"
from the demonstrative stem ta-, and in kathd "how?" from the interrogative
stem ka-. .Atho is more recent than athii, and athii is an innovation with respect to adha and adhii (Kiein 1980; 1985b: 63-64), which are built with the
local suffix -dha, appearing in iha "here", kuha "where?", A.Gr. entha
"where", etc3 While atha, athii, and atho may link both noun phrases and
clauses, and often maintain an anaphoric function, adha and adhii are specialized in clausal nexus. They connect different stanzas in 76 out of 19 I occurrences (Klein 1985b: 92). In (2.1 0), adha is placed in the main clause and resumes the preceding temporal subordinate.
(2.IO)yadiviso
vrnate
dasmam
aryii
when tribe.F-NOM.PL choose-IND.PR3PL wonderfui-ACC.M.SG Aryan-NOM.F.PL

agni!l'l hotiiram

tidha dhir

ajiiyata

Agni-ACC priest.M-ACC.SG PTC poetic.thought.F-NOM.SG be.bom-IND.IPF3SG

"When the Aryan tribes choose the wonderful Agni as a priest, then a poetic thought was born." ( 10.11.4cd)
The use of the particle adha, which is obsolete in the recent layers of the
Rig-Veda, further decreases in the subsequent literature, whereas atha pro-

3. The derivation of the particle addhif "certainly" from the pronominal stem a- plus the local
suffix -dha I -ha (Szemerenyi, cit. in EWA: I, 64) is deemed by Mayrhofer less probable than
an etymology related to Old Persian azdii "certainty, wisdom". Allegedly, addhif is an old Indolranian instrumental *adh-tii "mit GewiBheit", from the root ah "say, pronounce", which appears in the Vedic perfect ifha, iihu/:1 (KEWA: I, 29). The particles ha and gha (and probably
aha, from the pronominal stem a+ ha, cf. GR 162) derive from *ghe I gho, and have a parallel
in the Ancient Greek asseverative particle ge (EWA: 11, 799).

41

gressively extends and is very productive in Classical Sanskrit. Such forms

show the renouvellement des conjonctions identified by Meillet ( 1916).
The stem *ei- I i- provides pronouns and adverbs such as ayam I iyam 1
idam "this" (M IF IN), ihit "here", ida I idanzm "now", ittha "thus", iti "id."
(used as a direct speech marker), and has a number of cognates in the lE domain, such as Lat. is, id, Goth. is, Lith.jis, Hit. is etc. (KEWA: I, 86; EWA: I,
190) In Old Indian, this stem appears in the particles I, 'im, eva, and id, the rigidified nominative-accusative neuter singular form that gives rise to kuvid,
ned, and svid (< *su-id). The particles 'i and 'im are limited to an anaphoric or
cataphoric function (Jamison 2002). The particle eva has the emphatic value
"exactly, just, indeed" after words and phrases (2.12.1 jiita ev4 "just born"),
and has the correlative function "thus, in this manner" after clauses. E.g.
2.30.4 "As (yathii) you killed with courage in the past, in the same way (eva)
kill our enemy." The particle id shows the higher functional load among the
particles derived from *ei- I i-. Its emphatic use emerges after a proper noun
(1.7.2 Indra id, 8.66.15 Soma id, 8.69.11 Varu1Ja id, etc.), a personal pronoun
(8.6.1 0 ahitm id ''just me", 8.54.6 tvam id "you indeed", 8.83.6 vayam id "we
certainly", etc.), or a further demonstrative pronoun, e.g. 1.10.6 lam id[ ... ]
zmahe "this very one we pray". Especially common is the eo-occurrence of id
and ad, which are placed at the beginning of the main clause and resume the
content of the preceding subordinate. While ad is an ablative form of the demonstrative stem a- and represents a causal nexus, id focuses on a precise
moment in which the process takes place. Geldner (1951: 11, 309) renders the
refrain ad id in (2.11) as da erst.
(2. 11) yad indra
prtanajye
de vas
tvii
when lndra-VOC close.combact.N-LOC.SG god.M-NOM.PL you-ACC.SG

dadhire

pural:z

place-PF.MID3PL ahead

har'i

I lid it te haryatii
PTC PTC your beloved-NOM.M.DU

vava/cyatul:z

bay.horse.M-NOM.DU grow-PF.MID3PL

"When, 0 Indra, the gods placed you ahead in the close combat, it was
then that your beloved bay horses grew." (8.12.25)
The stem *so- I to- provides the particle s'im, which is originally an accusative masculine singular form limited to anaphora or cataphora, as well as the
particles lad, latah and tad, which Renou considers instruments privilegies de
la connexion synlaxique (1952: 380). Cf. 6.69.8 "When, 0 Indra and Vi~l)u,
you fought, then (tad) you divided the thousand cows in three parts". A typical strategy of clause and verse linkage in the Rig-Veda is the so-called safige, when the third person pronoun sa "he" is used beside a first or a second
person subject, revealing a conjunctional rather than a proper anaphoric function, and expressing the consequence of the situation outlined in the preceding
42

Jause (2.12). "Oft hat das den Satz eroffnende und die Rede weiterftihrende

~a ganz den Charakter einer Conjunction [ ... ] Haufig hat cs consecutive und
~onclusive Bedeutung." (Speyer 1996: 266; cf. Jamison 1992; Klein 1996)

(Z.l2)jimiiso

agniftl dadhire sahovfdham I

pcople.M-NOM.PL 1\gni-ACC gct-PF3PI. increasing.strength-ACC.M.SG

havi$manto

vidhema

te

having.oblation-NOM.M.PL honor-OPTlPL you-DAT.SG

sd tvam

no

adya sumana

he you-NOM.SG us-DAT today good.mindcd-NOM.M.SG

ih&vitii I

hhilvii

vii}e\vu

santya

hcrc.hclper-NOM.M.SG be-IPV2SG war.loot.M-LOC.PL tmc-VOC.M.SG

"The people have got Agni, who makes their strength increase. Having oblations, may we honor you. As such, be a good-minded helper for us, today,
here in the war loots, you, 0 true one!" ( 1.36.2)
A proximal function can also be identified in the particle api "next to, in"
(A.Gr. epi "on"), which maintains at the same time the use of an adposit.ion
(mainly taking a locative: gzhe api "in the house"), of a preverb (i "go" vs.
api-i "enter, approach), and of the coordinating conjunction "and, also, in addition to". In this, it formally and functionally corresponds to Classical Armenian ew "and". Gonda ( 1968) explains the semantic change from spatial contiguity to coordinating conjunction via a notion of "addition" temporally conceived in the discourse flow. The conjunctional use of api is still rare in the
Rig-Veda, and will extend in Classical Sanskrit. Temporal contiguity is expressed by nu, which can also have an emphasizing function in addition to the
meaning "now" (A.Gr. nun, Lat. nunc).
Conjunctions more often derive from proximal deictics than from distal
deictics. A derivation from a distal stem appears in the particle u, which is
based on *au I u and is related to Old Indian asau, amu "that", Av. auua"id.", Lith. aure "there", Lat. aut "or", etc. The Vedic conjunctions uta "and"
(< *u + te I to) and va "or" go back to the same root, like the clauseemphasizing particle vai. The particle u can also connect clauses, as in (2.13),
although it is more often used as anaphoric rather than as a coordinator (Kiein
1985b: 29).
(2.13) pra}ii
te deviin
havi$a
yajati
creature.F-NOM.SG your god.M-ACC.PL offering.N-INSTR.SG sacrifice-SB.PR3SG

svarga

tvam

api miidayiise

heaven.M-LOC.SG PTC you-NOM in rejoice-CS.SB3SG

"May your creature sacrifice with an offering to the gods, and may you rejoice in heaven." (10.95.18cd)

43

2.3.3.2. Interrogative and indefinite sources

An interrogative source is cross-linguistically rarer than a deictic source

for emphatic, anaphoric, and conjunctional particles. In Old Indian, a derivation from the interrogative-indefinite stem *lt-o- I lt-e- I kl!i- is commonly accepted for the particles ea, cid, and cami, while for kdm and kila it is still debated4.
lE *li1 e- works as a conjunction "and" in Old Indian ea, as well as in the
cognate forms of A.Gr. te (Myc. qe), Lat. -que, Hit. -ku, O.lr. -eh, etc. The
particle cid "what" (A.Gr. ti, Lat. quid, Hit. kwit) is a rigidified neuter with
regular palatalization, which has been replaced in the paradigm by kim, with a
velar consonant analogical to the masculine ktih and to.the feminine kif. The
particle eana, related to Av. cina, Goth. -hun, and O.E. -gen, is probably an
ancient instn~mental *krieno, which was originally enclitic, and was subsequently stressed by influence ofthe negation ncl. In the Sama-Veda, eana is
analyzed as ea + na, with a folk etymology (KEWA: I, 372; EWA: I, 528;
Klein 1985a: 285).
From a phonological point of view, ea, cid, and eana can determine the
accent on an immediately preceding verb (PaQini 8.1.57-58). Morphologically,
the three particles appear after the interrogative pronoun with an indefinite
function: ktis ea, M. cid, kas cana "anyone", kva cid"somewhere", kad& cana
"sometime", etc. (the same function is expressed by the particle api, in the
form ko 'p1). This construction is used for indefinite pronouns in various lE
languages, cf. Hit. kuiski, Lat. quisquis, Goth. hvazuh, etc. In these contexts,
ea, eid, and eana maintain traces of their interrogative source, which has a diagnostic value in determining the first steps of their change. In the role of an
indefinite, however, ea has a more limited distribution than the other two,
since it only appears in the construction with the relative pronoun yci- ... lccis
ea "anybody" (Kiein 1985a: 265ff.).
The particles cid and eanci are more similar to each other than to ea. They
sporadically mal'k connection. As to cid, we find the sequences cid-cid, cid-ea,
cid-u "both ... and", "not only ... but also". Similarly, cana means "and, also"
only in few occurrences (2.14 ). The paucity of contexts in which cid and cana
function as conjunctions indicates that these two particles remain closer to the
original interrogative value.

4. Renou (1952: 375) claims that kclm derives from the interrogative stem, but Mayrhofer considers this implausible, and alternatively suggests an origin from kam "good" (KEWA: I, 159;
EWA: 1, 304-305). He also abandons the hypothesis of an interrogative source for the particle
kUa, which has been posited by Grassmann (1873: 326; cf. KEWA: I, 212; EWA: 1, 353).

44

rajim pi.thinase da.~asyan

you-NOM.SG Raji-ACC Pithina-DAT serve-P.PR.NOM.M.SG

(2.14) lvtitrt

$a$.1irtr sahasrii .iaeyii

sixty

.wiciihan 11

thousand strcngth.F-INSTR.SG with.kiii-IND.IPF3SG

ahcil'fl canti tat

silribhir

iinasyal'fl

I-NOM PTC this-ACC.N.SG hero.M-INSTR.PL obtain-OPTJSG

tava jyltya

indra

sumnam

o}ab

your excellent-ACC.N.SG Indra-VOC favor.N-ACC.SG force.N-ACC.SG

"You killed Raji for Pithina, making a service, and sixty thousand men
with your strength; may I too obtain this excellent favor and force of yours
with the heroes." (6.26.6cd-7ab)
The conjunction ea becomes the most productive coordinating conjunction
in the Rig-Veda (ea and uta have 1.019 and 705 occurrences, respectively, cf.
Klein 198Sa: 46ff.; 293). Its primary function is that of coordinating noun
phrases. Out of 1.019 occurrences, Klein counts 902 (88.5%) instances of
noun phrase coordination, 90 (8.8%) instances of clause linkage, 14 (1.4%)
ambiguous cases between noun phrase linkage and clause linkage, and 13
cases ( 1.3%) where ea is postposed to the indefinite pronoun in the structure
ya- ... ka I ki I ku ea. In the domain of clause linkage, ea occasionally appears
in clauses already marked by verbal accent as in (2.2), where it manifests the
parallelism between the two compared situations. Moreover, in 31 occurrences ea per se is meant as a subordinator with the temporal function "when"
(2.15) or with the conditional function "if' (5.2).
(2.15) deve$u
ea savitab s!Okam
asrer
god.M-LOC.PL when Savit[-VOC cry.M-ACC.SG direct-IND.AOR2SG

&1 asmabhyam a suva

then us-OAT

sarvatiitim

PRE send-IPV2SG complete.safety.F-ACC.SG

"When, 0 Savit.r, you have directed your cry among the gods, then send us
complete safety." (3.54.1lcd)
Subordinating ea disappears in Classical Sanskrit. By contrast, the conditional subordinator eed < ea + id is attested only four times in the Rig-Veda,
but in Classical Sanskrit it becomes very frequent. In the lE domain, subordination is found in Hittite takku "if' < *to-/(le, in Gothic nih "if not", in Latin
absque (Wackemagel1942), and in the Slavic languages (Patri 2003).
Parallels of the change from interrogative marker to conjunction can be
identified in Indian languages, in other lE languages, and in languages genetically and areally unrelated.
In Classical Sanskrit, a coordinating function is ascribed to the form kil'fl ea,
where ea is re-determined with the neuter interrogative pronoun kim. It is used
in lists and in emphatic contexts, "to signify the importance of what is added"
(Speyer 1886: 437; cf. also Whitney 1879: 1133a). This use continues in
Middle-Jndian .languages. According to Bloch's diachronic analysis,
45

"!'interrogation est testee dans la langue populaire un moyen de marquer les

etapes du discours". (1934: 312).
An independent manifestation of this phenomenon is observed in the Baltic languages. Lithuanian ar and Latvian ar "also, in addition to", which present a different apophonic grade with respect to Lith. fr "and" and Latv. ir
"also", and are probably connected to A.Gr. ara "then", can also be used with
an interrogative function. Cf. Lith. a; girdcyai "did you hear?''; Latv. ar tujuti
"do you hear?'' (Schmalstieg 1993: 501)
In Evenki, a North-Tungusic language spoken in Siberia, the disjunctive
coordination between clauses is performed by means of the enclitic particles
gu, -ku, -ngu (2.16). These forms also mark an interrogative clause (2.17).
Disjunction and interrogation share the semantic component of nondefiniteness.
(2.16) Amakan tygde-d'e-n-ngu, imanna-d'a-n-ngu
soon

rain-FUT-3SG-PTC snow-FUT-3SG-PTC

"Soon it will either rain or snow." (Nedjalkov 1997: 89)

(2.17) Ted'e-re-n-ngu
believc-PRES/P ASS-3SG-PTC

"Did I Does he believe it?" (Nedjalkov 1997: 6)

2.4. Relativizers
2.4.1. The change from relative pronouns to adverbial subordinators
We have seen that the anomalous kind of subordination represented by
Hettrich's (1988) Ergiinzungssiitze is not a homogeneous group. Some of
them are extremely frequent (hi occurs 543 times; cf. Hettrich p. 792-95), others are extremely rare (ned occurs 4 times). They may or may not be introduced by a conjunction (clauses without a segmental subordinator have 150
occurrences; cf. Hettrich p. 791-92). Apparently, what they share is rather a
negative feature, that is, none of them shows the stem of the relative pronoun
ya-, which is the most typical marker of subordination in Old Indian.
Most adverbial subordinators represent ancient case forms of the relative
stem that have been grammaticalized over time, i.e. instrumental (yada), ablative (ydd, yatas), locative (yadi), and nominative-accusative (yad). Local and
manner suffixes appear inyatra and inyathii, respectively. Combinations with
other particles (yac cid dhi) are also found. Accordingly, the principle that adverbial subordinators are uninflected (Kortmann 1998: 45 8-59) is true in
V edic only at a synchronic level, to the extent that these adverbial subordinators have a rigidified case marking, are not coreferent with any constituent in
46

the main clause, and do not represent any syntactic function in the subordinate
clause. However, the transparency of these forms allows to reconstruct their
originally inflected structure.
The fact that the conjunction yad is generalized at the expense of other adverbial subordinators in the Rig-Veda, and is subsequently extended to completive relations, is due to the distributional unmarkedness of its original
nominative-accusative fonn. As a relative pronoun, yad could subsume the
functions not only of subject and direct object, but also of some local and
temporal adjuncts. This favored the occurrences of yad with respect to the
other fonns of the relative pronoun. The rigidification of an accusative case
can also be found in particles (e.g. cid, id, i, im, sim, etc.) and in adverbs, for
which -am is one of the most typical endings. As a result, after its entrenchment as an adverbial subordinator, yad can appear in the vast majority of contexts, with the highest range of semantic values. Hettrich ( 1988: 334-424) Iists
temporal, conditional, concessive, purposive, explicative, causal, and adversative functions. Apparently, (almost) all kinds of adverbial relations are involved in the spread ofyad, which we can consider a universal subordinator in
Vedic.

2. 4. 2. Form-Function correlations of adverbial subordinators

In Tables l and 2, we present a list of Vedic relativizers, starting from
structure to function, and then proceeding in the opposite direction. Since the
former method has been exhaustively applied in traditional grammars (Delbriick 1888; Speyer 1896; MacDonell 1916; Renou 1952), we mainly discuss
the latter in the following chapters.
The most striking feature is the lack of a one-to-one correspondence between form and function of subordinators. On the one hand, the same conjunction can represent several subordinating relations. On the other, the same
semantic relation can be expressed by means of different conjunctions.
If we consider the structure of these subordinators, we observe their morphological simplicity. They are monomorphemic (yad) or bimorphemic (yadfi, yad-i, ya-thii, yti-tra, ya-tm~, yad < ya- + ad). All of them consist of a single
word, except for yac cid dhi, which however is scarcely used and scarcely
grammaticalized, since its constituents can also occur as unbound forms (8).

47

Form

Meaning

yadii

when

ytldi

when; if; whether

yatha

as; in order that; when; because

yatra

where

yatas

whence

yifd

when; as long as

yacciddhi

although

ytld

when; if; although; in order that; because; while;

that (explicative completive).

Table 1. Vedic relativizersfromform to function

Meaning

Form

when

ytld; ytldi; yadif; ydthii; yifd

while

ytld

as

ydthii

where

yatra

whence

ydtas

because

yad; yathii

although

yac cid dhi; ydd

if

yddi; ea; ydd

in order that

yathii; yad

that

yad

Table 2. Vedic relativizersfromfunction to form

As Kortrnann (1998: 478) put it, "there is an inverse relation between morphological complexity and (semantic as well as syntactic) polyfunctionality,
such that the higher the degree of morphological complexity of a lexical item,
the lower will be its degree ofpolyfunctionality, and vice versa." Accordingly,
48

ubordinators consisting of only one word tend to diminish over time, re-

~laced by various phrasal conjunctions built on adpositions ot adverbs. The

search of formal specificity brings about a minor functional load, so that a
single marker tends to be associated with an only function. The addition of
formal markings proceeds along with grammaticalization: when the internal
structure of a word becomes opaque, it is usually remotivated by means of
further forms. In Classical Sanskrit, however, monomorphemic subordinators
arc still found, and particularly yad expands its functional domain to completive relations, which in Vedic are rarely expressed by relativizers. At the same
time, new subordinators are created, such as purposive yena and concessive
yady-api.
.
If we take into account the semantics of the Vedic subordinators in Table 2,
we notice first that adverbial relations dramatically outnumber completive relations. The "explicative" (9.2.1) is the only completive relation that in
Vedic is consistently expressed by means of a finite sqbordinate clause
marked with a relativizer. Second, not all adverbial relations are equally represented. Time, location, and manner clauses, which are considered semantically basic with respect to other adverbial clauses (Thompson and Longacre
1985: 177ff.)~ are firmly ~stablished in the Vedic subordinating system. The
priority of time, location, and manner chiLUses is due to the fact that they can
be replaced in languages by monomorphemic non-anaphoric adverbs (2.18b;
2.19b; 2.20b), and can be paraphrased with relative clauses having a generic
head noun (2.18c; 2.19c; 2.20c).
(2.18a) When John arrived, I baked a pie.
(2.18b) Yesterday I baked a pie.
(2.18c) I baked a pie at the time in which John arrived.
(2.198) Our house is where my grandparents used to live.
(2.19b) Our house is there.
(2.19c) Our house is in the place in which my parents used to live.
(2.20a) Finish your homework as I taught you.
(2.20b) Finish your homework quickly.
(2.20c) Finish your homework in the way I taught you.
In Vedic, the basic character of manner subordinates emerges from the
structure of the subordinator yathii, which contains the manner suffix -thii
(e.g. visvathii "in every way", anyathii "in another way", purvathii "as formerly", etc.), and therefore must have been extended to other adverbial relations (purposive, temporal, and causal) only secondarily. Location clauses receive different forms depending on whether they express a notion of state
(yatra) or of source (yatas). The temporal is the adverbial relation that in
49

Vedic has the highest number of available subordinating strategies, according

to the different semantic values of simultaneity, anteriority, etc. (4). Delbrilck (1900: 332) identifies a passage where a relative clause can be interpreted as a temporal clause, and where the shift from relative pronoun to temporal subordinator is favored (2.21 ).
(2.21) yilj
j{ryathiis
' tad
ahar
RP-ACC.N.SG be.born-INJ.IPF2SG that-ACC.N.SG day.N-ACC.SG

asya kame

'Tf'lsoh

p'fyil$am

it-GEN desire.M-LOC.SG filament.M-GEN.SG juice.M-ACC.SG

apibo

giri$1ham

drink-IND.IPF2SG mountain.dwelling-ACC.M.SG

"That day that you were born, you drank the mountain-dwelling juice of
the (Soma)-filament, in the desire of it." (3.48.2ab)
Uihr (1989) gathers passages similar to (2.21) from other lE languages,
and states that the relative clause independently receives an Umdeutung in a
temporal clause on the one hand, and in an explicative clause on the other.
Moreover, various adverbial clauses can be semantically reduced to temporal
clauses.
For some secondary adverbial relations, such as the consecutive, a relativizer is absent. The conjunctions ycithii and yacl only have a purposive function,
i.e. they never present a situation that is the mere consequence of the state of
affairs denoted in the main clause, e.g. "Jt rained yesterday, so that the street
is wet". Rather, they always represent a situation that is desired by the subject
of the main clause, e.g. "Mary went to the meadow to gather flowers". The
consecutive relation is alternatively expressed in the Rig-Veda by juxtaposed
clauses, optionally marked by particles (cf. 7.8). Similarly, for other secondary adverbial relations, such as the concessive, a relativizer is only marginally attested. 1-lettrich (1988: 328ff.) counts only I0 occurrences of the composite subordinator ycic cid hi with this function, which prefers by far either
participles or the juxtaposition of two contrastive clauses (8). We will see
that the two functional domains of contrast and consequence arc the last to
adopt a finite subordinate introduced by a rclativizer, and to abandon the heterogeneous structures of implicit subordination, marked only by verbal accent,
and of ambiguous linking particles.

2. 4. 3. Main clause phenomena in subordinates marked by a

relativizer
Although they are more syntacticized than the structures of implicit subordination, Vedic clauses marked by a relativizer are not embedded, and in
50

many ways are less syntacticized than the finite subordinates found in other IE
languages, such as Latin or Ancient Greek. In the layered structure of the
clause, Foley and Van Valin ( 1984: 208fT.) posit tense, evidentials, and illocutionary force as the outermost clausal operators, i.e. the operators that refer to
a sentence as a whole rather than to a part of it, and for which a subordinate
most heavily depends on the main clause. In these cases, however, Vedic subordinates behave similarly to independent clauses. First, as already mentioned,
there is no consecutio temporum or modorum capable of conditioning the verb
of the subordinate clause. Second, both dependent and independent clauses
can contain evidentials, i.e. adverbial forms that signal the speaker's judgment
on the tmth-values of the proposition. Here we do not mean a grammaticalized category of evidentiality, in the sense of Aikhenvald (2004), which in
Vedic does not exist. Rather, we indicate lexicalized strategies of referring to
the source of information, and in particular adverbial expressions such as
"certainly", "seemingly", etc. In "Certainly, I don't think that Mark is in the
library", the evidential "certainly" extends its scope not merely on the subordinate clause, but rather on the entire sentence. **"I don't think that Mark is
certainly in the library" is ungrammatical, as the evidential, which is an external operator, cannot independently appear in the subordinate. In Vedic, however, adverbial forms such as allga "certainly, really" can appear both in an
independent clause (2.22) and in a dependent clause (2.23). In both cases,
anga occupies the second position in the clause5 A similar behavior is also
observable for the particle itthif (cf. 4.24.6).
anga savitur
garutmiin
(2.22) suparr:u)
bird.M-NOM.SG certainly Savitr-GEN Garutmat-NOM

pilrvo

jiital:z

first-NOM.M.SG bom-NOM.M.SG

"Garutmat, Savit['s bird, was certainly born first." (1 0.149.3c)

(2.23) yad anga tavi{(iyavo
yamarrz
subhrii
when certainly violent-VOC.M.PL departure.M-ACC.SG splendid-VOC.M.PL

acidhvam

ni

parvata

ahasata

decide-IND.AOR2PL down mountain.M-NOM.PL bend-IND.AOR3PL

"When, certainly, 0 violent gods, 0 splendid ones, you decided your departure, the mountains bent down." (8.7.2)
In (2.23), the evidential function of anga, which is placed in the subordinate, extends over the entire sentence: the speaker does not declare that the
Maruts decided to set off, but rather that even the mountains bent down at
their departure.
5. Anga is not only a clause-particle, as in (2.22) and (2.23), but also a word-particle, when it
emphasizes the preceding noun or pronoun. In this case, it is not contrained to Wackernagel's
position. Cf. l.84.7c fsiino aprali$kuta fndro ahga "An unrestrained master is certainly Indra!"

51

Moreover, clauses marked by the relative pronoun ya- with an appositive

function can have their own illocutionary force. When tackling tenses and
moods of relative clauses, 1-Iettrich acknowledges: "lm Gegensatz zu den
restriktiven Relativsatze, in denen der voluntative Konjunktiv kaum sicher
nachweisbar ist, dominiert diese Gebrauchsweise in den appositivcn
Relativsatze. Die entsprechenden Relativsatze sind Uberwiegend finalsatzaquivalent." ( 1988: 671) The subjunctive may point to the imperative illocutionary force of a relative clause with respect to an indicative mood in the
main clause (2.24).
(2.24) ayaflJ
viiqz
gharmo
asvma
this-NOM.M.SG you-DAT.PL cauldron.M-NOM.SG Asvin-VOC.DU

stomena

pari

~icyale

praise.M-INSTR.SG around pour-JND.PR.PS3 SG

ayaflJ .

somo

madhumiin

this-NOM.M.SG soma.M-NOM.SG rich.in.honey-NOM.M.SG

va;zmvasu

yena

vrtraflJ

ciketathab

rich.in.horses-VOC.M.DU RP-INSTR.M.SG V,rtra-ACC think-SB2DU

"This cauldron, 0 Asvins, 0 you rich in horses, is poured with praise for
this soma rich in honey, by which may you think ofV[lra." (8.9.4)
lllocutionary force is also present in adverbial clauses. The example in
(2.25) contains an interrogative main clause and a declarative temporal or
causal clause. The speaker states that in the past he used to have a good relationship with the addressed god, who apparently does not pay attention to him
any longer. Cf. also (6.15).
nau sakhya
babhiivul]
(2.25) kva tyani
yo~,

where that-NOM.N.PL our friendship.N-NOM.PL be-PfoJPL

saciivahe

yad

avrkam pura cit

be.associated-IND.PR.MIDlDU because safely

before PTC

"Where has our friendship gone?, because in the past we were close to
each other in safety." (7.88.5ab)
Main clause phenomena appearing in subordinate clauses have also been
identified in present-day English, and have been explained in terms of assertiveness. That is, only the subordinate clauses that present asserted, rather than
presupposed, information can display syntactic constructions normally restricted to independent clauses (Hooper and Thompson 1973; Green 1976;
Bolinger 1977). In Vedic, however, these phenomena are more widespread.
Similarly to what observed with regard to kuvid-clauses, in full-fledged
clauses marked by a relativizer the synchronically anomalous presence of an
independent illocutionary force requires a diachronic explanation. Clauses
marked only by verbal accent, or by verbal accent plus a particle, represent a
type of subordination that originates from the juxtaposition of simple clauses
52

placed in iconic order. At this stage, no clear distinction can be drawn between coordination and subordination, since Vedic presents forms working
both as coordinators and as subordinators, as in the case of ea (2.15), as well
as particles fitting a la be! of neither coordination nor subordination, but rather
retaining a deictic and emphatic value. In this clause linkage, it is often difficult to ascertain whether two clauses establish a relation of dependency or are
located on the same hierarchical level. This is not inconsistent with assertion
and foreground.
Klein (1992: 91) argues that we can reconstruct "two fundamentally different phonetic bases for verbal accentuation in the Rig-Veda: salience and
heightened intonation. The two appear to be irreconcilably different, as can be
seen in modern languages, where contrastive and intonation represent
separate linguistic features." However, salience and heightened intonation of:.
ten share the same environment, and consequently their functions overlap in a
number of cases. What comes first in a clause is not only, by definition, incomplete, but also more important, i.e. recurring in the subsequent text (Giv6n
J988t. As proved in several psychological studies, the high topicality of a
meaningful constituent occupying the first position in a clause is related to
strategies of attention and memory, since the first piece of information is also
easiest to process and to retrieve.
In the Rig-Veda, instances of putative emphatic accentuation, as that found
in a verb imrpediately preceding the particle id, can be viewed as a manifestation of clause linkage, whereby the verb conveys a piece of information that is
"incomplete" and semantically connected to the adjacent clause (2.3.1 ). On
the other hand, instances of putative incompleteness, as in the case of adversative (2.1) or purposive relations (2.4) marked only by verbal accent, also imply emphasis. Emphasis has been invoked by Dunkel (1985: 56) to account
for cases of verbal accentuation like (2.4), where an exhortative subjunctive
follows the particle eta or eto (<eta + u), which is originally an imperative
form of the root i "go" (for details, cf. 7.5). Emphasis is also a universal correlate of adversative relations, which represent the vast majority of clauses
marked only by verbal accent, as acknowledged in Klein (1992).
That emphasis is often patent in clauses marked only by verbal accent, or
by verbal accent plus a bound or free particle, indicates that these types of
clause linkage did not originally imply backgrounded information. Rather,
foregrounded material was often presented, as can be seen in the innumerable
contexts in which the accented verb is an imperative. The conspiracy between

6. We refer here to lexical items, which in Vedic can be fronted when topicalized. By contrast,
the initial position of grammatical items such as conjunctions or particles is due to their light
structure, and is unrelated to salience.

53

verbal accentuation, as epiphenomenon of a semantic relation between two

clauses, and backgrounding will be accomplished with the more grammaticalized device of overt subordination marked by means of a relativizer. A relative clause does not modify the whole main clause, but only one participant of
it. Accordingly, it conveys a piece of information that only partially involves
the main event, and can be interpreted as marginal and backgrounded. The
main clause phenomena that still appear in clauses marked by a relativizer
represent a legacy of an earlier type of clause linkage signalled by mere verbal
accentuation.

54

3. Relative Clauses

3.1. The correlative diptych

The syntactic structure of the relative clause (RC) in Old Indian has been
labeled "correlative diptych" in Minard's ( 1936) pioneering study, based on
the Vedic prose of the Satapathabrahmana. Two main fonns of correlative
diptych exist. In the diptyque normal, the RC precedes and contains the head
noun (HN), which is anaphorically resumed in the main clause by means of a
demonstrative pronoun. In (3.1) the relative pronoun (RP) ya- has the function
of an implicating distal, while the demonstrative pronoun ta- works as an implicated proximal.
(3 .I) ya
ruco
jiitavedaso devatrfi
RP-NOM,F.PL flame.F-NOM.PL Jatavedas-GEN am<ing.the.gods

havyavahan'ifJ
oblation.carrier-NOM.F.PL

tOhhir

no

yajiiam

invatu

this-INSTR.F.PL us-GEN sacrifice.M-ACC.SG promote-IPV3SG

"The flames ofthe Jatavedas which carry oblations among the gods,
witb these may he promote our sacrifice." (I 0.188.3)
In the diplyque inverse, the main clause comes first and contains the head
noun, often without the demonstrative pronoun (3.2).
aruhac
chukram
arl}a/]
(3.2) a siiryo
PRE :~un.M-NOM.SG rise-IND.IPF3SG brilliant-ACC.N.SG wave.N-ACC.SG

yasmii

iiditya

adhvano

radanti

RP-DAT.M.SG Aditya-NOM.PL path.M-ACC.PL make.ready-IND.PR3PL

"To the brilliant wave the Sun rose, for whom the Adityas make the pathway ready." (7.60.4bc)
Minard's terminology indicates a higher frequency of preposed RCs in
Vedic, where the opposite order is used only for expressive or rhetoric purposes, so that "quand elle resiste, il convient de mettre en doute son existence
meme, doute souvent possible dans un texte pauvrement ponctue" ( 1936: 9).
55

Preposed RCs, h_owever, an_d more generally SOY _word order, is ~ot yet fixed
in the early Yed1c of the R1g-Yeda, where semantic and pragmatic factors in.
fluence syntactic anangement.
Independently on whether it is the relative or the main clause that opens a
correlative structure, the head noun tends to appear in the first clause of the
diptych, so that preposed RCs are head-internal and postposed RCs are headexternal. This reduces the possibilities of backwards control, which is typ 0
logically typical of subordinate clauses( 1.3). Apparently, the sequence noun
+ anaphora is unmarked in discourse with respect to the sequence cataphora +
noun, since a given noun may be resumed by a theoretically infinite number
of anaphoras, if no other topic intervenes to dismpt the established relation of
coreference. On the contrary, the explicit mention of a referent cannot be suspended by a long series of cataphoras, which entail syntactic closeness with
the eo-referent noun. The "intimate connection" (Kiein I 985a: 17) between
cataphora and referent noun does not match the loose structure of the correlative diptych.
The structure of the correlative diptych has been identified in other ancient
lE languages (Haudry 1973) and has been ascribed to PIE (LUhr 2000). Typologically, a correlative structure mainly occurs in loose SOY languages
(Downing 1973; Klaiman 1976), where it often competes with prenominal or
circumnominal embedded RCs. In Lehmann {1984: 48ff.), Vedic-like RCs are
labeled adjoined RCs. From a hierarchical point of view, an adjoined
(angesch/ossen) RC builds an exocentric construction with the head noun and
an endocentric construction with the main clause. It does not have the form of
a noun phrase, but rather of a full-fledged clause, where both the verb and the
arguments are marked as they are in an independent sentence. lt also has a different intonational contour with respect to the main clause. From a linear
point of view, the distribution of an adjoined RC is highly constrained, as it
can only occupy a side-position (Randstellung), either preposed (vorangestellt)
or postposed (nachge.'itellt), with respect to the main clause. When both
preposition and postposition are grammatically permitted, as in the case of
Vedic, the adjoined RC is classified as mn.~tellbar (Lehmann 1984: 130-132).
By contrast, an embedded (eingebettet) RC and its head noun form a noun
phrase playing a syntactic function inside the main clause. An embedded RC
builds an endocentric construction with the head noun and an exocentric construction with the main clause. In typological studies, embedded RCs are considered the prototypical structure of relativization. Consider Keenan's remark
about correlative structures: "These are not noun phrases and thus a fortiori
not RCs on our definition, but they arc the functional equivalent of RCs in
many languages, so the field worker interested in RCs should be aware of
their existence." ( 1985: 163)
56

fl

correlative diptych can be gauged according to the criteria for clause

posited in Lehmann ( 1988). The first couple of criteria concern autonhnkaes. integration. Integration is minimal in the case of parataxis, when two
onlY es are placed on the same level, and maximal in the case of embedding,
ci~U~ the dependent is downgraded from clause-status to clausal constituentVI
The correlative diptych is closer to the pole of parataxis than to the
stal; of embedding, as can be inferred from the linear position of the RC at the
~~rder of the main clause: coordinate clauses are adjacent to each other and
do not overlap.
Moreover, a subordinate may be either isolated or connected to the main
clause. Interlacing occurs when main clause and dependent clause share some
semantic features, such as participants or time reference, and therefore the
subordinate does not specify the shared elements. Although the two clauses of
Old Indian correlative diptych share the participant denoted by the head noun,
the head noun is explicitly cross-referred by means of a demonstrative pronoun, and occasionally by means of lexical repetition, in the main clause
(Lehmann 1984: 225). In this regard, clause linkage of Vedic RC resembles
the linkage occurring in complex discourse rather than in simple clauses.
A further couple of criteria involve expansion vs. reduction. A subordinate
is reduced when it is desententialized or deranked (cf. Cristofaro 2003: 54-59),
that is, when it stops referring to a specific state of affairs, characterized by its
own tense, aspect, and mood, and acquires nominal features such as case
marking, prepositions, and coding of arguments as possessors. Since the verb
and the arguments in the RC are morphologically marked as they are in independent clauses, Old Indian correlative diptych has a high degree of sententiality and a low degree ofnominalization.

1:

:.s.

3.2. The relative pronoun

Whereas in most languages the RP is synchronically identical or similar to
other pronouns, either definite (e.g. Germ. der) or indefinite (e.g. Engl. who),
Old Indian RP has a specialized stem ya- distinguished from both demonstrative and interrogative pronouns, represented by the stems sa- Ita- and kd-, respectively. This is a morphological isogloss shared by Iranian (Av. ya-; O.P.
hya- I tya-) and by Ancient Greek (h6s I hJ I h6), which goes back to PIE *}6-.
Relics of *j6- recorded in Germanic, Baltic, and Slavic conjunctions (Goth.
jabdi "if', ei "that"; Lith.jei "if',jog "that", etc.) show that this stem was also
widespread in the western part of the lE domain.
The Old Indian RP ya- unambiguously signals subordination. Despite the
loose linkage to the main clause, the verb of a ya- clause always carries the
57

accent, which in Vedic is the hallmark of a subordinate clause. Conversely, in

languages where the RP is homophonous with other pronouns, the interpretation of the clausal nexus often depends on the context. For example, Hittite
kwis I kwit has either a relative or an interrogative reading depending on the
presence of a correlative 1 in the subsequent clause (Held 1957: 40). If a correlative is present, the first clause is interpreted as subordinate and the pronoun as relative. Otherwise, the two clauses are independent, with the pronoun introducing a direct interrogative clause.
The specialized stem and the overt case marking contribute to the mobility
of the Old Indian RP on the linear axis. It can occupy any position inside the
RC, and despite a preference for the initial position, it exhibits a word order
freedom much greater than in other early lE languages. For example, Avestan,
which shows a vast range of different arrangements among the constituents of
a RC, does not allow a relative pronoun to follow either the verb in a verbal
RC, or the predicate noun in a nominal RC (Seiler 1960: 121 ). The latter order
must have been prevailing in the Baltic and the Slavic languages, as can be
inferred from the formation of the definite adjective of e.g. Lith. gerasis
zmogits and O.Bg. vino novoje, which rest on MOD-RP-HN or HN-MOD-RP.
These orders are found in Vedic, as we will see below in (3.22) and (3.23).
Porzig (1923: 223ff.), based on a large corpus of RCs selected from books IIVII of the Rig-Veda, shows that the head noun, the relative pronoun, and the
verb of the relative clause display all logically possible positions. They do not
abide by the adjacency principle, according to which we expect the head noun
to be close to the relative pronoun. Particularly, in preposed relative clauses,
the linear order RP-V-HN is the most frequently occurring pattern. An example of this is in (3.3), where an anacoluthon occurs. This is a common situation in Vedic, where the main clause and the dependent clause may be linked
with a certain Nachlassigkeit und Unebenheit (Speyer 1896: 287).
(3 .3) ye
tviihihatye
maghavann
RP-NOM.M.PL you-ACC. SG.serpent.slaying.N-LOC.SG bountiful-VOC.M.SG

ye

avardhan

sambare

increase-IND.IPF3PL RP-NOM.PL.M Sambara('s ftght).M-LOC.SG

ye

harivo

gavi~.tau

lord.of. bay.horses-VOC.M.SG RP-NOM.M.PL search.of.cows.F-LOC.SG

ye

tvii

nunam anumadanti

RP-NOM.M.PL you-ACC.SG now

viprii/:z

rejoice-IND.PR3PL poet.M-NOM.PL

l. We use the term "correlative" in reference to the anaphoric element appearing in the main
clause, according to the Indian grammatical tradition (e.g. Speyer 1896: 268; Renou 1952:
446; Hettrich 1988: 518 et passim, McGregor 1986: 82, etc.). Quite differently, Keen an (1985:
163fT.) calls "correlative" the form of the relative pronoun appearing in correlative structures
and opposed to the anaphoric pronoun in the main clause.

58

pibendra

somam

drink-JPV2SG.Indra-VOC soma.M-ACC.SG
saga~w
numldbhil}
accompanicd.by.a.troup-NOM.M.SG Marut-lNSTR.PL

"Those who increased you in the slaying of the serpent, 0 bountiful, who
(increased you) in Sambara's fight, 0 lord of bay horses, who (increased you)
in the search of the cows, who now rejoice in you as your poets, drink the
soma, 0 lndra, together with the troop of the Maruts." (3.47.4)
Despite the different stem, the RP ya- and the demonstrative pronoun sa- I
have a similar distribution. We previously mentioned that, among the various available positions, the RP tends to appear at the beginning of the clause,
so that it immediately signals subordination and clause boundary. The initial
position is also occupied by the demonstrative pronoun sa- I ta- ("La place
normale est en tete", Renou 1952: 400). Both the demonstrative pronoun and
the RP scan the discourse in syntactic and metric units of similar proportions.
Consider the behavior ofthe RP yayoiJ in (3.4) and of the demonstrative pronoun ttiyo/1 in (3.5), selected from close passages. Both of them split the
hemistich in two piidas of eleven syllables each, and anaphorically resume a
non-adjacent head noun. This suggests that Vedic relativization employs syntactic devices typical of independent clauses.
(3.4)
le sap"'y;i
javase
yunaJml

ta-

PRE your stccd.M-ACC.DU swillncss.N-DAT.SG yoke-IND.PRISG

ytiyor

anu pradiva/J SI"U$.1im

&va/J

RP-GEN.M.DU PRE from.of.old scrvicc.F-ACC.SG love-IND.IPF2SG

"I yoke your pair of steeds for a swift run, whose service you loved from
of old." (3.50.2ab)
(3.5) pade
iva nihite
dasme
antas
footprint.N-NOM.DU like set-PP.NOM.N.DlJ wonderful-LOC.M.SG in

ttiyor

anyad

gzihyam

iivir anyat

this-GEN.N.DU other-NOM.N.SG hidden- NOM.N.SG outside othcr-NOM.N.SG

"Like two footprints they were set in the wonderful one (se. in Agni): one
ofthem is hidden, (whereas) the other is manifest." (3.55.15ab)
Given their similar syntactic distribution, the RP and the demonstrative
pronoun seem to belong to the same grammatical category. This is true diachronically: since Windisch ( 1869) the stem lE *jo- has been ascribed an anaphoric function related to the demonstrative stem lE *ei- I i- (2.3.3.1 ). It is
well known that a deictic use of the demonstrative pronoun easily triggers an
anaphoric value and later a relative value. The use of the demonstrative stem
lE *so- I to- as a RP is attested in the Germanic languages and in Old Persian,

59

where the fusion with the stem *jo- led to the new RP hya- I tya- 2 In Ancient
Greek, the relative use of *so- I to- does not extend to Attic and to the koine,
but it is widely documented in Homer and in the other dialects (Chantraine
1945: 141 ). In Homer, both *jo- and *so- I to- are used as RPs, even though
the interpretation of the latter stem is often ambiguous. It is critical to establish whether a demonstrative pronoun anaphorically resuming a noun in a
previous clause has developed or not a subordinating function.
Monteil (1963) excludes a relative reading for the pronoun to- when a
strong pause intervenes between two clauses, or when the pronoun is too far
from the antecedent noun. In this case, the pronoun is interpreted as a demonstrative located in an independent clause. To identifY a subordinate clause and
a relative pronoun, it is necessary "que les deux phrases, jusque la distinctes,
soient melodiquement unies et constituent deux versants, montant puis descendant, d'un enonce unique." (p. 25) Linear position is especially relevant to
a relative reading. On the one hand, the clause containing to- must appear after the clause containing the reference noun, according to an antecedent- anaphoric sequence, which is more natural than the cataphoric sequence. On the
other hand, to- must be placed at the beginning of its clause, as close as
possible to the antecedent. As it marks the end of the main clause and the beginning of the subordinate, the pronoun "limite et articule les deux termes de
l'enonce complexe. Mot charniere, il coincide aussi avec la culmination tonale
de la melodie enonciative." (1963: 29)
The contextual conditions for a RP described by Monteil only partially apply to Vedic RP ya-, which is located in a scalar position between the prototypical demonstrative pronoun and the prototypical relative pronoun. Like
demonstrative pronouns, Vedic ya- can be displaced from the head noun, and
can be separated from the main clause by a strong syntactic or metric pause.
Like relative pronouns, Vedic ya- entails verbal accentuation, i.e. links a
clause to another clause in such a way that the two of them are comprehended
under the same overarching intonation. The RP ya- shows a scarce grammaticalization, both in Old Indian and in the reflexes of ya- of the Modern Indian
languages, which continue using the same basic correlative structure.

2. The contact between the demonstrative pronoun sa- Ita- and the RP ya-, which is grammaticalized in Old Persian, is also attested in Vedic after the Rig-Veda (e.g. AB 1.1.1 0 tad yad
ghrtam tat striyai paya/J, lit., "that, which is the clarified butter, that is the milk for the woman").

60

3.3. The Accessibity Hierarchy

Vedic RCs manifest a high level of syntactic accessibility. This is related
to the fact that the function of the head noun in the RC is revealed by the casemarked RP. The non-reduced or non-embedded RC (cf. Giv6n 1979: 147-48;
200 I: 11, 182ff.) does not entail any disruptive transformation with respect to
an independent sentence, so that the relativized position can be easily recovered. Vedic RC can relativize all but the last position of the Accessibility Hierarchy (Al-l, Keenan and Comrie 1977; 1979), that is, the head may have the
syntactic functions of subject, direct object, indirect object, oblique, and genitive in the RC. The function of the object of comparison is excluded. We already saw an example of a relativized dative in (3.2), and of a relativized
genitive in (3.4). A relativized adjunct is in (3.6)3
(3.6) vipriiso
agnim mahayanta
cittibhi/:1 I
sage.M-NOM.PL Agni-ACC magnify-INJ.IPF.MID3PL thought.F-INSTR.PL

apa'!lsi

ytisminn

ddhi sal!ldadhur

giras

work.N-ACC.PL RP-LOC.M.SG on put.together-INJ.IPF.MID3PL song.F-ACC.PL

"With thoughts the sages magnify Agni, on whom they put together their
works and songs". (3.3.3bc)
The AH predicts that higher (or more left-oriented) syntactic functions are
more frequently relativized than lower (or more right-oriented) syntactic functions. This is also accepted in the revised version of the hierarchy suggested
by Lehmann (1984: 211-223). Lehmann separates a hierarchy for adverbal
syntactic functions (i.e. subject I absolutive > direct object I ergative > indirect object, local and temporal complements> adjuncts) from a hierarchy for
adnominal syntactic functions (i.e. possessive attribute> standard of comparison> prepositional attribute). No rigid order exists between the hierarchies of
adverbal and adnominal syntactic functions, since verb syntax is different
from noun syntax. However, the adnominal hierarchy is located at a lower
3. lt may be objected that the AH has been posited by Keenan and Comrie for restrictive relative clauses, and therefore it cannot be exemplified with relative clauses which depend on a
definite head noun and have an appositive function, like (3.2), (3.4), and (3.6). However, the
exclusion of appositive relative clauses from the original work of Kcenan and Comric was not
due to a different syntax of appositive relative clauses with respect to restrictive relative clauses,
or to a different bchavior of these two clause types with respect to the Al-l. "lt rather seems that
the syntax of non-restrictives in a language will be largely similar to that for rcstrictives."
(Keenan 1985: 169) The restrictive function was selected by Keenan and Comrie because restrictive relative clauses arc typologically more widespread than appositive relative clauses. Cf.
Lehmann's remark in regard to this: "Wenn eine Sprache einen Relativsatz hat, er restriktiv
verwendet werden kann; oder. was auf dasselbe hinauslauft: wenn eine Sprache einen
appositiven Relativsatz hat, hat sie auch einen restriktiven." (1984: 279) Appositive relative
clauses are very frequent in the Rig-Veda (3.7). Thus, we assessed the AH for both clause
types, and we used appositive relative clauses for exemplification.

61

level of accessibility, as no language relativizes e.g. possessives but not sub.

jects, while the opposite often occurs.
Hettrich ( 1988: 549-556; 663-669) claims that Vedic does not abide by the
hierarchy, as in the Rig-Veda indirect object and local-temporal complements
are by far less frequently relativized than instrumental adjuncts and genitives.
He justifies the. low frequency of relativized local and temporal complements
with the competition of local and temporal dependent clauses introduced by
the subordinator yatra and yad. A locative RP such as yasmin "in which''
(M/N .SG) can have the same function of the conjunction yatra "where", and
the latter is more frequent: the Rig-Veda shows 103 yatra-clauses (p. 797-98)
vs. 53 locative RPs (p. 669). Evidently, the locative syntactic function is preferably encoded by an invariable rather than by an inflected relative form. This
is because a locative semantic role is implicit in head nouns denoting place,
house, village, path, etc. The same 'holds true for relations of time, which typologically are expressed by [-case] relative clauses, especially when the
head noun is non-referential (Cristofaro and Giacalone Ramat 2002).
In 1-Iettrich's view, the problem ofthe AH in Vedic concerns the paucity of
relativized indirect objects as compared to instrumentals and genitives ("dann
bleibt aber noch die Seltenheit des indirekten Objekts", p. 556). The violation
of the AI-I cannot be justified with the fact that syntactic functions are distinguished from grammatical cases, since the latter substantially reflects the former (Hawkins 1994: 27-29). Moreover, the high frequency of genitives and
instrumentals cannot be attributed to the style of the Rig-Veda, since even in
literary texts the low positions do not outnumber the high positions of the AH
(Keenan 1985). The unexpected rarity of the indirect object in Vedic could be
valuable to investigate the relationship between relativized positions in the
AI-I and syntactic functions in simple clauses.
In Old Indian noun phrase syntax, the dative expresses the functions of the
beneficiary, if referred to human beings, and of the goal, if referred to abstract
concepts. Since abstract nouns expressing goal cannot be relativized, the environments potentially encoded by a dative RP are limited. By contrast, the
genitive is extremely multifunctional. Primarily, it is an adnominal case,
mostly used to express attributive possession (broadly meant to include partwhole relations, genitive of material, subjective and objective genitive, etc.).
Additionally, predicative possession, which in languages such as Latin and
Ancient Greek is realized inter alia by means of a dative, in Old Indian requires the genitive of the possessor (mama kiqlCit asti = mihi est a/iquid). The
genitive is also required by verbs meaning "possess", "own" (originally "rule",
"acquire", etc.), and by numerous verbs meaning "remember", "eat", "drink",
etc. (Speyer 1886: 118-124). In discussing the Vedic genitive, Speyer states:
"Schon frlih begann er se in Gebiet auf Kosten des Dativs zu erweitern." ( 1896:
62

.62 ) The dative-lik~ genitive depends on adjectives or verbs. expressing

. ndship and enm1ty, fitness and unfitness, advantage and disadvantage
f~eeyer 1886: 29~ 1896: 72). In Classical Sanskrit, the genitive can always
~ pused in altentative to the dative with the only exception of the purposive
/tive (PruJini 2.3.61-63). This change continues in the Middle Indian lan~ages, wher~ the replacement of the dative by the ge~itiv.e is completed.
g Since in s1mple sentences the contexts where a dative IS found are less freuent than the contexts where a genitive appears, it is not surprising that the
~rone occurs also for RCs. The AH must be thought of as a generalization
whereby certain syntactic functions are more frequently grammaticalized than
others in a RC because they are more frequently encoded outside relativi:zation.
This also explains why in the Rig-Veda dative RPs are outnumbered by instrumental RPs. The instmmental, which cross-linguistically represents an adjunct expressing the functions of means, cause, agent, association, and manner,
in Vedic conveys a vast range of further functions such as identity or likeness,
quality or attribution, price or value, etc. (it is defined as mannigfach in
Speyer 1896: 3 t ). Moreover, the .role of the agent is by far more frequently
encoded in Old Indian texts than in the records of the other JE languages. Passive, which in languages is less used than active and is commonly presented
as agentless in discourse (Giv6n 200 I : 11, 125 ff. ), has an increasingly high occurrence in Old Indian. At the beginning of his syntax, Speyer stated: "Sanskrit has a decided predilection for the passive voice. In translating from that
language it is often necessary to transform passive sentences into active."
(1886: 7) This preludes the ergative system of Modem Indian languages. The
ergative marking -ne of Hindi past tense derives from the Old Indian instrumental ending -ena of the thematic declension. In an ergative language, the
instrumental case of the agent of a passive construction is reanalyzed as the
marking of the ergative agent, used to impart new information in discourse.

3.4. Phenomena of attraction

3. 4.1. Regularity of attractio inversa
The regular structure of Vedic RC is similar to the RC with attractio inversa that is marginally attested in Ancient Greek and in Latin, where the
head noun is "attracted" in grammatical case by the relative pronoun, and
therefore is marked according to the function it plays in the RC, rather than in
the main clause. Compare (3.7), which reports the first RC occurring in the
Rig-Veda, with (3.8). and (3.9), reporting well-known examples of allractio
63

inversa in Latin and in Ancient Greek (cf. Meillet and Vendryes 1924: 885
Wackernagel 1928: 56-57; Schwyzer 1950: 641-42; Hofman and Szanty;
I 965: 567-68, etc.).
yti1p
yajiitim
adhvartiql
(3.7) agne
Agni-VOC.SG RP-ACC.M.SG worship.M-ACC.SG sacrifice.M-ACC.SG

vMvatal)

paribh;i,

asi I

trom.every.side surrounding-NOM.M.SG bc-IND.PR2SG

sa

id deVt!$ll

gacchati

this-NOM.M.SG PTC god.M-LOC.PI. go-IND.PRJSG

"0 Agni, the worship and sacrifice that you surround from every side, this
certainly goes among the gods." ( 1.1.4)
(3.8) Hunc
chlamydatum
quem
vides,
this-ACC.M.SG mantled-ACC.M.SG RP-ACC.M.SG sce-IND.PR2SG

ei

Mars

iratust

him-DAT.M.SG Mars-NOM angry.is

"This mantled man you see, Mars is angry with him." (PI. Ps. 718)
(3.9) eis de hen
aphikonto
k6men
to PTC RP-ACC.F.SG arrive-IND.AORJPL villagc.F-ACC.SG

mega/e

le

en

big-NOM.F.SG PTC bc-IND.IPFJSG

"The village that they arrived to was a big one." (Xen. An. 4.4.2)
Different structures of attractio inversa exist, according to the position of
the RC with respect to the main clause and of the head noun inside the RC,
and according to whether the head noun is resumed by means of a correlative
element in the main clause (for details, cf. Touratier 1980: 147-238). However,
grammars of classical languages indicate that a RC showing attractio inver.'la
commonly precedes the main clause and includes the head noun inside its
borders, like in (3.7) and in (3.9), unlike in (3.8). Moreover, atl1actio inversa
typically presents a correlative pronoun in the main clause, like in (3. 7) and in
(3.8), unlike in (3.9). "La plupart des exemples d'attraction inverse presentent
ainsi une reprise d'un antecedent antepose." (Touratier 1980: 199) These examples manifest a break between the RC and the main clause, which reflects
the typical structure of the correlative diptych, and particularly of the diptyque
normal identified in Minard (1936) and Haudry (1973). In the context of the
diptyque normal (3.1 ), the term of attraction is not appropriate, since the head
noun has the case marking that it is expected to have, given its position in the
RC. Instead, if the head noun is in the main clause (3.2), al/ractio inversa
does not occur. When the head noun is a complex NP, whose members are
distributed both in the RC and in the main clause, only the member in the RC
agrees in grammatical case with the relative pronoun (3.1 0).

64

(3.

1O) saluisrasrngo

Vflbllo

yti/J

samudrad

thousand.horned-NOM.M.SG buii.M-NOM.SG RP-NOM.M.SG sca.M-ABL.SG

uddcarat I
tena
~almsye11a
up.risc-IND.IPF3SU this-INSTR.M.SG strong-INSTR.M.SG

vayti111 ni jimiin
we

sviipayiimasi

PRE peoplc.M-ACC.PL makc.slcep-CS.IND.PR IPL

"The thousand-homed bull that rose up from the sea, with this strong one
e 01 ake the people sleep." (7.55.7)
w The tenn allractio inversa, like the tenn atlractio relativi, implies something aberrant with respect to the current strategy of relativization, which in
both Classical Greek and Classical Latin mainly comprehends embedded
structures, where the head noun is placed in the main clause, and the main
clause precedes the RC. However, what classicists call attractio inver.va corresponds to the standard type of relative construction not only in Vedic, but also
in Hittite (Justus 1976). Instances of attractio inversa attested in Avestan, Old
Persian, Classical Annenian, and Old Church Slavonic (Cuendet 1939: 94-95)
represent the relics of a PIE relativization that in Vedic and Hittite is maintained.
The diachronic explanation of allractio inver.w in the light of the PIE correlative diptych is consistent with the studies that interpreted this phenomenon
in sociolinguistic terms, as a manifestation of the spoken register. In Latin, attractio inversa appears in authors using a popular style, such as Plautus,
Terence, Cato, Lucilius, Varro, and Petronius. lt is also present in Cicero's
letters, which have a familiar mode of communication, in the inscriptions, and
in Late Latin works such as the Peregrinatio Aetheriae (cf. Hofmann and
Szantyr 1965: 567-68). In Ancient Greek, attraclio inversa emerges in writers
that use a simple style reproducing oral discourse, such as Xenophon, Lysias,
and Herodotus (cf. Schwyzer 1950: 641). This phenomenon is also evident in
German Volksliedem (Den liebsten Buh/en, den ich hab, der liegt beim Wirt
im Keller, cf. Wackernagel 1928: 57). A correlative structure such as "The
man you see, give him this book" is more colloquial than an embedded structure such as "Give this book to the man you see", as in the fonner the linkage
between the RC and the main clause is less grammaticalized. This construction transparently reflects the typical function of a RC, which first identifies
the referent that is the discourse topic, and then expresses a predication about
it.
The correlative diptych, which in some languages is a rather peripheral
phenomenon labeled atlractio inversa, must be considered a representation of
the "pragmatic mode" posited in Giv6n (1979: 223). Accordingly, a clause
has a topic-comment structure, and displays roughly one-to-one ratio of
nouns-to-verbs in discourse. It is connected to other clauses by loose conjunc65

tion rather than by tight subordination, so that the resulting complex senten
has a slow rate of delivery, with each clause maintaining. its own intonati~~
contour (cf. 1.6). The features of the pragmatic mode can be found, as ex.
peeled. in the early records of languages, which show that subordination, and
particularly embedding, develops from parataxis (Giv6n 1979: 298; Hopper
and Traugott 1993: 170). For example, Justus ( 1976) considers the l-littite correlative construction as a vestige of a PIE stage where no proper hypotaxis existed. She states that in Hittite RCs the pragmatic organization principle of
topic-comment is more relevant than the syntactic relation holding between
subject and verb. A RC modifies a head noun that is a discourse topic (where
topic is in her view a cover-term for theme, or primary topic, and focus, or
secondary topic). Accordingly, Hittite is a topic-prominent language rather
than a subject prominent language. Most of Justus' findings can be also applied to Vedic. In general, if a change occurs in RC construction (which is by
no means obligatory: correlative RCs persist in Modern Indian languages),
grammaticalization proceeds from correlative to embedded structures,
whereas the change in the opposite direction is not found.

3.4.2. Lack ofattractio relativi

Although Vedic RC shows a clear parallel with attractio inversa of Latin
and Ancient Greek, it does not have a comparable phenomenon to the socalled attractio relativi of these languages. In attractio relativi, the relative
pronoun agrees with the head noun in grammatical case, and therefore does
not signal the syntactic function that the head noun plays in the RC. Attractio
relativi, which is more widespread in Classical Greek (3.1 I) than in Latin
(3 .12), is also attested in Gothic, Old High German, and Classical Armenian
(Cuendet 1939: 94). In (3.11) the dative RP hois is used instead of the expected accusative RP hous. In (3.12) the ablative RP quo replaces the regular
accusative RP quem.
(3 .11) sun to is

thesaurois

hois

with ART-DAT.M.PL treasurc.M-DAT.PL RP-DAT.M.PL

ho

patir

katelipen

ART-NOM.M.SG father.M-NOM.SG Jeave-IND.AOR3SG

"With the treasures that his fathers had left him" (Xen. Cyr. 3.1.33)
(3.12) notante
iudice,
condemn-P.PR.ABL.M.SG judge.M-ABL.SG

quo

nosti,

populo

RP-ABL.M.SG know-PF2SG people.M-ABL.SG

66

While the people that you know condemned (him) as a judge" (Hor. Sat.

1-6 ~:~~~ars of classical languages usually describe attractio re/ativi and attio ;nversa together, as mirror images of the same phenomenon (cf. Meil-

tr~Cand Vendryes 1924: 885; Hofmann and Szantyr 1965: 306). This can
1 ~ 0 be seen in the alternative labels, borrowed from phonology, of Progres8.~e and Regressive Assimilation (Brugmann 1904: 945.3; Cuendet 1939:
~~-9 5), depending on whether the first or the second element exerts its influnce on the other, in the ideal sequence of head noun -relative pronoun.
e However, the two types of attraction have different origins, and synchronicaliY are triggered by different motivations in a language. Touratier ( 1980:
)47-211) explains attractio inversa as the consequence of the syntactic isolation of the head noun, which behaves as an extraposed constituent, and therefore subsumes the grammatical case of the coreferential relative pronoun. By
contrast, awactio relativi is related to the tendency to generalize the attributive function typical of the relative pronoun (Touratier 1980: 2 13-23 8). In the
RC of the IE languages, agreement between the relative pronoun and the head
noun is regularly incomplete, as it involves gender and number, but not
grammatical case. Attractio relativi is assumed to "correct" this incompleteness, analogously to the attributive adjective (adjectif epithete), which agrees
with the head noun in gender, number, and case.
RCs with attractio relativi usually have few constituents, and therefore
easily allow to recover the syntactic function of the head noun in the RC
without resorting to the morphological marking of the relative pronoun. This
is particularly evident in Homer, where attractio re/ativi is found only with
verbless RCs. "Es ist begreiflich, dass hier einc Angleichung leicht stattfand;
bei Abwesenheit des Verbums konnte sich der Assimilation kein Widerstand
entgegensetzen." (Wackernagel 1928: 54) This occurs for "abgekiirzte Satze"
(ib.) introduced by relative-stemmed pronouns like hoios "such as" (3.13) or
hosos ..how much" (cf. also Chantraine 1953: 237). In the following example,
the accusative pronoun oion is used instead of the nominative pronoun plus
the copula, i.e. ofos Peirithoos en.
(3 .13) ou gar po toious
idon
aneras
oude
NEG for never such-ACC.M.PL see-INJ.AOR lSG man.M-ACC.PL NEG

idomai I

ofon

Peirithoon

see-SUBJ .AOR I SG such-ACC.M.SG Pirithous-ACC

"For I never saw nor could ever see such men as Pirithous." (Il. 1.262-63)
As a result, attractio relativi, both in the early verbless relative structures
(3.13) and in the subsequent4 relative constructions with a verb (3.11), entails
4. In Homer, Wackemagel ( 1928: 55) identifies a unique instance of attractio relativi in a RC
with a verb (11. 5.265 tes gar toi genees hes Troi per euruopa Zeus doke). This is refuted by

67

a tight integration between the subordinate and the main clause, and a severe
deranking of the former with respect to the latter. "Le phenomene d'attraction
du relatif par !'antecedent noue plus etroitement la proposition relative a la
principale." (Chantraine 1953: 237) In Latin, grammarians notice that it especially occurs "innerhalb enger Satzgefllge" (Hofmann and Szantyr 1965: 566).
It is expected that in Vedic, where subordinate clauses are loosely connected to the main clause, attractio relativi never appears, while the syntactic
environment of attractio inversa is the generalized strategy for building RCs.
In attractio inversa, the usual incorporation of the head noun in the RC makes
the RC less downgraded and more similar to an independent clause. The
original isolation of the head noun of this type of attraction matches the syntactic structure of an adjoined RC. Conversely, the attributive relation between head noun and relative pronoun, which lies behinds attractio relativi, is
more compatible with embedded RCs.

3.4.3. Headless RCs

The absence of allractio re/ativi in Vedic is particularly evident in headless RCs. If the function expected t'or the head noun in the main clause is
equal to the function conveyed by the relative pronoun in the RC, the sentence
is unambiguous. Many languages only allow headless relative constructions if
the head noun plays the same syntactic function in the RC as in the main
clause (Germ. Den ich erwartet habe, hahe ich getroffen vs. **Den ich
erwartet habe, ist nicht gekommen, cf. Lehmann 1984: 307). If this does not
occur, the relative pronoun may be inflected in the grammatical case required
either by the RC (e.g. Lat. eorum qui> qul), or by the main clause (eorzun qui
> quorum). Lehmann (1984: 307) remarks that the relative pronoun commonly encodes the syntactic position that is lower in the AH, independently
on whether this position pertains to the head noun (3.14) or to the relative
pronoun (3.15). The fanner case is traditionally considered an example of atlractio relativi (cf. Cuendet 1939: 94; Schwyzer 1950: 641 ).
(3.14) akousate hOn
prosdokei
moi
hear-IPV2PL RP-GEN.N.PL secm.right-INO.PR3SG mc-DAT

"Listen to what seems right to me." (Xen. An. 3.2.34)

Chantraine, who does not consider the genitive RP as altractcd by the genitive head noun, but
rather as motivated by the partitive meaning ("ils sont de la race doni Zeus le dieu a la grande
voix donnu des rc.ietons a Tros"). Accordingly, the occurrence of attractio relativi with verbal
RCs, us in (3.11 ), is a later phenomenon in Ancient Greek.

68

(3.15) ego de kai h6n

ego

krat6

menoitmen

I-NOM but and RP-GEN.M.PL I-NOM command-IND.PRI SG remain-IND.FUTI PL

"But I and those I command will remain." (Xen. C. 5.1.26)

In (3.14) the RP hon subsumes the sequence ton ha, where ton is the pronominal head inflected in the genitive as governed by the main clause verb
akousate, while ha is the nominative RP, subject of the impersonal verb prosdokei of the dependent clause. In the resulting reduced relative construction,
the grammatical case of the head prevails over the grammatical case of the
relative pronoun, insofar as the genitive is less accessible, and therefore more
difficult to recover, than the nominative. By contrast, in (3.15) the RP hon
subsumes the sequence hoi h6n, where the nominative pronominal head hoi is
the subject, together with eg6, of the main clause verb menoiimen, while the
genitive case in hOn is governed by the verb krat6 of the dependent clause.
Here the resulting genitive is the case expected for the RP. If we take into account the headless RCs attested in the Rig-Veda (Delbriick 1888: 56 I), and
particularly those RCs where the main and the dependent clause have different subjects, we notice that only the situation of (3.15) is represented, that is,
the RP never subsumes the case expected for the head.
(3 .16) jahi
yo
no
aghayati
kili-IPV2SG RP-NOM.M.SG us-ACC damage-lND.PR3SG

"Kill whom damages us." (1.131. 7d)

(3.17) nahtnv asya
pratimanam asty
NEG PTC he-GEN.M.SG peer.N-NOM.SG be-IND.PR3SG

antar jiiteuta
in

ye

janitviih

bom-LOC.M.PL.and RP-NOM.M.PL about.to.be.bom-NOM.M.PL

"He has no peer among those born already, nor among those who shall be
born hereafter." (4.18.4cd)
In (3 .16) the RP ya}J (yo in sandhi) subsumes the sequence tam ya}J, where
the accusative demonstrative pronoun tam is the object of the main clause
verb jahi, while the nominative RP ya}J is the subject of the dependent clause
verb aghayati. The nominative, which is properly associated with the RP,
prevails over the accusative of the pronominal head, even though the latter is
lower in the Al-l. This is especially evident in (3.17), where the subject function is expressed instead of an oblique function. The RP ye properly corresponds to te~u ye. Here te~u is the pronominal head, which is inflected in the
locative as it depends on the preposition antar in the main clause, while the
nominative RP ye represents the subject of the nominal RC. Thus, whereas
Ancient Greek omits the most easily recoverable piece of information, in
Vedic the case marking of the relativized constituent in the RC prevails, so
that the RC functions as a closed unit independently of the degree of accessibility of the head noun.
69

Interestingly, the headless RCs gathered in Delbrilck ( 1888: 561) are al~
ways postposed to the main clause. This is the only case where a word order
constraint appears in Vedic RCs, which otherwise have no fixed positions,
and are rather described as mostly preposed (cf. Minard 1936: 9). Apparently,
a connection exists between the postposition of the RC and the omission of
the head noun, to the extent that the preposed main clause immediately con~
veys the contextual information sufficient to identify the function of the omit~
ted head noun.

3.5. Nominal RCs

3.5.1. Nominal RCs as attributive structures
Nominal RCs like (3 .18) have been often considered marginal instances of
RCs, sinpe they lack the principal constituent of a clause i.e. the verb. Caland
(1891), belbrilck (1900: 295ff.), Reichelt (1909: 734ff.), Wackemagel and
Debrunner (Ill, 552ff.), and Hettrich ( 1988: 790) among others argue that
nominal RCs are derived from verbal RCs by verb ellipsis. This interpretation
is weakened by the fact that nominal RCs appear next to (and presumably
compete with) verbal RCs since the earliest records of the lE languages. In the
Rig-Veda, RCs with as "to be" are extremely uncommon with respect to
nominal RCs (Porzig 1923: 286ff). Because ofthis, Porzig (1923), Hirt (1937:
143-46), Gonda (1954a), Benveniste (1957) etc. claim that nominal RCs are
as old as, or even older than, verbal RCs. However, these scholars do not regard nominal RCs as clauses, but rather as clause-constituents, where the stem
*j6- has the function of an article (Benveniste 1957) rather than of a fullfledged RP. Porzig (1923 :214) opts for the attributive reading of the sentence
reported in (3 .18), which "ist also nicht zu Ubersetzen Agni moge unsere
Lieder genieBen, der ein Hotar (ist) unter den Menschen, sondern: Agni
moge unsere Lieder genieBen, der Hotar unter den Menschen."
(3 .18) agnir
ju~ata
no giro
Agni-NOM delight-IPV3SG our word.F-ACC.PL

hotii

yo

mfinu~e$V

,j

priest.M-NOM.SG RP-NOM.M.SG man.M-LOC.PL PTC

"Agni must delight in our words, the h6tar among men." (5.13.3ab; Gonda
1954a: 18)
The renditions provided by Porzig and by Gonda (1954a: 18) are consonant with Delbrlick's (1901: 304) advice to translate the relative pronoun in
nominal RCs "durch namlich oder ahnlich".

70

].5.2. Contrast between attributive and predicative RCs in Avestan

Sei ler ( 1960) points out that different types of nominal RCs can be identified, and not all of them have an attributive function, i.e. not all of them are
replaceable with a nominal modifier. Some nominal RCs classified as appositive rather have the status of a nominal clause, which notoriously had the
sarne predicative function as a verbal clause. The basic criterion to distinguish
between the attributive and the predicative type is the presence vs. absence of
case agreement between the head noun and the RP. In the Avestan example
reported in (3 .19), the RP agreeing in gender, number, and case with the head
noun behaves like an adjective. By contrast, in (3.20) the RP agrees with the
head noun in gender and number but not in case, and therefore abides by the
same rules of agreement as verbal RCs. "Entscheidend ist, daB sich ein
bestimmter nominaler Typ ganz parallel verhalt wie die verbalen
Konstruktionen und daB derselbe Typ zu einem anderen nominalen Typ in
Gegensatz steht." (Seiler 1960: 138)
(3.19) gandaravam yim
zairi.piinim
Gandarva-ACC.SG RP-ACC.M.SG yellow.sided-ACC.M.SG

"The Gandarva with the yellow sides" (Yt. 5.38)

(3.20) miOram yo
iisunqm
asus
Mithra-ACC RP-NOM.M.SG swift-GEN.M.PL swift-NOM.M.SG

"Mithra, who is swift among the swift ones" (Yt. 10.65)

Seiler ( 1960) takes into account further morpho-syntactic criteria to establish the phrase status or the clause status of a nominal relative structure. Typically, an attributive RC only contains one head noun and one adnominal
modifier (in Seiler's terminology, Nukleus and Satellit). Head noun and RP
are immediately adjacent. If the relative structure is placed in initial position,
it does not present a correlative demonstrative pronoun. On the contrary, a
typical appositive RC often contains more than one relative structure modifying the same head noun. Segmental material separates the head noun and RP.
If the RC precedes the main clause, a subsequent demonstrative correlative is
employed. Such criteria conspire with case (dis)agreement between head noun
and RP to abstract a limited number of recurrent patterns in the vast range of
nominal RCs attested in the Avesta.

3.5.3. Nominal RCs in Vedic

In the excursus that Seiler ( 1960: 167) devotes to nominal RCs in the various lE languages, Vedic shows a clear unbalance between the type with no
case agreement, which is well attested, and the type with complete agreement,
71

which is severely constrained. Except for just one case identified by Caland
. ( 1897) in the Atharva-Veda ( 19.20.1 ), where the RP is inflected in the accusative case like the head noun, case agreement in Vedic is only found with the
nominative case, as in (3.18). A similar state of affairs emerges in Avestan.
Although both Gathic and Young Avestan present nominative, accusative, and
instrumental agreement between head noun and relative pronoun, "fehlen von
Kasus-Kongruenz [ ... ] ist im Gathischen proportional starker vertreten als im
Jungawestichen" (Seiler 1960: 137). Evidently, the type with case agreement
spread out relatively late in the nominal RCs of the Indo-lranian languages.
The nominative is the expected case for a RP that encodes the syntactic
function of the subject with respect to a nominal predicate. In this specific
situation, case agreement, rather than conditioned by the head noun of an attributive structure, can be considered the morphological epiphenomenon of a
relative construction where the head noun happens to play a subject function
both in the main and in the relative clause. One thing is a RP showing a
grammatical case that does not correspond to what is required in a verbless
RC and can only be justified as a sort of "copy" of the case of the head noun,
as in (3 .19) and as often occurs in Young Avestan. Another matter is a RP that
is inflected in the grammatical case entailed by the relations that the head
noun establishes in the RC, which is the only option in the Rig-Veda.
Seiler is interested in the same vs. different case between head noun and
relative pronoun, and does not take into account the grammatical appropriateness of a given case in a nominal clause. Accordingly, a nominal RC is considered predicative if a nominative RP modifies a non-nominative head noun,
as in (3.20), but is considered attributive if a nominative RP modifies a nominative head noun, as in miOro yo vouru.gaoyaoitis "Mithra with wide pastures" (Yt. 10.1). Strikingly similar structures are assigned a different function.
Seiler (1960: 132) criticizes Porzig for not having distinguished the type with
case agreement from the type with case disagreement between head noun and
RP. However, as Porzig emphasizes, this distinction in Vedic is not as relevant as in Avestan, since in both types the RP is well formed in the RC, with
no need to posit an analogy to the case of the head noun. Still, Seiler uses a
similar argument while discussing verbal RCs (p. 135-36). He does not distinguish between 1. RCs where the case of the relative pronoun required by the
verb differs from the case of the head noun, and 2. RCs where the case of the
relative pronoun required by the verb also agrees with the case of the head
noun 5
5. "V on beiden Typen kann gesagt werden, daf3 das Relativum den Kasus hat, den das Verbum
fordert, er stimmt also im Kasus mit dem Verbum zusammen. 2. ist insofem ein Spezialfall von
1., als zu der Obereinstimmung des Kasus von des Relativum mit dem Verbum noch die
Obereinstimmung ebendesselben Kasus mit dem Kasus des Nukleus hinzukommt. Mann kann

72

The nominal RC in (3 .18), traditionally considered a clause-constituent, is

comparable to the nominal RC in (3 .2 I), where the absence of case agreement
between head noun and RP suggests a predicative interpretation, as in Griftith' s translation.
(3.21) agniq1 tti111
vo duvasyata
Agni-ACC this-ACC.M.SG your servc-JPV2PL

data

yo

vanita

maghtim

giver.M-NOM.SG RP-NOM.M.SG winner.M-NOM.SG weallh.M-ACC.SG

"Him your own Agni, serve ye well, who winneth and bestoweth wealth."
(3 .13 .3cd; Griffith 1889: 168)
The similarity of (3.18) and (3.21) is further guaranteed by the interaction
between syntax and metrics, which in Vedic is always carefully gauged. In
both of them, the main and the relative clause occupy the first and the second
hemistich, respectively. In both of them, inside the fonner hemistich, the
name of Agni is placed in the first slot whereas, inside the latter hemistich, the
RP is in the second slot, preceded by an agent noun. Distanzstellung between
the head noun and the RP, which according to Seiler ( 1960: 126-29) is typical
of RCs with an appositive function, supports the clause status of the nominal
RC.
The grammatical case of the relative pronoun always encodes the syntactic
function expected for it in the RC even in those nominal relative structures
that, owing to their reduced extension, are more similar to an adjective than to
a clause, and therefore are in principle more liable to be influenced by the
head noun. Cf. (3.22) and (3.23).
(3.22) acha devfm
UCI$e
dhf$f},YO
ye
PTC god.M-ACC.PL invite-PF.MID2SG wise-NOM.M.PL RP-NOM.M.PL

"(Agni), you called hither the gods, the wise ones". (3.22.3b)
i{ate
m&nu$ir
ya
(3.23) agni171 visa
Agni-ACC tribe.F-NOM.PL pmisc-IND.PRJPL human-NOM.F.PL RP-NOM.F.PL

"The human tribes praise Agni." (10.80.6a)

In (3.22) and in (3.23) the relative pronoun encompassing the relative noun
phrase shows the same fonnation upon which the definite adjective is based in
the Baltic languages (Lith. geras-is "the good one") and in the Slavic languages (O.C.S. slepu-jl "the blind one"). In both passages, the head noun is
placed at some distance from the RP, as in (3 .21 ). Whether the RP and the
head noun are inflected in the same case (3.23) or not (3.22), we do not have a
mere assimilation to the case of the head noun that is not justifiable from a
das auch so ausdrilcken: lm Nukleus-Relativum-Verbum Syntagmata gibt es hinsichtlich des
Kasus Obereinstimmung 7.Wischen Relativum und Verbum ohne eine solche zwischen
Relativum und Nukleus, aber cs gibt nicht Obcrcinstimmung zwischcn Relativum und Nukleus
ohne einc solche zwischen Rclativum und Verbum." (Seiler 1960: 135-36)

73

syntactic point of view. This is consistent with the absence of attractio relativi
discussed above (3.4.2) for verbal RCs.

3. 5. 4. Possessive, locative, and progressive meaning of a nominal RC

Nominative is not the only case that a relative pronoun may exhibit in a
nominal RC provided with a predicative function. Although in Standard Average European nominal clauses are constrained to marked contexts such as
proverbs or idioms, in Vedic and in the other early lE languages they convey
the entire range of functions of the verb "to be", i.e. possession, existence, and
location (Feuillet 1998). The only difference between nominal clauses and beclauses is that the former refer to permanent or atemporal situations, and the
latter are preferably associated with occasional relations or temporally
bounded states of affairs (Benveniste 1950). The structure in (3 .24) expresses
a possessive relation between the head noun, denoting the possessor, and the
noun in the RC, referred to the possessee ..
(3 .24) indra/:1 swiha pibatu
yasya
soma/:!
Indra-NOM PTC drink-IPV3SG RP-GEN.M.SG soma.M-NOM.SG

"May Indra drink, hail!, (He) to whom the soma (belongs)." (3.50.1a)
The nominal RC in (3 .25), where the RP is inflected in the instrumental
case, represents the notion of becoming: by drinking the soma-juice, lndra acquires gigantic dimensions.
pradivo vidiinii
(3.25) indriiya s6mii/:l
Indra-DAT soma.M-NOM.PL from.of.old known-NOM.M.PL

rbhur

yebhir

vfsaparvii

vihiiyii/:1

skilful-NOM.M.SG RP-INSTR.M.PL strong.jointed-NOM.M.SG mighty-NOM.M.SG

"For Indra the somas were known from of old, with which (he became)
skilful, strong-jointed, and mighty". (3 .36.2ab)
In (3.26) the nominal RC expresses location.
(3 .26) giro
yasminn
anavadya
samicir
song.F-NOM.PL RP-LOC.M.SG blameless-NOM.F.PL united-NOM.F.PL

VlSVa

fndriiya tavisir

anuttii/:1

al\-NOM.F.PL Indra-DAT force.F-NOM.PL raised-PP.NOM.F.PL

"All forces have risen to Indra, in whom blameless songs are united."
(3.31.13cd)
Nominal RCs with a predicative function, which Seiler first (1960) identified in a number of lE languages, are quite frequent in Vedic, where adjective-like structures such as (3.22) and (3.23) are marginal. Unsurprisingly, the
hypothesis of nominal RCs as a byproduct of verbal RCs was mainly supported by a Sanskritist such as Delbrilck, whose authority influenced many
subsequent scholars. Nominal RCs often appear as sentence-like structures,
74

represented by large constructions, where the RP has a high capability of

movement away from the head noun, and prefers the second slot of the sentence as it does in verbal RCs. Nominal RCs may even involve government,
when they contain a deverbal noun (3 .27).
(3.27) cakrir
y6
vzsva
bhuvaniibhi
maker-NOM.M.SG RP-NOM.M.SG ali-ACC.N.PL world.N-ACC.PL.upon

siisahis

cakrir

deve~v

& duvah

victorious-NOM.M.SG maker-NOM.M.SG god.M-LOC.PL here service.N-ACC.SG

"(Agni) who made all the worlds, and is victorious upon them, he made
service among the gods" (3 .16.4ab)
In (3.27) the noun cakri- "maker, doer" is a transparent derivate from the
root kr "make", and takes two object complements (visvii bh7Jvanii and d7Jval}).
This nominal RC can be easily paraphrased with a finite verbal RC. Apparently, the Rig-Veda exhibits a basic solidarity between nominal and verbal
RCs. Both of them manifest the scarce dependence of the RP on the head
noun, and of the RC on the main clause, which is a Leitmotiv through the entire system of hypotaxis in the Indian languages.

3.5.5. Lack of an invariable RP

The syntactic features discussed above of nominal RCs in the Rig-Veda
show that they are less integrated into the main clause than comparable constructions in Avestan. The absent assimilation of the RP to the grammatical
case of the head noun matches the Jack of an invariable form yad working as
an attribution marker, rather than as a subordination marker. As a Ge/enkpartikel, the relative pronoun is placed between the head noun and its modifier.
Whereas the main clause may have a verb (3.28) or not (3.29), the RC is verbless, and follows the main clause. Typically, a noun or a pronoun is introduced, and then it is qualified by means of another noun. Such short structures
have the function of glosses in the text, as in "this is A, that is B" or "A does
B, that is C".
(3 .28) hiicayene
puBram
yat pourusaspahe
obtain-SB.PR.IT.MIDISG son.M-ACC.SG RP

Pouru~aspa-GEN

"May I obtain the son, i.e. (the son) ofPourusaspa." (Yt. 5.18=105)
(3 .29) asuryo
v& etd
yad 6$adhayah
divine-NOM.F.PL PTC this-NOM.F.PL RP plant.F-NOM.PL

"Divine are these plants." (Lit., "Divine are these things, that is, the plants",
MS 1.6.3)
The invariable pronoun independently spreads out at a relatively recent
stage in Avestan (3.28) and Vedic (3.29), and has different outcomes in the
75

two languages. In Avestan, it becomes so productive to overwhelm the competing device of the inflected pronoun (Seiler 1960: 164ff.). The same function of Gelenkpartike/ between the head noun and the attributive constituent
can be seen in Modern Persian ezafe, e.g. ketah-e Ha:um "the book of 1-Iasan"
ketab-e nou "the new book". Differently, in Classical Sanskrit invariable yad
withdraws. Its diffusion is only limited to prose texts of Late Vedic, in particular to the BrahmaQas, where yad "lediglich als Anfligungswort innerhalb
des Satzes wirkt (etwa durch namlich zu iibersetzen), wobei dcnn das durch
yad angefUgte Nomen sich auch im Casus nach dem ersten Nomen richtet"
(Delbrilck 1888: 567; see also Wackernagel and Debrunner Ill, 555-556).
Delbriick (1888: 565, in note) only mentions one poetic example (3.30),
selected from the latest section of the Rig-Veda. The recentness of this passage also emerges from its main topic, i.e. the sacrifice of the primordial human being and the birth of the four traditional castes from his limbs. The puru$asukta testifies an advanced stage in Vedic cosmogony.
(3.30) uril
tcid
asya yad vaisya/:1
thigh.M-NOM.DU this-NOM.N.SG his

RP artisan.M-NOM.SG

"His thighs (became) this, i.e. an artisan." (1 0.90.12c)

The passages gathered in Delbriick (1888: 566-567) allow to identifY the
grammaticalization that led the full-fledged RP to a tinker with the meaning of
id est. These structures, where the RC is always postposed, can be considered
a simplified form of the inverse diptych (sa- ... ya-, cf. 3. 1). The starting
point is probably an environment where both the head noun and the RP are
inflected in the neuter singular. In Delbrilck's sample, the head noun in the
main clause has commonly an inanimate referent, denoting an abstract concept or an object used in the performance of the sacrifice (3 .31 ), as the Brahmal}as clarifY the meaning or the purpose of items belonging to the ritual
sphere of interest.
(3 .3 I) devatiiniil'f'l va etad
iiyatanam
deity.F-GEN.PL or this-NOM.N.SG support.N-NOM.SG

yad

ahavaniya/:1

RP-NOM.N.SG AhavanTya.M-NOM.SG

"This is the support of the deities, i.e. the AhavanTya." (MS 1.4.10)
The construction of yad as a Gelenkparlikel is regarded in Seiler ( 1960:
164) as an attributive structure, having the same function as a structure with
case agreement between head noun and RP. The latter is found in Avestan
when the case of the head noun is nominative, accusative, or instrumental.
Otherwise, invariable yad is selected, where the category of agreement is neutralized. The absence of both case assimilation and invariable yad in the RigVeda suggests that Seiler's attributive function, which corresponds by and
large to the restrictive function of the RC. has few syntactic strategies avail76

able. We will address this issue in the following section, devoted to the functional properties ofthe RC.

3.6. Functional properties: restrictive vs. appositive RCs

Semantically, a RC encodes a state of affairs in which one participant is
coreferential with the modified head noun. Pragmatically, a RC is a topicalizing construction, used to ground the referent into the current discourse. A RC
has different functions according to whether it is restrictively or appositively
meant. From a logical-semantic point of view, given a head noun x with a linguistic meaning y (Intension, Frege 1892; 1918) and with an extra-linguistic
reference z (Extension, ib.), a restrictive relative clause (RRC) reduces z by
adding further intensional material to the lexical definition y. In the sentence
"The pupils who study will pass the exam", x is the pupils, y is the set of
properties of every x, i.e. "human being", "young", "attending school" etc.,
whereas z is the group of all entities that satisfy the definition y in the real
world. Clearly, the extension of the head noun "pupils" does not coincide with
the extension of the relative construction "the pupils who study". A RRC implies a higher intension and a lower extension with respect to the head noun:
the latter operation motivates the label of "restrictive" RC. If a RRC is omitted, the meaning ofthe sentence changes. Because ofthis, Behagel (1928: 767)
defines the RRC as notwendige, i.e. necessary to denotation. By contrast, the
information package of an appositive relative clause (ARC) does not restrict
the extension of the head noun, which is lexically or contextually definite.
This is particularly evident when the head noun is a proper noun, whose extension is limited to a single individual. If we omit an ARC from the sentence
"Joseph, who is very smart, passed the exam", the denotation of the head noun
does not change. Behagel labels ARCs as freie Relativsatze (a term that is
more commonly devoted to headless RCs in the literature, cf. Lehmann 1984:
293ff.).
Nevertheless, "la distinction des logiciens [... ] semble poser un probleme
qui n'apparait pas en tant que tel dans les langues, et presenter les chases autrement que ne le font le langues" (Touratier 1980: 358). Touratier argues that
the crucial point is the comprehension, i.e. what the speaker wants to express
by means of a RC. Accordingly, the function of an ARC is stating something
incidental about the head noun. That the denotation of the head noun is maintained with an ARC is a consequence of the topicality of the head noun in the
discourse: since its reference has been already established, it cannot be reduced any further. On the contrary, the discoursive function of a RRC is that
of denoting a particular item through a distinctive quality of it. The reduced
77

extension of the head noun is neither aimed at by the speaker nor perceived by
the hearer. An examination of RRCs and ARCs based on semantic "reduction" boils down to interpret "en termc:::s quantitatifs des donnees qui semblent
essentiellement qualitatives" (Touratier 1980: 3 58).
A pragmatic analysis in terms of old vs. new information better reveals the
different functions of RRCs and ARCs in discourse. The content of a RRC is
presupposed and therefore cannot be challenged. The sentence "The car that
crushed my dog was a Ferrari" presupposes that a car crushed my dog. A
challenge here may only concern the main clause, i.e. the information that the
car was a Ferrari, not the information that a car crushed my dog conveyed by
the relative construction. By contrast, the content of an ARC is asserted. In the
sentence "John's car, which is a Ferrari, crushed a dog", both the main and the
relative clause convey a piece of new information, which is open to challenge.
ARCs are parenthetical clauses with their own intonational contour, and may
even show a different illocutionary force with respect to the main clause
("John is your elder brother, whom you must respect!"). Since assertion is not
typical of subordination, ARCs are commonly devoted only a minor place in
studies on relativization (as in Giv6n 2001: 11, 202ff.), and they are often explicitly ruled out of the investigation. See how Keenan and Comrie address
the issue: "We consider any syntactic object to be a RC if it specifies a set of
objects[ ... ] in two steps: a larger set is specified, called the domain ofrelativization, and then restricted to some subset of which a certain sentence, the restricting sentence, is true." (1977: 63). The same approach is observable in
many other typological studies (cf. Downing 1978: 380-81; Keenan 1985;
Fabb 1994: 3520; Cristofaro 2003).
However, since most clauses introduced by the relative pronoun ya- encode appositive relations in the Rig-Veda, it behoves us to examine ARCs as
well as RRCs. To begin with, we will analyze how to disambiguate between a
restrictive and an appositive function.

3. 6.1. How to recognize a RRC and an ARC

Intonation is the most reliable way to understand the restrictive or appositive function of a RC. Intonation is continuous between the head noun and a
RRC, while it involves a pause in the case of an ARC. Obviously, this criterion can only be applied to spoken languages. For written languages, punctuation can be quite informative: if punctuation signals a RRC, it also signals an
ARC, whereas the opposite does not hold. Punctuation, however, reflects
graphic habits that are historically determined, and is difficult to establish in
philological editions of ancient texts. Languages may also distinguish RRCs
78

and ARCs by means of morphological strategies, such as English restrictive

that or French appositive lequel.
In Vedic, where intonation, punctuation, and morphology cannot indicate
the function of a RC, the only available criterion is the semantics of the head
noun governing the RC. Proper nouns and first or second person pronouns
only admit an ARC (3.32). Non-referring head nouns like anybody, everybody,
110 boc~y, etc. only admit a RRC (3.35). For common nouns, as well as for third
person pronouns, both a restrictive and an appositive reading are allowed
(3.33). Indefinite head nouns, albeit usually modified by a RRC, are also
compatible with an appositive interpretation, if they are referential (3.34b).
The same holds true for generic head nouns (3.36b). Givon (1993: 117-121;
2001: 11, 179-180), whence some of the following sentences are selected,
points out that a generic head noun may be viewed as referring to a type rather
than to a token. Generic head nouns are pragmatically topical, and can be
grounded on the global knowledge of the hearer by means of an ARC.
(3.32) Definite head, personal pronoun
(3.32a) RRC: **We who are yourfiiend<> will help you.
(3.32b) ARC: We, who are yourfriends, will help you.
(3.33) Definite head, common noun
(3.33a) RRC: The man who was standing next to the door pulled a gun.
(3.33b) ARC: The man, who was standing next to the door, pulled a gun.
(3.34) REF-indefinite head noun
(3.34a) RRC: A man who had no shoes came into the office yesterday.
(3 .34b) ARC: A friend of mine, whom you '/I meet some day, just called.
(3.35) NON-REF Indefinite head noun
(3.35a) RRC: Anybody who marries my sister is asking for trouble.
(3.35b) ARC: **Anybody, who marries my sister, is askingfor trouble.
(3.36) Generic head noun
(3.36a) RRC: Women who love too much are often disappointed.
(3.36b) ARC: Women, who love too much, are often disappointed.
A RC governed by a definite head noun has different meanings according
to whether the scope of the determiner includes the RC (Touratier 1980: 34986). If the determiner extends only to the head noun, the RC is appositive
(3.37a). In this case, the referent is specified without the contribution of the
RC. Since the head noun is already anchored to the previous discourse or to
the background knowledge of the hearer, the RC cannot reduce its extension.
On the contrary, if the determiner extends to the entire structure formed by the
79

head noun plus the RC,. the RC is res~i~tive (3.37b). Th~~ even t~ough many
RCs syntactically permit both a restrictive and an appos1t1ve functiOn, the dif.
ferent hierarchic structure revealed by the context often clarifies its meaning.
(3.37a) ARC: (Det. + N) +RC
(3.37b) RRC: Det. + (N +RC)

3.7. Preferred types of ARCs in the Rig-Veda

The majority ofya-clauses in the Rig-Veda are appositive. Table 3, which
is built in agreement with the semantic interpretation of Vedic RCs purported
in Hettrich ( 1988: 804-815), shows that 61% of all RCs appearing in the Rig.
Veda have an appositive function, and that in every book ARCs outnumber
RRCs.

BOOKS

RRC

ARC

TOTAL

142 (45%)

177 (55%)

319 (100%)

11

47 (44%)

61 (56%)

108 (lOO%)

Ill

18 (29%)

44 (71%)

62 (lOO%)

IV

52 (46%)

60(54%)

112 (lOO%)

49 (33%)

101 (67%)

150 (100%)

VI

49(29%)

119 (71%)

168 (100%)

VII

74 (42%)

103 (58%)

177 (100%)

VIII

97 (35%)

181 (65%)

278 (lOO%)

IX

20 (22%)

70 (78%)

90 (100%)

182 (46%)

215 (54%)

397 (lOO%)

TOTAL

730 (39%)

1131 (61%)

1861 (lOO%)

Table 3. Distribution ofRRCs and ARCs in the Rig-Veda

The typical environment of an ARC in the Rig-Veda is the modification of

a proper noun. The invocation to a god is accompanied by a series of attributes that explain why the god must be invoked. Cf. (3.38).

80

3.38) uta rtubhir

(

rtupii}J

piihi

and due.season.M-INSTR.PL duc.season.drinker.M-VOC.SG drink-IPV2SG

somam

indra

devebhi}J

sakhibhi}J

soma.M-ACC.SG lndra-VOC god.M-INSTR.PL friend.M-INSTR.PL

sutafl'l

na!z 1 yiin

abhaJo

pressed-PP.ACC.M.SG us-GEN RP-A<:;C.M.PL make.share-IND.IPF2SG

maruto

ye

tviinv

Marut-NOM.PL RP-NOM.M.PL you-ACC.SG.after

"And you, drinker at due seasons, drink in season our pressed soma, 0 lndra, with the gods as friends, the Maruts, whom you made sharers, who (are)
after you." (3.47.3a-c)
In (3.38) two RCs are referred to the same head noun i.e. the Maruts. The
former is a verbal RC, while the latter is a nominal RC. Cf. also (3.3), which
represents the continuation of the passage here reported. The Schachtelung
structure, whereby more than one RC modifies the same head, indicates the
appositive function. Here the Maruts are also qualified by an apposition
(sakhi- "friend"), which however plays a minor role in the eulogistic complex.
A RC is favored by the exhortative context: lndra is solicited to drink together
with the group of the Maruts, and is reminded of the circumstances in which
they helped him. An apposed noun, which has a time-stable reference, cannot
be used for this sake, since events are better denoted by verbal structures, such
as RCs. The Rig-Veda also presents abundant examples of ARCs where the
head noun is specified by a determiner, is modified by a possessor (3.4), or is
an intrinsically definite noun (3.2).
The prevalence of ARCs in the Rig-Veda was noticed by Sturtevant (1930)
and Hahn (1946; 1949; 1964), who identified a similar phenomenon in Homeric Greek. Accordingly, they ascribed to PIE an appositive RC marked by
the relative pronoun *jo-, competing with a RC based on the stem *JCii- I JClo-,
for which a restrictive function was assumed. The RCs of Early Latin and Hittite, which commonly have a restrictive function, share a bundle of morphosyntactic features that are unlikely due to an independent development. In addition to the originally interrogative-indefinite stem of the RP, both languages
have a RC preposed to the main clause, and a RP placed in the first part of the
RC. In both of them, a demonstrative pronoun resumes the RP inside the main
clause, and the reduplication of the RP brings about the indefinite pronoun
(Lat. quisquis, Hit. kuiski). The stem of the indefinite pronoun *JCii- I k'lo- is
considered an appropriate source for the indefinite head of a RRC, while the
stem of the demonstrative pronoun *ei- I i- adequately expresses the definiteness ofthe head in an ARC. The hypothesis oftwo types of RC in PIE (called
"generalizing" and "definite" in Sturtevant, and "restrictive" and "nonrestrictive" in Hahn) is also accepted in Hettrich (1988: 744-775). However,
81

all lE languages have only maintained and g~neralized on~ stem ~f the R~:
the rare cases where traces of the other stem still emerge, as m Slav1c and Bal
tic, do not allow to identify a functional opposition.

Leaving aside the debates on the alleged PIE origin of the appositiv
marker *jo-, we would like to remark on the iconic association between th:
loosely adjoined structure of the correlative diptych and the appositive func..
tion of the RC in the Rig-Veda. An ARC, as a sort of"appendix" that can be
syntactically omitted, is suitable for being expressed by means of stmctures
lowly integrated with the head noun and with the main clause.
To a certain extent, the literary style of the Rig-Veda may affect the appositive character of the RC: redundant descriptions express~d by ARCs are
typical of a high register. Jacobi ( 1897: 91) argues that in PaQini's language
RCs are only used for "eine begrifflich notwendige odcr wichtige Bestimmung", whereas for a merely descriptive function compounds are preferred.
However, relativization of Classical Sanskrit differs from that of Vedic. Detbri.lck ( 1900: 317) replies that Jacobi's observations do not hold for the Veda,
since the gradual disappearance of ARCs is a later phenomenon. As discussed
below, much of the appositive function of the RCs we deal with concerns the
language, rather than the genre, of the Rig-Veda.

3.8. Preferred types of RRCs in the Rig-Veda

The ya- structures with a restrictive function are marked not only from a
numerical, but also from a distributional point of view. As can be seen in table
4, more than a half(58%) of all RRCs attested in the Rig-Vcda are headless.
Moreover, if we consider headed RRCs (42%), we observe that they often
exhibit lexically empty head nouns, that is, head nouns represented by a
demonstrative pronoun or by a noun having a generic reference (jana"human being, people", martya- "mortal", etc.), which functionally are
tantamount to a headless RC. In the following examples, we observe the
similarity among a headless RRC (3.39), a RRC with a pronominal head
(3.40), and a RRC with a generic head noun (3.41).
(3.39)yo
no
dve\~ty
RP-NOM.M.SG us-ACC hatc-INDJ>RJSG

adhara/:1

pa~'if1

.wis

low-NOM.M.SG he-NOM.M.SG fall-I'RC3SG

yam

dvi$mas

RP-ACC.M.SG PTC hate-IND.PRIPL

tam

u praf}o

jahiitu

he-ACC.M.SG PTC life.M-NOM.SG abandon-IPV3SG

82

Who hates us, may he fall down, and whom we hate, may life abandon
. , (3.53.2lcd)

bllfl .

Headless RRCs

Headed RRCs

TOTAL

71 (50%)

71 (50%)

142 (lOO%)

11

31 (66%)

16 (34%)

47 (100%)

Ill

7 (39%)

11 (61%)

18 (100%)

IV

35 (67%)

17 (27%)

52 (100%)

39 (80%)

10 (20%)

49 (100%)

VI

28 (57%)

21 (43%)

49 (100%)

VII

41 (55%)

33 (45%)

74 (100%)

Vlll

52 (54%)

45 (46%)

97 (100%)

IX

13 (65%)

7 (35%)

20 (100%)

109 (60%)

73 (40%)

182 (lOO%)

TOTAL

426 (58%)

304 (42%)

730(100%)

Books

Table 4. Distribution ofHeadless vs. Headed RRCs in the Rig- Veda

(3.40) sa

gha yas

te

he-NOM.M.SG PTC RP-NOM.M.SG you-DAT.SG

dadasati

samidha

jatavedase

offer-IND.PR3SG fuel.F-ACC.PL Jatavedas-DAT

so

agne

dhatte

he-N_QM.M.SG Agni-VOC obtain-IND.PR.MID3SG

suviryaTf'l

sa

pu~yati

heroic.might.N-ACC he-NOM.M.SG prosper-IND.PR3SG

"He who offers fuel to you, to Jatavedas, he obtains heroic might, 0 Agni,
he prospers". (3.10.3)
(3 .41) ytismai
dhfcyur
adadha
RP-DAT.M.SG nourishment.N-ACC.SG give-IND.IPF2SG

martyaylibhaktaTf'l
mortai.M-DAT.SG.undivided-ACC.N.SG

cid bhajate

gehyaTf'l

sa}J

PTC partake-IND.PR.MID3SG domestic-ACC.N.SG he-NOM.M.SG

"The mortal to whom you gave nourishment, he partakes in the domestic

still undivided wealth." (3.30.7ab)
83

In (3.39) the second occurrence of the RP occupies the syntactic position

required in the RC, independently of the main clause, in agreement with phenomena of attractions (3.4.3). The functional equivalence between headless
RCs and RCs with a lexically empty head noun emerges particularly in languages where the former are syntactically impossible to build and therefore
the latter are recruited. An example of this is Japanese (Lehmann 1984: 299),
where generic words such as "man", "time", "place", "thing" etc. are used.

3.9. Different domains for RRCs and ARCs

The marginal role that restrictive ya-clauses play in our corpus with respect to appositive ya-clauses might be related to the different functions that
RRCs and ARCs have in languages. This issue has been discussed in logic.
Port Royal logicians (cf. Touratier 1980: 254fT.) argued that RRCs belong to
the order of the idee, and are complex ideas fonned by the combination between the idea of the head noun and the idea of the RC predicate, whereas
ARCs belong to the order of the jugement, meant as the manner according to
which different situations relate to each others. Only ARCs can be paraphrased with a logical proposition, which has the head noun as the subject,
and the predicate of the RC as the predicate. The sentence "Joseph, who is
very smart, passed the exam" may be reduced to the true clause "Joseph is
very smart", by deletion of the relative pronoun. This is not semantically permitted with a RRC: with respect to the sentence "The pupils who study will
pass the exam", the clause "The pupils study" is false. As the RRC is an idea
and not a judgment, it cannot be evaluated in terms of truth-values, at least
explicitly. Implicitly, it is only possible to assess whether a referent satisfies
the description of a RRC: e.g. les esprit qui sont quarres is implicitly false
because it combines unmatchable ideas.
It is plausible to interpret the domains of ARCs and of RRCs as belonging
to clause-syntax and to noun phrase-syntax. An ARC is used to assert something about a given referent, and therefore entails a predicative structure. By
contrast, a RRC is used to identify the referent, competing in this with nouns
and with adnominal modifiers: the speaker resorts to a RRC only when the
lexical resources of his or her language do not suffice for this task. For the
concept WORK, for example, most languages have a noun. For the concept
HARD WORK, many languages resort to an adjectival phrase. To indicate a
WORK THAT MUST BE DONE IN A YEAR, languages commonly use a
RC. Old Indian possesses a lexeme, i.e. the compound var$a-krtya- lit., "yearto.be.done", which modifies the noun karman- "work". Accordingly, the functional domain of a RRC is limited by, and interacts in interesting ways with,
84

the domain of the lexicon. While ARCs are easily translated from one language to another, if a language possesses these relative structures, a RRC of a
language may correspond to a lexeme in another language.
Lexicalization of a given concept may depend on various factors, both external and internal to grammar. From an extra-linguistic point of view, what
especially matters is the experiential domain of a speech community, that is,
the background knowledge and the habits of material life, since the most relevant notions are those that commonly lexicalize. The most relevant notions
are cognitively closer to the basic level (Taylor 1989), i.e. they are neither too
generic nor too specific, and they are prototypically organized. In folk taxonomies, every language h"as a name for a TREE, but few languages have a
name for the hyponyms and the superordinates of a tree, for which structures
of modification must be used. If an object has only a minor impact on the life
style of a speech community, or if it represents a sporadic or accidental relation, languages will resort to syntactic strategies. Thus, lexicalization relies
upon the delicate balance between storage and processing.
System-internal factors that favor lexicalization concern the available
morphological resources. If a language has productive strategies for derivation,
composition or incorporation, it also has a high capability to lexicalize. Vedic
has a very articulate morphology and a wide inventory of derivational affixes.
Composition is so widespread that the terminology developed by Indian
grammarians for compounds, with the distinction among dvandva, bahuvr'ihi,
tatpuru~a, and karmadhiiraya, is also used to describe analogue phenomena in
other languages. It suffice browsing a Sanskrit dictionary to notice how
"ideas" that in our modern lE languages are expressed by modification, and
usually by RCs, have in Old Indian their own name obtained by means of
derivation or composition.

3.10. "Restrictive compounds" in the Rig-Veda

A compound expresses a unitary concept, and is used to identify a specific
referent in a larger class.
Die Bedeutung von Wortern, die im Satz einen engeren syntaktischen Verband bilden,
in der Art modifiziert wird, dass dieser Verband konventioneller Ausdruck fiir eine
irgendwie einheitliche Gesamtvorstellung wird. Diese Vorstellung deckt sich nicht
mehr genau mit dem Sinn, der sich aus der Zusammenfllgung der durch die einzelnen
Worte bezeichneten Vorstellungen ergibt, es ist eine Bereicherung des Sinnes
eingetreten, der eine Verengung des Bedeutungsumfangs entspricht, oder die
Vcrwendung ist eine metaphorische geworden. (Brugmann 1904: 287; emphasis
added)

85

Apparently, the function of compounds resembles the function of RRCs. In

particular, the structure of a RRC is similar to V1~rb~l determinatives, which
connect a nominal and a verbal constituent. E.g. iimiid- "who eats raw food"
from iima- "raw" and ad "eat"; apsuja- "who was born in the waters" from
apsu, LOC.PL of ap- "water", andjan "to be born"; gartiiruh- "who ascends
the seat of a war-chariot" from garta- "seat of a war chariot" and ruh "ascend,
climb", etc. (Cf. Wackernagel and Debrunner 11 I 1, 174ff.; Burrow 1955:
212-14; Hartmann 1955; Thumb and Hauschild 1959: 404-07; Scarlata 1999)
These structures are usually meant as generic, that is, the first member of the
compound refers to a type rather than to a token of objects. While a separate
word denotes an individual entity, an incorporated noun or a member of a
compound is non-referential, incapable of being focused and of carrying a
contrastive stress (Hopper and Thompson 1980). Compounds are the typical
expression of what Aristotle called sensus compositus, distinguished from the
referential function of the sensus divisus.
However, compounds in Vedic may also show a referential function. This
is particularly evident when the first member of a verbal compound is a first
or second person pronoun, as in (3.42).
savtr
adha mat-krtiini
(3.42) para fiJa
away sin.N-ACC.PL expel-INJ.AOR2SG now me.done-ACC.N.PL

mahafl'l

ra]ann

anyakrtena

bhojam

NEG.l-NOM king.M-VOC.SG other.done-INSTR.M.SG suffer-INJ.AORISG

"Expel away now the sins I have done. May I not suffer for the (sins) that
others did." (2.28.9ab)
The first member of mat-krta- "accomplished by me" contrasts with the
first member of anya- krta- "accomplished by others". The first member of a
compound may also be a proper noun. For example, lndra is typically called
vrtrahan-, which literally means "slaying the obstacles" (vrtra- "obstacle,
hindrance" from vr "cover, hinder"), but is used in the sense of "slaying
V,rtra", the obstacle par excellence, who kept the waters hidden and impeded
life. This does not impinge upon the typical association between compounded
or incorporated structures and non-referential function, observed in Hopper
and Thompson (1980). Mithun (1984) shows that, if a language permits the
incorporation of a referential noun, it also permits the incorporation of a nonreferential noun, while the opposite does not occur. Although Mithun analyzes incorporation rather than compounding, that is, those particular compounds in which a verb and a noun combine to form a new verb, her observations are also valid for compounding in general. Compounding and incorporation occupy an intermediate position in the continuum from syntax to morphology, so that some scholars consider them as morphological processes
86

(Mithun 1984; 1986), while others emphasize their syntactic status (Sadock
t980; 1986; Baker, Aranovich, and Golluscio 2005). Vedic presents an early
linguistic stage where compounding is not yet fixed, but rather reflects in a
transparent fashion the syntax that lies behind morphology. This is evident in
those forms that Thumb and Hauschild ( 1959: 388ff.) callzmechte Composita,
when the first member does not represent the bare stem of a noun, but rather
retains its grammatical ending. In (3.43) the first member dhana- "wealth" receives the accusative case marking, as it has the function of the direct object
of the verbal rootji "win".
(3.43) dhanaf!Z-Jaya/:l
,
wealth.N-ACC.SG.winning-NOM.M.SG

"Winning wealth" (I. 74.3)

The syntactic origin of compounds also emerges in the (rare) cases of
modifier stranding, when the first member is modified by an adjective that is
external to the compound. In (3.44) the adjective vi.~va-psnya- "all enjoyable"
agrees in gender, number, and case with the noun rai- "richness", which is the
internal argument of the compound.
(3.44) riiyas-kiimo
v1svapsnyasya
wealth.M-GEN.SG.desirous-NOM.M.SG all.enjoyable-GEN.M.SG

"Desirous of all enjoyable wealth" (7 .42.6)

3.11. Iconicity ofVedic relativization

Our data reveal a diagrammatic iconicity in the strategies used in Vedic to
convey a relative function. When a system is diagrammatically iconic, none of
the componential signs mirrors the reference as it appears in the extralinguistic world. Rather, the reciprocal relation among the componential signs
mirrors the relation among their respective references. In this case, iconicity is
not between grammar and external world, but is internal to grammar. In particular, ''the linguistic separateness of an expression corresponds to the conceptual independence of the object or event which it represents" (Haiinan
1983: 783). The same principle applies to Vedic relativization. We have seen
that the loose structures of the correlative diptych marked by the relative pronoun ya- preferably express the loose appositive function. In this case, the
syntactic separateness between the head noun and the RC manifests the independence of the head noun, which is preliminarily established in the context.
By contrast, the tight structures of the lexicon, which are often represented by
compounds, mainly identify the referent, according to the fundamental function of a RRC.

87

The linguistic pertinence of this iconic association between clause struc..

tures and appositive function on the one hand, and lexical structures and restrictive function on the other hand, may also be shown by parallels in lan.
guages genetically and areally unrelated to Vedic. For example, in Tupinamba
(Tupi-Guarani, Brazil, cf. Seiler 1960: 33-34), the restrictive function (in
Seiler's terminology, Spezifikation) is rendered by morphological means, and
particularly by the juxtaposition (Zusammenriickung) of the modifier to the
modified. The phrase abci-katu "good men" (abci "man", katu "good") is
meant as the opposite of the phrase aba-aiba "bad men". On the contrary, the
appositive function (Charakterisierung in Seiler) is expressed by adding a re.
lativizer to a predicative structure. Seiler translated the phrase abci i-katu-bae
(man his-good-REL) as "ein Mensch, von dem gesagt wird, daB er gut ist'',
and compares its formation with the predication strategies regularly used in
Tupinamba, as in aM i-katu "the man is good".
In Vedic, the stem ya- more often encodes adverbial clauses, which are not
semantically integrated in the main clause, than completive clauses. Integrated
relations such as verbs functioning as arguments of other verbs, which typologically are expressed with completive clauses (9), often use the resources
of composition. In the two aspects of the restrictive function, closer to the
completive pole, and of the appositive function, closer to the adverbial pole, a
RC is placed in a scalar position between two prototypes.

3.12. Evolution of RCs and compounding in Old Indian

The correlative diptych marked with the relative pronoun ya- is a persisting construction in Old Indian, and is quite faithfully maintained even in
modem Indian languages. Compare the Sanskrit sentence in (3 .45) with its
Hindi equivalent in (3.46). Despite the lexical differences, the pattern RC +
main clause remains, as well as the stem of the relative pronoun, albeit in a
slight different form with respect to the original.
(3 .45) yat
kathayasi,
tat
satyam
asti
RP-ACC.N.SG say-IND.PR2SG this-NOM.N.SG truth.N-NOM.SG be-IND.PR3SG

"What you say is the truth."

(3 .46) jo
kahte
hai,

vah

sac hai

RP-DIR.SG say-PPR.M.PL be-IND.PR2PL this-DIR.SG truth be-IND.PR3SG

"What you say is the truth."

Behind this formal resemblance, however, deep changes occurred in the
history of Indian relativization, so that the functions of a RC in Vedic strikingly differ from the functions of a RC in Classical Sanskrit. The first important change between these two stages is that in Classical Sanskrit a RC is
88

'niY used with a restrictive function, while compounds express redundant

11111 ~ification typical of an appositive function (Jacobi 1897: 91 ). Apparently,

11~? situation is the opposite of what we find in the Rig-Veda: Delbriick (1900:
t 11;)

recommends not extending to Vedic Jacobi's remarks on Sanskrit RC.

~hat changes dramatically from Vedic to Classical Sanskrit is the capability

f building compounds. Although compounds may provide embellishing deocriptions already in the Rig-Veda, at this stage they are commonly con:trained to two constituents (Renou 1957). By contrast, in Classical Sanskrit a
compound may comprehend several members, which is an outstanding innovation with respect not only to Vedic, but also to the other lE languages. The
example in (3.47) is a possessive compound consisting of fourteen members,
which regularly loose number and case markings. The whole compound has
the function of an adjective modifying the name of a "forest" (ara1Jya-).
(3.47) dasaratha-suta-nisila-sara-nikara-nipiita-nihata-rajanf-cara-balaDa5aratha-son-sharp-arrow-heap-falling-killed- night-rover-force-

bahula-rudhira-sikta-miilam
abundant-blood-wet-root: NOM.N.SG

"Having the roots made wet by the abundant blood of the army of the
ra/cyasa killed by the falling of a heap of sharp an-ows discharged by Dasaratha's son" (Kadambari)
Not all members of this compound belong to the same level. Some members form a separate compound, which is integrated together with further
members into a larger compound. The form rq;ani-cara-, translated with the
noun of a demon (riik$asa) consists of rajani- "night" (lit., "the dark colored
one"), and cara- "goer, rover". Moreover, proper nouns as Da.f;a-ratha (a further possessive compound, meaning "having ten chariots") may be included
into the larger compound beside common nouns. No grammatical constraint
exists for the poet's creativity.
Anyone who is familiar with Classical Sanskrit knows that the plot of a
story often lingers on detailed descriptions expressed by heavy and intricate
compounds. However, stylistic adornment is not the driving factor of compounding in Classical Sanskrit, but is rather a byproduct of its diffusion. Renou (1957: 103-104) points out that compounding spread out first in technical
disciplines, such as phonetics, grammar, metrics, philosophy, astronomy, etc.
In the siitra literature, where a given topic is discussed by means of short sentences or aphoristic rules, a compound is a convenient strategy to spare words
and to obtain a concise and precise reasoning.

89

La pensee est resserree dans les limites d'une phraseologie avare de mots, ou le s~.
mantisme se condense autour de termes-force; lcs fomtes verbales sont evitees. Dans
ces aide-memoires qui ont ete en faveur a travers toutes les ecoles de I'Indc, il
s'agissait d'economiser les mots et les syllabes: la composition nominale foumissait
'
pour atteindre ce but, !'expedient le plus commode. (Renou 1957: 104)

Renou's (1957) observations on the use of compounds as a device for a

succinct Md rigorous argumentation match the restrictive function, that is, the
function of identifying a referent through the specification of a noun. This restrictive function exerted by compounds was already present in the Rig-Veda.
In (3.48) a compound is used to list a number of reproachable behaviors in a
synthetic and exhaustive manner.
(3 .48) brahma-hatyii-~:,TUru-talpa-gamana-suvar~w-steya-surii-piine$U
Brahmin-killing-teachcr-bed-intci'COUrsc-gold-stealing-liquor-drinking: LOC.PL

"In case of killing of a Brahmin, violation of a teacher's bed, stealing of

gold, and drinking of liquors" (Dharmasiitra)
Stringent logic may be adequate to explain the flourishing of compounds
in the technical genres. However, it does not account for the pervasiveness of
composition in poetry and in narration, which play a more relevant role in Indian literature, and where neither a brief expression nor an exact denotation is
pursued.
Alternatively, a typical use of compounding, i.e. non-referentiality, can account for its diffusion both in the siilra and in creative composition. We have
already mentioned that a noun included in a compound preferably, albeit not
necessarily, denotes generic items. On the one hand, technical manuals abstract a set of typical situations out of the various unordered situations of the
real world. A rule is by definition a generali?.ation. On the other hand, dramas
and novels have a predilection for generic denotation, especially in their lyric
sections, where compounds particularly abound. In this, Indian poetry differs
from lyrics as experienced in Ancient Greek and in Latin. In Western literary
traditions, despite the adherence to previous literary models, poets express
their intimate feelings and investigate the sphere of interest of the individuals
portrayed. Conversely, Indian poets never describe their subjective thoughts,
but rather draw on a conventional repertoire, where a vast range of figures is
contemplated for every kind of feeling, such as passion, jealousy, rage, etc.
Allusions to contemporary political events, so common in Ancient Greek lyrics, are inconceivable for Indian poets, who want to please and reassure the
prince, rather than to bother him with disquieting episodes.
Indian poetry is interested in the category of the situation represented
rather than in the individuality of the characters or in the peculiarity of the
events. For example, if a woman is longing for his man, as in Kalidasa's
Megha-diita ("cloud-messenger"), she is thin for a long fasting, with a worn
90

id with rough skin, and with neglected nails. The same traditional features
bra a~signed to the river (nadi, feminine) that is missing the cloud (megha-,
ar:sculine): the river is meager like a braid, with a pale glare for the falling of
::aves into the water, etc. The ability of the poet consists in combining these
stablished figures. A condensed style was appreciated, since it allowed to
~mbine a higher number of figures in one expression. Pun (sle$a- lit., "combination") was the preferred figure among poets and theoreticians. Occasionally, an e1~tire text was susceptible of receiving a double interpretation, as in
Magha's Sisupalavadha ("The killing of Sisupala", 9.47), where the same description can be interpreted as referred either to the sun rising between the
mountains or to a child playing in his mother's lap. Rather than specific referents, these are stereotyped images of a morning and of a child.

91

4. The temporal relation

4.1. Semantics of temporal clauses

A temporal clause is used to place in time a situation P by reference to another situation Q. Following Haspelmath (1997), P is here called Located
Situation (LS), and Q is called Reference Time (RT). Both the LS and the RT
are syntactically represented by clauses, e.g. "After I arrived at home (RT), a
snowstorm started (LS)". Haspelmath (1997: 24-25) points out that the same
function as temporal clauses can be expressed by deverbal action nouns (e.g.
"After my arrival at home, a snowstorm started"), which denote an event
rather than an object, and therefore share the same reference as a verb and as a
clause. For noun phrases, however, the function of denoting events is less
usual than the function of denoting canonical time periods, such as days,
months, seasons, etc.
The LS and the RT, which are represented by the main clause and by the
subordinate clause, are oriented either in succession or in simultaneity with
respect to each other. In simultaneity, they share a time span, whereas in succession the denoted events do not overlap. Succession is interpreted either as
RT and then LS or as LS and then RT. The relation where the RT expressed in
the subordinate clause occurs earlier than the LS expressed in the main clause
is labeled "anteriority" in Kortmann ( 1998: 464-65), and is marked in English
by the subordinator after (4.1 ). Kortmann calls Posteriority the relation of a
RT chronologically following the LS, which in English is marked by the subordinator before (4.2).
(4.1) Anteriority (RT __: LS succession)
After washing her handr,;, she had a sit at the table.
(4.2) Posteriority (LS- RT succession)
Before having a sit allhe table, she washed her hands.
In the domain of simultaneity, the LS and the RT may denote two punctual
events. or two durativc events, or one punctual and one durative event, ac92

d'ng to verbal aspect and actionality. If the RT of the subordinate indicates

c;or ~ctual event and the LS of the main clause indicates a durative event, the
a ~uis included in the LS. E.g. "When the earthquake began, Joseph was
R 1 ep." In the opposite cac;e, the LS is included in the RT, as in (4.3), where
as etwo denote d Situations
.
.
are not revers1'bl e.
11
~4e3 ) simultaneity Duration (Durative RT and punctual LS)
( ) While I was on holiday, my sister broke her leg.
3)
While my sister broke her leg, I was on holiday.
(b Coextensiveness and Contingency represent two particular cases of simultaneity. In Coextensiveness, there is a complete time overlap between LS and
RT. that is, the LS uninterruptedly occurs as long as the RT takes place. Accordingly, the order of the two situations is reversible, and depends on which
state of affairs is foregrounded. Typical subordinators of coextensiveness are
French en /ant que, aussi /ongtemps que, Italian per tutto il tempo che, German solange, etc. In Contingency, the LS occurs every time that the RT happens. The event denoted by the subordinate clause is considered repeatable in
the future, and therefore is non-factual.
The relations of Durative Anteriority and Durative Posteriority can be
identified between the domain of Simultaneity and the domain of Succession.
In Durative Anteriority, also called terminus a quo, the LS takes place since
the RT occurs (4.4). In Durative Posteriority, also called terminus ad quem,
the LS takes place until the RT occurs (4.5).
(4.4) Terminus a quo
Since the house fell down, the road is full of debris.
(4.5) Terminus ad quem
Until the masons arrived, the road was full ofdebris.
Both in the terminus a quo and in the terminus ad quem, LS and RT are
ordered in succession, albeit with different time directionality, and the LS
overlaps with the RT. The LS, insofar as it is partially contemporary and partially either preceding or subsequent to the other situation, is necessarily durative. On the contrary, the RT is often a punctual state of affairs, since it indicates the starting point or the ending point of the situation represented in the
main clause: the beginning and the end are commonly conceived as focalized
instants of a process.

93

4.2. Strategies of succession

4.2.1. Temporal anteriority
The relation of temporal anteriority shows a high number and variety
structures in the Rig-Veda, with both overt and covert marking. The passa or
in (4.6) is an instance of implicit subordination. Among the structures mark::
only by verbal accentuation, Oldenberg (1906: 725ff.) considers true subord.
nates only those clauses having a temporal or a conditional meaning, Whic~
function as the framework (Grundlage) of the following main clause. Cf. also
(2.3).
(4.6) & n&kam
tasthur
PRE vault.of.heaven.M-ACC.SG climb-PF3PL

uru

cakrire

sadal).

broad-ACC.N.SG make-PF.MID3PL seat.N-ACC.SG

"After they climbed to the vault of heaven, they made a broad seat for
themselves." (1.85.7b)
The passage in (4.7) contains a nominalization, and particularly a gerund
or converb, which entails the same subject as the main clause. This stmtegy is
scarcely attested in the Rig-Veda. lt will become increasingly widespread in
Classical Sanskrit and even more in Middle and Neo-lndian languages, owing
to the influence of the Dravidian languages, where converbs are very common
strategies of clause linkage (Tikkanen 1987).
(4.7) lmtvi dasyun
slain-GER Dasyu.M-ACC.PL

pzlra

&yasir

ni

tiirit

fortress.F-ACC.PL made.or.iron-ACC.F.PL down tcar-INJ.AOR.3SG

"After slaying the Dasyus, he tore down their fortresses of iron." (2.20.8d)
The passage in (4.8) is a finite clause marked by a relativizer. In addition
to yad, the conjunction yada also introduces anteriority temporal clauses
(4.6).
(4.8) hodltad
ytin mii
harihhyii'''
kumiira/:t
wake.up-INJ.IPF3SG when me-ACC bay.horse.M-INSTR.OU princc.M-NOM.SG

siihadevya/:t 1

acha na huta

zid aram

Sahadcva's.son.M-NOM.SG PTC as summoned-PP.NOM.M.SG up s!art-INJ.AOR I SG

"After that the prince son of Sahadeva woke me up with two bay horses,
then I started up, as one who is summoned." (4.15.7)
Anteriority iconically represents two situations in the same sequence as
they occur in the extra-linguistic world, and therefore it is cognitively unmarked in the domain of temporal relations. In Vedic, anteriority is the temporal relation for which more strategies are available, and which more fTequently
occurs in texts. Although we reported above types of structures that present
94

ccntuation, and that therefore meet the basic criterion to be considV'drbal ~~rdinate in Vedic ( 1.4), asyndetically coordinate clauses also tend to
cte~ :~rpreted as occurring in this temporal sequence, especially if they share
bC 111aJlle subject. The sentence "Mary ate, did chores, went to dance" means
the 5MaiY first ate, then did chores, and eventually went to dance. This inferthat derives from our knowledge of the world, where one in normal condi~11ce cannot do more than one thing at a time. Since human discourse tends to
uoJ~S tain the same subject, the relation of temporal anteriority represents the
11111111
. COhestOn
. .
basic
strategy 0 f d'ISCOUrSIVe

./.2.2. Temporal posteriority

4.2.2.1. Late occurrence ofa subordinating strategy
The relation of temporal posteriority, represented by bt:;{ore-clauses, lacks
a specific structure in the Rig-Veda. This is unlikely to be a coincidence; since
8 semantically close relation such as the terminus ad quem (4.3.2) is also absent. Both before-clauses and until-clauses imply that the RT has not yet occurred when the LS takes place. Because of this, before- and until-clauses are
cognitively marked with respect to after-, while-, and when-clauses, for which
the RT has already occurred or is ongoing at the time of the LS. Temporal
clauses are used to present the LS in terms of aRT, and this operation is easier to process if the RT is accomplished or at least started. "There is a sense in
which before-clauses are conceptually negative from the point of view of the
event of the main clauses." (Thompson and Longacre 1985: 182) In English,
negative markers such as any or ever appear in these contexts: "Before any
shots were fired, a truce was declared". The same phenomenon can be observed in many unrelated languages. For example, in Swahili one strategy of
building before-clauses is using negation plus the infix -}a- "not yet" after the
conjunction kabla "before".
(4.9) Swahili (Bantu; Russelll996: 133)
Kabla ha-ja-enda msituni a-li-tafuta
panga lake
before NEG-not.yet-go wood

3SG-PAST-search machete POSS

"Before she went to the woodland she looked for her machete."
Swahili borrowed the conjunction kabla from Arabic. This shows that before-clauses are relatively recent in the subordinating system of a language, as
can be seen from their etymological transparency and from their compositional, generally not fixed structures. A similar diachronic change is observable in the domain of temporal relations of Old Indian, froin Vedic to Classical Sanskrit. PiiQini's language, which usually maintains a (often artificial)
95

balance among grammatical relations, fills the syntactic gap of Vedic by

building a new subordinator for the function of temporal posteriority. This is
the polymorphemic and monofunctional conjunction yiiva/ na, whose sources
are the stem of the relative pronoun and negation, and "the literal meaning of
which is: one action happened, as long as the other did not happen" (Speyer
1886: 477). The subordinator yiivat na is resumed in the main clause by the
correlative tiivat, according to the structure of the diptych (4.1 0).
( 4.1 0) yiivan na kascid
vetti,
as.long.as NEG someone-NOM.M.SG know-IND.PR3SG

tiivac chighral'{l gamyatiim

so.long quickly

go-IPV3SG

"Before someone knows that, go away quickly". (Paficatantni)

The position of the negation na is not syntactically constrained with respect to the relativizer yiivan, and segmental material can be inserted between
them (4.11 ). This manifests the scarce grammaticalization of such a construction, synchronically perceived as composed of two units with a minimum degree of fusion.
(4.11) satvaral'{l nivedaya yiivan mama dam~.triintar
quickly

tell-IPV2SG as.long.as my

gato

tusk.N-ACC.PL.in
bhavi~yati

na bhaviin

gone-PP.NOM.M.SG NEG lord-NOM.M.SG be-FUT3SG

"Quickly tell me, before you may finish in my tusks." (Paiicatantra)

4.2.2.2. From preposition to conjunction: the case of pur~

Beside yiivat na, Classical Sanskrit uses the subordinator purii "before" for
the relation of temporal posteriority. This conjunction, however, is rare, and
definitely less frequent than yiivat na (Speyer 1886: 324).

(4.12)purii [...] saririm

tapasvi~u

upahin:zsiin:z

darsayanti

before corporal-ACC.F.SG injury.F-ACC.SG ascetic.M-LOC.PL show-IND.PR3PL

hi

d~tiis

te

PTC wicked-NOM.M.PL this-NOM.M.PL

tyak~yiima

imam

asramam

abandon-FUTIPL this-ACC.M.SG hermitage.M-ACC.SG

"Before these wicked show any corporal injury upon the ascetics,
we will abandon this hermitage." (R. 2.116.19)
In Vedic, purli has the function of an adverb or, less frequently, of a preposition taking the ablative case. Out of 60 Rigvedic occurrences (GR 826),
there are 41 adverbial uses 1 and 19 prepositional uses. The passages in which
I. As an adverb, purli refers to a past that does not exist any more. This is the age when the
deeds of gods and sages were accomplished, a golden age that the subsequent poets relentlessly

96

rli works

as a preposition make it possible to follow its development to-

P'~rds a subordinating function. In these cases, pur& refers to situations that

; 0 n<?t e~ist_yet. f:.g. 3.32.14 "I wa~t to praise_Indra befor~ the decisive day"
(purii pii1yad ... ahnal]). The ablallve dependmg on pura can represent the

separation from something nega~ive that must be averted. In 1.24.4, Varur:m's

wealth is safe from envy" (purii nidal}). In 2.16.8, th~ poet pray~ Indra: "Address to us, so that we may not fall in disgrace" (purii sambiidhiid lit., "away
from disgrace"). In 4.3.1, Agni is asked to protect humans "from the unexpected thur!derbolt" (purii tanayitnor aci!tiid). Cf. also (4.13).
(4.13) puriigne
duritebhya/J purli mrdhrebhya}J kave
away.Agni-VOC dangcr.N-ABL.PL away enemy.M-ABL.PL poet.M-VOC.SG

pn:i ~w 4vur

vaso

lira

PRE our life.N-ACC.SG Vasu-VOC prolong-IPV2SG

"0 Agni, away from dangers, away from enemies, 0 poet, prolong our life,
0 Vasu." (8.44.30)
The semantic components of futurity and negation interacting with the
prepositionpura in the Rig-Vedaprelude the function oftemporal posteriority
that purii will have in Classical Sanskrit as a conjunction. The change must
have started from the contexts where the complement of the preposition purfi
was an action noun ending in -ti or -tu, which occasionally may be interpreted as an infinitive. In (4.14) the action noun abhisasti- "curse" derives
from the prefixed root abhi-sams "slander, curse" (a similar case is in 10.39 .6).
(4.14)pur& tasyii
abhisaster adhihi
before this-ABL.F.SG curse.F-ABL.SG protect-IPV2SG

"Protect us from this curse." (1.71.10d)

An ablative -as formation occurs in 8.1.12, where lndra heals his horse
Etasa without making any incision on him: without breaking (pur& ... iitfda/J)
the ligature of his neck". In these cases, the consistent selection of the ablative,
among the many available infinitive endings in Vedic (7.2), shows that the
infinitive has the same distribution as genuine substantives depending on pura,
and that purli still retains the status of a preposition.
A further starting point for the conjunctional use of purli may be identified
in the complement compound in ( 4.15), which is placed inside a hymn devoted to medicinal herbs.

regret. Even a popular hymn such as I 0.86 acknowledges that ancient times were morally superior to the present. because "in the past the lady used to go to sacrifices and to ceremonies, and
was praised as an expert of rites" (stanza 10), while in the present even lndra's wife is violated.

97

(4. I 5) iitmii

ydk$masya

nasyati

breath.N-NOM.SG illness.M-GEN.SG expire-IND.PR3SG

purli jfvagfbho

yathii

before life.grabbing.M-ABL.SG that

"The breath of illness expires, before grabbing life." ( 10.97. J I cd)

The compound jivagfbh- governed by purfi is fonned by a noun Uiva"life") and by a verbal root (gzhh "grab"), where the nominal member functions as the patient of the verbal member. The construction is that of a compressed clause. which is typical of radical compounds (e.g. karma-krt "doing
his duty", veda-vid "knowing the Vedas"). This tendency towards a clausesyntax probably motivates the presence of the conjunction yclthii, which otherwise would have no syntactic function in this passage. The fact that yathii
appears, among the numerous clausal conjunctions, is probably due to its purposive meanin~ (7.7), which is compatible with the semantic component of
futurity of pura-clauses.
The cases where the preposition purfi is close to the status of a conjunction
are sporadic (1.71.10, 1.121.10, 8.1.12, 10.39.6, 10.97.11) and included in the
recent parts of the Rig-Veda. This shows how some portions of the first Vedic
saltlhita are already on the verge of the change that in Classical Sanskrit led to
the creation of a proper conjunction for temporal posteriority. Rather than
proceeding according to an abstract plan of system-internal consistency,
PaQini recovers tendencies latent in the Vedic language.

4.3. Strategies of simultaneity-succession

4.3.1. Terminus a quo (since)
The function of the tenninus a quo can be expressed by the ablative of an
action noun (cf. Speyer I 886: 98-99). The clause "since you arrived" is semantically equivalent to the noun phrase tava agamanad, you-GEN arrivai.NABL.SG lit., "since your arrival". The ablative case, which is labeled apiidiina
"act of taking away from" in the Indian grammatical tradition, efficaciously
describes a situation that starts "from" a precise time point onwards. Besides,
the nominal fonn is suitable to represent a durative condition, which is implicit in the notion of simultaneity-succession. Nouns are typically used to describe objects, i.e. time-stable referents (Giv6n 1979: 320-321 ), unlike verbs,
which proto-typically denote events and dynamic situations.
Alternatively, the terminus a quo can be expressed by a finite subordinate
introduced by a relativizer. The conjunction yad in (4.16) is interpreted as

98

. dem in Geldner (1951: I, 74). Marginally, the terminus a quo is expressed

~et~ fin it~ ~lause ~~~arked by the su~ordinator yadi.

(r.l6) mi Cll.\"llhOjQ

amrto

nl

tundate

never forcc.born-NOM.M.SG immortal-NOM.M.SG PRE push-IND.PR.MID3SG

h(Jta

ytid dut6

abhavad

vivasvata/:1

priest.M-NOM.SG since messenger.M-NOM.SG become-IND.IPF3SG Vivasvat-GEN

"Never the son of strength, the immortal one, needs to be pushed, since he
has become Vivasvat's priest and messenger." (1.58.1ab)

4.3.2. Terminus ad quem (until)

The function of the terminus ad quem does not present an explicit marking
in the Rig-Veda. In Classical Sanskrit, this function is expressed by various
adpositions such as ii, arabhya, and prabh[ti, which take the ablative case
(Speyer 1886: 168-169). However, the denotation of a future event imp I ied
in the terminus ad quem is at odds with the ablative, which is more appropriate for the function of the terminus a quo. This suggests that the terminus ad
quem is not the original function of these structures, as their etymology clarifies. In Vedic, when the adposition a takes an ablative complement, it retains
its concrete meaning of motion from. To express motion towards, ii requires
an accusative complement. The form arabhya is originally a gerund derived
from the prefixed root ii-rabh "take a start, begin". The form prabhrti is properly an action noun meaning "beginning". This is evidence of their basic function of terminus a quo, which persists in Classical Sanskrit beside the new
function of terminus ad quem. The following examples show the adposition ii
plus an ablative complement, with the meaning "from, since" ( 4.17) and "to,
until" (4.18).
(4.17) a bii/yat
tapaso
'bhavam
since youth.N-ABL.SG ascetic.M-NOM.SG be-IND.IPFISG

"Since iny youth I have been an ascetic." (Kathasaritsagara)

(4.18) ii prasaviid
asmad-grhe
ti~.thatu
until delivery.M-ABL.SG our.house.M-LOC.SG stay-IPV3SG

"Let her stay with us till her delivery." (Sakuntala)

The capability of the same structure of expressing both the terminus a quo
and the terminus ad quem is favored by time adirectionality that is recorded in
various domains of Old Indian grammar. For example, the adverb arvifk
(properly "hither") means both "before" and "after" in Old Indian. Temporal
adirectionality also crops up in Hindi, where the same lexeme kal, derived
from Old Indian kala- "time", means both "yesterday" and "tomorrow" (still
distinguished in Old Indian with hyafJ and svas, respectively). Similarly,
99

Hindi parsoff'l means both ..the day before yesterday" and "the day after to.
morrow", from Old Indian para~vas. The reason of this is probably couched
in the cyclic, non-historical and non-teleological conception of time that i
largely attested in Indian literature and philosophy (4.5.3). Admittedly, ex.~
plaining linguistic phenomena through extra-linguistic facts, such as a belief
or a way of life, may be hazardous. Nonetheless, objects or events, and notably abstract entities like time, are often categorized according to language.
specific rather than universal criteria, which have their motivation in a mytho.
logical or religious Weltanschauung.

4.4. Strategies of simultaneity

4. 4.1. Simultaneity duration
The function of simultaneity is generally expressed either by a mere verbal
accent (4.19) or by a nominali7.ation, and particularly by a conjunct participle
in the case of same subject (4.20) and by an absolute locative in the case of
different subject (4.21) between the main clause and the subordinate clause.
(4.19) indro har'f
yuyuje
asvma
ratham
Indra-NOM bay.horse.M-ACC.DU yoke-PF3SG Asvin-NOM.DU chariot.M-ACC.SG

"While Indra yoked the two bay horses, the Asvins (yoked) the chariot."
(l.l61.6a)
(4.20) vic&kasac
candramii
naktam
eti
shine-P.PR.INT.NOM.M.SG moon.M-NOM.SG night.N-ACC.SG go-IND.PR3SG

"The moon goes while shining brightly at night." (1.24.1 Od)

(4.21) sarasvat'frrl devayanto
havante
SarasvatT-ACC devoted.to.the.god-NOM.M.PL invokc-IND.PR3PL

sara.svat'fm adhvare

tiiyamiine

SarasvatT-ACC sacrifice.M-LOC.SG extend-P.PR.MID.LOC.M.SG

"Men devoted to the gods invoke Sarasvatf, Sarasvatf, while the sacrifice is
extended." (l0.l7.7ab; Macdonell\916: 327)
Many contrastive contexts marked only by verbal accentuation (2.2) represent two contemporary events, especially if two different subjects are presented, as in (4.19). The inference is that two clausal constituents that are
symmetrically built also denote two situations that are placed on the same
temporal level. The presence of different subjects is a crucial criterion to infer
a relation of simultaneity between two temporal clauses that are not marked
by an explicit subordinator. Whereas same subject-constructions are the default interpretation for anteriority succession (4.6), sentences marked only by
verbal accent with two different subjects tend to be interpreted as simultane100

as we observe different people doing different things at the same time in

ous.
.
. .
Id
wor .
extra-lmgutsttc
1
1
t e The association between different subject and simultaneity is especially
ident in the absolute locative. Although the absolute locative is in principle
e~ailable for both anteriority and simultaneity, in the Rig-Veda it is more
8ornmonly found for simultaneity. as in ( 4.21 ). Ramat (2005) observes that
~bsolute constructions reflect the pragmatic modes of spoken languages,
where strategies of topicalizatjon are used, and where parataxis prevails over
hypotaxis. These findings also apply to Vedic clause linkage.
As remarked above for the terminus a quo (4.3.1), nominalizations such
as absolute locatives and conjunct participles are particularly suitable to express a stable time span implied in the relation of simultaneity, since they
typically have time-stable referents. Apparently, the interpretation of either an
attributive participle or a conjunct participle is related to the linear distance
from the noun it refers to. A participle is an intermediate category between
verbs and adjectives, since it is built on a verbal stem but agrees with the head
noun in gender, number, and case. To the extent that the participle remains
close to its head noun, the adjectival interpretation prevails. When it is displaced, the verbal reading of the conjunct participle is favored. Even in this
case, however, its adjectival features confer a durative stative connotation. It
is well known that adjectives are related to stative verbs: in Vedic, and in
early lE languages in general, a predicative adjective usually requires the verb
to be.

4.4.2. Simultaneity coextensiveness

The Rig-Veda does not possess an established strategy to express the relation of simultaneity coextensiveness (as long as 1', Q). In two passages (4.22)(4.23), the conjunction yad refers to a durative situation which culminates in
the future 2
(4.22) yan
nu dyavas
tatanan
yad
u~&sab
as.long.a.o; now sky.M-NOM.PL last-S8.PF3PL as.long.as dawn.F-NOM.PL

"As long as skies and dawns will last" (7.88Ad)

(4.23) yat
sd1yiim&sii
mitha uccariilab
as.long.as sun.moon-NOM.DlJ alternately rise-SB.PR3Dll

"As long as the sun and the moon will alternately rise'' (I 0.68.1 Od)
2. Other than in (4.22) and (4.23), the conjunction yiid only appears in two further passages in
the Rig-Vcda. where the relation ofcoextensiveness is metaphorically meant as the duration of
a process of thinking or knowing. 1.80. I 5 yad adhimasi "as far as we think", 6.21.6 ydd eva
vidmd "us far a.o; we know indeed".

101

In Classical Sanskrit, the relation of coextensiveness is explicitly marked

by a finite subordinate clause marked by the relativizer y&vat "as long as"
which is resumed in the main clause by the correlative t&vat (4.24).
'
yiivad aha111 jfviimi
(4.24) deva
god.M-VOC.SG as.long.as I-NOM live-IND.PRISG

tiivad bhayarn

na kartavyam

so.long fear.N-NOM.SG NEG make-GV.NOM.N.SG

"Your honor, as long as I live, you must not be afraid." (Hitopadesa)

Although y&vat is already attested in the Rig-Veda, it cannot be considered
an adverbial conjunction, since it is coreferential with a noun of the subordinate clause, and agrees with it in gender, number, and case .. Hettrich ( 1988:
564-65) includes y&vat among the derivations of the relative pronoun that do
not have a conjunctional function yet. At this stage, y&vat has the meaning of
"as great as, as large as, as many" (GR Ill 0).
(4.25) y&vat idam
bhzivanam
visvam
asti [... ]
as.large.as this-NOM.N.SG world.N-NOM.SG ali-NOM.N.SG be-IND.PR3SG

t&van ayam

p&tave

somo

astu

so.large this-NOM.M.SG drinking-OAT Soma-NOM be-IPV3SG

"As large as all this world is [ ... ] so large may be this Soma to drink."
(1.108.2ac)
The use of y&vat as a temporal conjunction represents an instance of the
metaphorical transfer from space to time, and a further piece of evidence of
the usage of local expressions for the function of simultaneity. Time expressions often derive from space expression (Lakoff and John son 1980). Whereas
space is a physically perceivable dominion, time is more abstract, and metaphors always present abstract concepts in terms of concrete entities. Haspelmath ( 1997) shows that time adverbs expressed by noun phrases present a
space-temporal metaphor in an extremely large area, which is not limited genetically to lE languages, or geographically to the western world, or typologically to SVO languages. A similar metaphor emerges in Old Indian in the
temporal use of the subordinator yatra (lit., "where"), which presents the stem
of the relative pronoun plus the local suffix -tra, as in atra "here", tatra
"there", lcyayatra "in the house", samudratra "in the sea", etc. In the RigVeda already yatra acquires the temporal meaning "when" (Macdonell 1916:
366; Renou 1952: 390), to represent states of affairs that are durative and simultaneous with the main clause. The when-clause in (4.26) is equivalent to a
local relative clause, as can be seen in Geldner's translation: "lhr Gotter,
hundert Jahren liegen vor (uns), in denen ihr uns das Alter der Leiber
bestimmt habt, in denen die Sohne zu Viitern werden." (1951: I, 114;
emphasis added).

102

nu .~arlldo
anti devii
hundred PTC PTC autumn.F-NOM.PL uhcad god.M-VOC.PL

4.26) satam in
(

yatrii naS

cakra

jarasmtl

tanilnam

when us-DAT make-PF2PL old.age.F-ACC.SG body.F-GEN.PL

putraso

yatra pitaro

bhavanti

son.M-NOM.PL when father.M-NOM.PL become-IND.PR3PL

"A hundred autumns, o gods, (are) in front (of us), when you made for us
the corporal old age, when the sons become fathers." (l.89.9ac)

4.4.3. Simultaneity of contingency

In the relation of contingency (whenever P, Q), the subordinate clause
represents a situation occurring every time that the main clause situation takes
place. This functional domain has several subordinating strategies in the RigVeda. In addition to the universal subordinator yad, contingency is expressed
by the two conjunctions yada (4.27) and yadi (4.28), occasionally incremented by focalizing particles.
(4.27) yada kada ea sunaviima s6mam
when ever PTC press-SB.PRlPL soma.M-ACC.SG

"Whenever we press the soma" (3.53.4c)

(4.28) yadi g6bhir
vasiiyate
when milk.F-INSTR.PL clothe-CS.SB.PR.MJD3SG

"When (the Soma) has clothed himself in milk" (9.14.3c)

It must be emphasized that yada and yadi are the only temporal markers
for which a functional competition is identifiable. Some temporal subordinators are too rare to allow drawing inferences on their distribution, as in the
case ofyad, which appears only 4 times in the whole Rig-Veda. Others are too
frequent and generalized, as in the case of yad, which subsumes the functions
of every other subordinator: a yad-clause can be coordinated with a subordinate marked by yada, yadi, etc. Morphemes like yathii, yatra, yatas, and ea,
for which the temporal is not the primary reading, only express the most generic value of this relation, and are commonly translated by means of whenclauses. Quite differently, the two conjunctions yada and yadi present the
temporal as their first reading, and their clauses differ in tense, aspect, and actionality. Since the capability ofVedic verbs to present aspect and actionality
features is controversial, a discussion of this topic will be given in 4.5. The
functional competition between the subordinators yada and yadi will be analyzed in 4.6.

103

4.5. Tense, aspect and actionality in Vedic

4. 5.1. The traditional view of tense and aspect in Vedic
Both Indian grammarians and western scholars traditionally assign tense
but not aspect values to Vedic verb. PaQini (3.2.115) distinguishes betwee1;
perfect on the one hand, and imperfect and aorist on the other. The perfect is
named parok.m, from paras+ak~a "beyond the sight", whereas the imperfect
and the aorist are a-paro~a. Patafijali (cit. in Renou 1925: 87) defines
paro~a "what happened a hundred or a thousand years before, or what is beyond a wall". Accordingly, a verb is inflected in the perfect if the denoted
state of affairs is placed in a past that the speaker did not directly experience.
By contrast, "lorsque le sujet raconte les evenements auxquels il a pris part
lui-meme, c'est l'imparfait et surtout l'aoriste qui se rencontrent presque exclusivement." (Renou 1925: 82) For example, the root vr is inflected in the
perfect in 3.43.7, where a legend is told about Indra who opened (apa ...
vavartha) the stables of the cows. The same root is inflected in the aorist in
1.113.4, where the Dawn opens (vi ... &val]) the doors of the sky. Similarly,
the root srj is inflected in the perfect in 1.103 .2, where Indra releases (ni/:1 ...
sasarja) the waters. The aorist of srj is employed in 9.46.1, where the soma
drops flow (asrgran) in the sacrifice, which is personally prepared by the
priest. The appearance of the dawn or of the darkness, as well as the accomplishment of a sacrifice or the kindling of the fire, represent events that did
not happen only once in the mythical past, but are related to the daily operations of the present. The contrast is especially evident in the ninth book, devoted to Soma, which is endowed of a terrestrial and of a celestial nature. The
terrestrial nature refers to a herb from which an intoxicating beverage is obtained, and is associated with the aorist (e.g. 9.13 .6 "the drops have spread on
the ram skin", asrgran). The celestial nature refers to a deity connected with
Indra, and is associated with the perfect (e.g. 9.20.5 "You, Soma, as a king
faithful to the law, entered the hymns", vive.~itha). From these uses, the postVedic literature generalizes the interdiction of the perfect with the first person
and with the direct speech. Renou (1925: 29fT.) notices that the aorist notably
occurs at the beginning or at the end of a hymn, that is, in the portions devoted to the personal statements of the poet. In (4.29) the perfect is used in the
report of Parsu's legendary delivery, while the aorist occurs in the poet's
comment, which concludes the hymn and is underscored by exclamation.
Since Delbriick, aoristic forms are assigned the value of assertion, as "sie
behaupten, daB etwas sich in der Vergangenheit ereignet habe" (1900: Il, 282;
Cf. also 1877: 1-100; 1888: 279-80).

104

(4.29) parsur

ha n&ma

manavf

sakarrz

Parsu-NOM PTC hame.N-ACC.SG Manu's.daughter.F-NOM.SG at.the.same.time

sasiiva

virrz$afim I bhadram

deliver-PF3SG twenty

yasya

bhala tyasya abhiid

good.luck.N-NOM.SG really her

udaram

be-AOR3SG

amayad

RP-GEN.F.SG burden.N-NOM.SG cause.grief-IPF3SG

"Manu's daughter, named Parsu, delivered twenty sons at the same time.
Really, good luck happened to her, whose burden was cause of grief."
(10.86.23)
Although both aorist and imperfect can denote events personally witnessed
by the speaker, the aorist is more frequently found than the imperfect for this
function. This is because the aorist is associated with the recent past, while the
imperfect is preferred with the remote past (4.30). In the Indian grammatical
tradition, aorist and imperfect are labeled adyatana (from adya "today") and
an-adyatana, respectively. This temtinology is based only on temporal notions, as compared to the Greek tenninology, which also reflects aspectual
values3
(4.30) kim ichant'i
sarama
predam iina4
what wish-P.PR.NOM.F.SG Sarama-NOM PRE.here PRE.come-AOR3SG

dure hy adhva
far

jaguri/:l

pariicai/:ll

for path.M-NOM.SG leading-NOM.M.SG away

k&smehiti/:l

ka

paritakmyiislt

which.for.us.message.F-NOM.SG which crucial.moment.in.a.travei.F-NOM.SG.be-IPF3SG

katharrz ras&ya
how

ataral}

payarrzsi

Rasa-GEN cross-IPF2SG stream.N-ACC.PL

"With which wish Sarama has come here? For the path is leading far away
to distant places. What (is) the message for us? What was the crucial moment
in her travelling? How did you cross Rasa's streams?" (10.108.1)
In (4.30) the aorist is used for the clause "Sarama has come (pra ... anac{)
here". The root nas (lit., "reach") cooccurs with the preverbs pra and a, which
signal motion toward, and with the proximal deictic idam, used as an adverb
with the meaning "here". By contrast, the imperfect appears in the clauses
"Which was (as'id) the crucial moment in her traveling?" and "How did she
cross the streams of the Rasa?" These two questions are semantically equivalent, since the crucial moment (Wendepunkt) in Sarama's traveling was the
crossing of the river Rasa (cf. Geldner 1951: Ill, 329). Both questions refer to

3. Aspectual features emerge in Ancient Greek for the definitions of aorist and imperfect. The
term aoristos literally means "non-definite, unbound, undivided", whereby the event is denoted
in its completeness, unlike the imperfect, which is called paratatikos "extended, incomplete".
For a discussion on aspect and actionality in Ancient Greek and in other lE languages, cf.
Gonda ( 1962a: 7ff.), Bertinetto (1986: 81fT.), Hewson and Bubenik ( 1997), and Napoli (2006).

105

a distant past, implicit in Sarama's long journey ("The way is leading far
away to distant places").
The use of the aorist with recent past lies behind the association of this
tense with the adverb jyok "for a long time", to denote a situation started in
the past and still continuing in the present (cf. HotTmann 1967: 156-57). For
example, in I 0.124.1 lndra tries to convince Agni to abandon the Asurian
realm ofVaruQa and to join him in the creation of a new cosmic order. "Agni,
for too long you have been lying (jyok ... a.~ayi$/ho}J) in the darkness." This is
the so-called "complexive" (Zusammenfassender) aorist, which expresses the
temporal function of the terminus a quo, characterized by a component of actuality. By contrast, the imperfect is the typical tense of narration; particularly
.for events that are not relevant to the speech situation.
Thus, the temporal grid reconstructed for Vedic comprises the values of
present (indicative present), remote past (indicative imperfect), recent past
(indicative aorist), and future (indicative future). Apparently, an aspectual
category is not included in this system. In regard to the opposition between
imperfect and aorist, Thieme ( 1929: 6) claims that they arc "ohne Riicksicht
auf Aktion oder Aspekt".

4.5.2. Aporiae in the traditional view

The exclusion of aspect from the Vedic verbal system is found in grammars tracing back to an epoch when a precise notion of aspect did not yet exist, and aspect was often confused with actionality or even with tense. Some
clues indicate that the temporal taxonomy does not sufficiently account for the
complex Vedic verbal system.
First, the perfect occupies an isolated position among the categories of the
past. "Das Perfekt gehort seinem Wesen nach nicht in das Zeitenstufensystem,
in dem es auch keinen Stellenwert hat." (Hoffmann 1967: 160) Rather than
denoting a type of past, the perfect has the value of a concluded event or of an
accomplished state ("AbschluB einer Handlung oder eines Vorgangs folgenden erreichten Zustand", ib.), which are purely aspectual notions.
Second, the role of the imperfect is not well established either, albeit for
the opposite reason. Rather than being isolated among past tenses, it may
cover the functional domain of both the aorist and the perfect. On the one
hand, imperfect and aorist imply a direct experience of the speaker in the verbal process, unlike the perfect. On the other hand, imperfect and perfect share
the reference to remote past, unlike the aorist. "11 semble que le choix entre
l'imparfait et le parfait (actif) [ ... ] ait ete plus d'une fois indifferent." (Renou
1925: 42) For example, in (4.29) both the perfect (sasilva "she delivered") and
106

the imperfect (amayad "it caused grief') are used in reporting a mythological
event.
Although the aorist seems to have a clearer status, some quirks still remain.
particularly, subordinates with an aorist commonly refer to a state of affairs
preceding that of a main clause with an imperfect. In 7.98.5, "when lndra
conquered (asahi~ta, AOR) the godless magical powers, then Soma was (abhavat, IPF) his exclusive property." These cases (on which see DelbrUck 1888:
578; Renou 1925: 38; Thieme 1929: 7-9; Gonda 1962a: 93-102; Hoffmann
1967: 157-159) would remain unexplained if the primary function of the aorist were that of a recent past. By contrast, the process can be easily accounted
for from the aspectual notion of aoristic perfectivity to the temporal notion of
anteriority /ato sensu. The use of the aorist in subordinate clauses is particularly revealing from a diachronic perspective, since subordinates are syntactically more conservative than independent clauses (Giv6n 1979: 45ff.).

4.5.3. Traces of aspect in Vedic verbal system

Substantial changes occurred from the verbal system reconstructed for PIE
to the verbal system attested in Vedic. Although the latter is mainly based on
temporal categories, the Rig-Veda offers a glimpse of a situation where aspectual (and, as we will see below, actional) values interact with temporal values.
To establish the functions of perfect, aorist, and imperfect, we should not rely
on the purely temporal labels of parok~a. aparok1'ia, adyatana, and anadyatana, which have been created by the grammarians of the V century A. D.
for their contemporary language. Classical Sanskrit tenses and moods present
considerable variations with respect to Vedic tenses and moods. Formally, the
modal system is simplified, with the loss of injunctive, subjunctive, and optative (other than present optative), while the temporal system is enriched with
the creation of periphrastic expressions of future (diitiismi < dutii asmi lit., "I
am a giver", then "I will give") and of perfect (iisiim cakre lit., "I made a sitting", then "I sat"; tena /q'tam lit., "by him it has been done", then "he has
done"). Semantically, Classical Sanskrit imperfect, aorist, and perfect are
simple past tenses, without any functional opposition.
The original differences among imperfect, perfect, and aorist emerge from
their residual usages, which create overlaps and ambiguities, and from their
morphological form. The perfect, as related to further reduplicated forms
(Thieme 1929) and to its Ancient Greek parallels, turns out to have a perfective (accomplished) aspect. The shift to anteriority can be explained taking
into account that the accomplished result of an event is progressively consid107

ered the representation of a generically past event (Renou 1925: 41 ; 88). Th

same process is observable in the periphrastic perfect of Romance languages e
More puzzling is the change that led the imperfect (which morphologicatiy
has the same stem as the present) to remote past, and the aorist (which shows
a different stem from the present) to recent past. The formal homogeneous.
ness between present and imperfect must reflect a semantic similarity. The
peculiar concept of time of Old Indian can be useful to understand these ap..
parent idiosyncratic features. Without delving into a philosophical discussion
which is beyond the aim ofthis study, it suffices reminding that time is a tin.
ear and unidirectional dimension in the Greek-Roman and Hebrew-Christian
tradition. Despite the concept of the historia magistra vitae and the numerous
exempla of the past that human beings ought to have as a model, any event is
unrepeatable in its precise conditions. History developed from a creative act
ex nihilo performed by God, and can be symbolized by means of half a
straight line, with a definite beginning and an indefinite end. By contrast, the
Indian concept of time corresponds to a spiral organized in a series of years
(yuga, kalpa, etc.), whereby events continuously reoccur. At the beginning
there was a shapeless substance (cf. RV 10.129), so that lndra does not act as
a creator, but rather as a demiurge that orders the chaos.
This myth owed its fundamental importance to the fact that every decisive moment in
life was considered a repetition of the primeval process. Therefore the myth was not
merely a tale of things that had happened long ago, nor was a rationale explanation of
how this world had become what it is now. The origin of the world constituted the sacred prototype of how, in an endlessly repeated process, life and this world renewed

themselves again and again. (Kuiper 1983: 9-10; emphasis added)

In Indian thought, mythical events had simultaneously the features of a

remote past tense and of a habitual imperfective aspect. The category more
appropriate to describe them was the imperfect, whose structural features of
the present stem and of the secondary endings represented aspect and tense,
respectively. That tense prevails over aspect is a common process, which also
appears in the perfect and in the aorist. However, the present stem is a clear
trace of an original aspectual imperfective value. A confirmation of this can
be found in PaQini's terminology, illustrated in Table 5.
In PaQini's classification of tenses, an association emerges on the one hand
between imperfect (called /a'l) and aorist (called lu11), which receive the final
consonant 11, and on the other hand between imperfect (la11) and present (la!),
both sharing the vowel a. In this code, the consonant represents tense,
whereas the vowel represents aspect. The relation established between the ao-

108

. (fun.) and a form of the future (lutt, which are both characterized by the
ristwel u, can be regarded as an aspectual feature. According to the Stoics, ao".0t was "related to the future according to its indefiniteness" (scholium
rtsoted in Hewson and Bubenik 1997: 64). In the future the event is considqued in its totality and completeness, as in the aoristic perfective aspect (Ber:~etto 1986: 193). In these cases as well, the consonant and the vowel signifY
:temporal and an aspectual feature, respectively.
-------

~---

Lat

Lit

Lu{

Present

Perfect

Periphrastic future

Jar~

liv
Optative

lur~

Lr,YJ

Aorist

Conditional

Imperfect

Ll;,!
Simple future

Table 5. Piivini's classification of tenses (From Hewson and Bubenik 1997: 62)

4.6. Competition between the subordinators yadii. and ytidi

4. 6.1. Tense and aspectual features

Unlike other temporal subordinators, which are commonly multi functional,
the conjunction yadli is traditionally ascribed only a temporal function, both
factual and non-factual. It is factual if the event in the subordinate is represented as accomplished. It is non-factual when denoting a habitual situation,
which is tantamount to a relation of temporal contingency (4.4.3). Hettrich
(1988: 219ff.) labels these two senses temporal-efflzierend realisiert (TER)
and tempora/-efflZierend-noch-nicht rea/isiert (TENNR). They differ in tense
and in mood, as TER is commonly associated with a past tense both in the
subordinate and in the main clause (4.31 ), while a TENNR preferably selects
a present (4.32), a subjunctive, or an imperative in the main clause.
(4.3 I) visve
devas()
amadann
tinu tva 11
ali-NOM.M.PL god.M-NOM.PL rejoice-IND.JPF3PL at you-ACC.SG
SU$1JQm pipi'Ulfl
kUyaValfl Vflram
indra
Su~I)a-ACC Pipru-ACC Kuyava-ACC V.rtra-ACC Indra-VOC

4. That the future counterposed to the aorist in table 5 is periphrastic rather than simple is here
irrelevant. It depends on the necessity of comparing the simple future (lrt) to the conditional
(lc~;~), which morphologically is like an imperfect of the future, i.e. it has the stem of the future
plus augment and secondary endings.

109

yadiivadhir

vi

pura/:l

sambarasya

when.slay-IND.AOR2SG away fortress.F-ACC.PL Sambara-GEN

"All the gods rejo~ced in you, when you slew Su~Qa, Pipru, Kuyava, Vrtra,
and the fortresses of Sambara." ( 1.1 03.7 d-8ab)
(4.32) yada satyaf!'l
/q'f)ute
manyum
indro
when real-ACC.M.SG make-IND.PR3SG anger.M-ACC.SG Indra-NOM

visvaql

dr.fham

bhayata

ejad

asmiit

aii-NOM.N.SG fixed-NOM.N.SG fcar-IND.PR3SG moving-NOM.N.SG him-ABL.M.SG

"When Indra makes his anger real, everything fixed and moving is afraid
of him.'' (4.17.10cd)
The conjunction yadi is the marker of indirect interrogative clauses (4.33)
and of conditional clauses (4.34), besides its basic temporal func!ion (4.35).
no
vi voco
yadi te purii c{j jaritiira
(4.33) tan
this-ACC.N.SG us-DAT PRE tcll-INJ.AOR2SG if your before even singer.M-NOM.PL

iina.M/:1

sumnam

indra

obtain-PF3PL favor.N-ACC.SG lndra-VOC

"Tell us this, whether even before the singers have obtained your favor, 0
lndra." (6.22.4ab)
yadi tan
neva
haryatha
(4.34) saudhanvanii
Sudhanvan 's.son-VOC.PL ifthis-ACC.N.SG NEG.PTC appreciate-IND.PR2PL

qtfye

ghii savane

miidayiidhvai

third-L.OC.N.SG PTC pressing.N-LOC.SG rejoice-CS.SB.MID2PL

"0 sons of Sudhanvan, if you appreciate not even this, then rejoice at least
in this third pressing (ofthc Soma)." (1.161.8cd)
O$adhibhir
vava/cye
(4.35) sadyo jiita
just

born-PP.NOM.M.SG plant.F-INSTR.PL grow-PF3SG

yadi vcirdhanti

prasvo

ghrtena

when incrcasc-IND.PRJPL shoot.F-NOM.PL clarified.butter.N-lNSTR.SG

"Ju~t born, (Agni) has grown by the plants, when shoots increase (him)
with clarified butter." (3.5.8ab)
The interrogative reading is easy to detect, since a verbum dice11di sive
sentiendi appears in the main clause. ln (4.33) we have an instance of the interference between the stem of the relative and of the interrogative pronoun
(Etter 1985: 193ff.). A conditional (4.34) and a temporal (4.35) function are
closer to each other, since both of them represent adverbial relations, and
therefore are more difficult to disambiguate. Delbri.ick ( 1888: 324fT.; 584tf.)
does not distinguish between them, probably because of the interference of
German. which uses the same morpheme wenn for both the conditional and
the temporal f1abitual clause.
The multifunctionality of the German and of the Old Indian subordinator is
based upon a non-factual modality, albeit in a different fashion. In conditional
and in indirect interrogative clauses, non-factuality is potential, as the speaker

110

d es not know whether the state of affairs of the subordinate clause will occur.
1: temporal clauses, non-factuality is only temporary instead, because the
peaker relies on the future accomplishment of the situation represented in the
:ubordinate, even though he knows that it is still incomplete at that moment.
Apparently, non-factual yadi-cla~ses contrast with the e.ffizierende Tempora/iliil (Hettrich 1988: 217) of yada-clauses. However, so!"e considerations
about this interpretation should be remarked. First, yada also activates a
rENNR function. Besides, a conspicuous group of ycldi-clauses are included
under the rubric of prohlematisch and unklar cases in Hettrich ( 1988: 243-249;
796).
The Rig-Veda contains 40 instances of yada-clauses, out of which 17 have
a factual and 23 a habitual function 5 It turns out thatyada privileges the aorist
(Delbrfick 1888: 590; Renou 1952: 390), which occurs 20 times. This is more
evident inTER (12 out of 17 times= 71%) than in TENNR clauses (8 out of
23 times =35%). Even in TENNR clauses, however, the aorist is more frequent than any other tense. This is particularly significant in comparison with
temporal clauses marked by yadi, for which the present indicative is prevailing, whereas the aorist is very rare. Out of 35 yadi-temporal clauses considered non-problematic by Hettrich, a present tense appears 23 times, i.e. in
66% of cases.
The aspectual differences between the present and the aorist in Vedic have
been discussed in Gonda ( 1962a). After gathering numerous passages of the
Rig-Veda and parallels in other lE languages, Gonda concludes that the verbal
process is typically described as perfective by the aorist and as imperfective
by the present. Accordingly, tenses based on the aorist stem are "not only actuel: they are also to refer to the process as such, and its accomplishment, to
avert the hearer's attention from variety and frequency, from particulars concerning the development of the process and from accidental circumstances
which as a rule are left unmentioned." (p. 76) A global point of view of the
process, conceived as independent of duration, is typical of the aoristic aspect.
It also embraces the end of a time span, which is consequently conceived as
closed, unlike the open time interval of the imperfective aspect (Bertinetto
I 986: 191ff.). A finite verb inflected in the aorist has a momentary interpretation especially when it is placed near a present participle, which describes the
event as imperfective (4.36).

5. In Heltrich's (1988: 795) counting, which is based on the occurrences of the subordinator.
yadii-clauses are 39 ( 17 factual and 22 habitual). By contrast, our computation is based on the
number of clauses marked by the subordinator: among the 23 habitual clauses, and therefore
among the total 40 clauses, one case is included (10.67.10) where one conjunction introduces
two subordinate clauses that arc coordinated between each other.

Ill

(4.36) yaded astambhil

prathtiyann

amif,,

whcn.PTC prop.uP,-INO.AOR3SG cxtend-P.PR.NO-.M.SG that-ACC.M.SG

divam

lid ij

jani~(a

piirthivah

sky.M-ACC.SG PTC PTC bc.bom-INJ.AOR3SG princc.of.the.earth.M-NOM.sa

"When he propped up that sky, extending it, then the prince of the ea
was born." (8.51.8cd)
rtb
The representation of the process in its full development, characteristi
the present stem, is often strengthened by means of an adverb denoting d~ or
tivity, which confers a habitual value to the verb. E.g. 6.41.2 "with which Yracontinuously (sa.fvat) drink (pibasi, IND.PR2SG) the wave of honey". Titu
s?me imp~rfective functi~n is expressed by ~ si?1ilitude. "The simile emph:
s1zes particulars concemmg the process and mv1tes the hearer to contemplat
e
its development." (Gonda 1962a: 107)

4. 6. 2. Actional features
4.6.2.1. Yada-clauses
A comparison between the verbs appearing in yadfi- and in yadi-clauses
shows that aspect is typically perfective in the former and imperfective in the
latter. Nevertheless, if we take into account yada-clauses of the TENN R type,
i.e. habitual and therefore non-perfective temporal clauses, it comes out that
aspect does not suffice to account for the functional competition between the
two subordinators, and that the criteria of control and of actional ity must be
additionally analyzed. An association exists between perfective aspect and
non-durative actionality on the one hand, and between imperfective aspect
and durative actionality on the other. This tendency consistently applies to
some verb classes: for example, permanent statives can only have an imperfective continuous aspect (Bertinetto 1986: 109; 184). The relevance of actionality to interpret the competition between present and aorist has been recently demonstrated by Napoli (2006). Napoli observes that in Homeric Greek
the present is typically used for atelic verb classes ("states" and "activities" in
Vendlerian terminology), while the aorist prevails for telic verb classes ("accomplishments" and "achievements"). Her findings are are also relevant to the
distinction between present and aorist in Vedic, which is particularly evident
in yada-clauses and in yadi-clauses.
The majority of yadfi-clauses with perfective aspect (11 out of 17 TER)
have a non-durative, telic, and agentive actionality6 Consider, for example,
6. The cases in point are 1.103.8, 1.163.7, 7.98.5, 8.12.26, 8.12.27, 8.12.29, 8.12.30, 10.7.2,
10.68.6, 10.88.1la, and 10.92.3. Further cases present only some features of the prototype.

ll2

e reported above in (4.31): "When you destroyed (tivadhift) Sam-

cflt:

~a~a!esses''. Here the subject denotes the hearer, who plays the semantic

bJf2l sf 0 11 agent, whereas the object is semantically a patient with an inanirole 0 ~ plural reference, which undergoes a dramatic change of state. Cf.

11late an
4 7>.
.!
lsO < .3adii
vatasya p1yato

'
Jasum

bhe'd

(4.3?)~1 en Vala-GEN revile-P.PR.GEN.M.SG hiding.place.F-ACC.SG break-INJ.AOR2SG

..~en (Brhaspati) broke the hiding-place ofthe reviling V~la" (10.68.6a)
These actional properties are often also retained in yadii-clauses of the
teli~, and
f ntive TENNR7 In 10.67.1 0, for example, the same conjunction yadii gov: s two verbs: "~he~ he has acquired (asanad) a multifonn booty and has
limbed the sky (ii dyiim aruk~ad)". Even in (4.32), where lndra becomes ancry the verb denotes a conscious act of making real the consequences of an~/ on the world (.mtya1p /q'{lute manyum). The corresponding dumtive, stative, atelic, and non-agentive situation would be described with a fourth class
verb such as kupyati or krudhyati "to be angry". Similarly, consider (4.38).
(4.38) yada srtalfl
/q1ltivo
jiitavedas
when cooked-PP.ACC.M.SG make-INJ.IPF2SG Jatavedas-VOC
"When you make it cooked, 0 Jatavedas" (I 0.16.1 c; cf. also 10.16.2)
In this example, the poet addresses Agni, the god of fire, who must bum up
the corpse to let the soul reach the realm of the dead. The process is described
as highly transitive. The subject is the fire considered as a willing and conscious god rather than as a physical natural element (Jiita-vedas means "hav-

ENNR type. Out of 23 passages, we counted 14 non-dumtive,

Non-agcntivity and punctuality occur in 1.161.4 and 4.24.8, where we have "see+ object", in
10.88.11 c, with the intransitive verb "appear", and in 10.82.1, with the middle-passive verb "to
be established". Agentivity and durativity occur in 4.33.2 ("to honor the ancestors"). ll1c
unique example that among the TER clauses is deprived of all features ofnon-durativity, telicity, and control (8.12.28 "grow") can be contextually justified as an analogy to the adjacent
ycu/&-clauses with agentivity and with punctual actionality {"when you killed Vrtra", "when
you fixed the sun in the sky", etc.).
7. The cases in point arc 1.82.1, 1.115.4. 1.164.37, 4.17.10, 4.24.10, 5.87.4, 7.3.2, 8.21.14,
8.80.9, 8.100.1, 10.16.1, l0.16.2a, 10.67.10a, and 10.67.10b. A non-durative and agcntive
situation is also described in 10.23.3, where however the elliptic verb "take" or "grc1sp" must be
recovered from the context: "Wanner die goldene Keulc (nimmt)". {Gcldner 1951: Ill, 160)
The other TENNR show different combinations of the prototypical actional features. In particular, three instances present a durative and agentive event (3.53.4 "whenever we press the soma",
4.38.8 "when a thousand have fought with him", and 5.85.4 "when Varu11a wants the milk"),
and four instances present a punctual and non-agentive event (7.42.4 "when the guest appeared
in the house of a rich man", 10.16.2c "when (the dead) goe.o; to the realm of the spirits", 10.27.3
"when he saw the battle", 10.114.10 "when Yama is placed in the house"). The unique passage
that is deprived of all prototypical features ofyad& {10.142.4 "when the wind blows after your
flame") follows a clause marked by yad, which often expresses durativity.

113

ing the knowledge since his birth"). The implied direct object denotes
corpse, i.e. an inanimate referent. The verbal process directly affects the Pa~
tient, so that it becomes ashes (bhasman-). Telicity is expressed by means of
periphrasis consisting of a past participle and of the verb "make". A continu~
ous event would have been expressed by the verb dahati "bum", which has a
non-telic actionality. The verb kr "make" also appears in 8.21.14 yad& knui.ti
nadanum "when you make the thunderbolt", which denotes a momentary
event.

4. 6. 2. 2. Yadi-clauses
The majority of yadi-clauses (21 out of 35) have atelic actionality8 E.g.
1.56.4: "When the divine strength follows (si~akti) Indra like the sun (follows)
the dawn". Here lndra occupies the syntactic position of the object, and an abstract entity is the grammatical subject, which however undergoes, rather than
instigates, the event. This is the opposite situation with respect to transitivity.
The act of following is not meant as an intentional process, but it is rather represented as necessary as a natural phenomenon, as the simile of the solar cycle
makes clear. In the same vein, cf. 8.19.23: "When Agni brings (bharate,
IND.PR.MID3SG) the sword up and down as the Asura moves the dress."
The sword of the fire is the flame, and its continuous movement is a habitual
action, which does not imply agentivity. The simile underlines the development of the process.
8. The cases in point arc 1.56.4, 1.168.8, 1.173.8, 1.178.3, 2.5.6, 3.5.8, 3.6.3, 3.29.6, 4.4 1.3,
6.25.6 (two instances), 6.34.3. 6.42.3, 8.19.23. 9.14.3, 9.15.3, 9.47.4, 9.72.2, 9.86.6, 9.99.2,
10.95.4. Moreover, a durative and non-agcntivc event emerges from the context of 6.46.14.
which present the ellipsis of the verb "follow": "wann sic im Get6se dem Zumf (li.llgcn)".
(Geldner 1951: 11, 143) A non-dumtive, telic, and agentive actionality, which is the prototype
fbr yad&-clauscs, is mre for yadi-clauses (out of 35 TENNR, this situation only appears in 7
marked contexts, i.e. 1.11.3, 3.5.10, 5.48.4, 9.14.2, 9.86.46, 10.11.4, 10.167.4). Particularly,
9.86.46 and I 0.167.4 contain a verb of movement, whose actionality is not crystal-clear (llertinetto 1986: 303). In I0.11.4 the verb is vt;IJate, which has u middle voice, and which in this case
is interpreted as "choose", although it is more commonly used with the meaning "like, love".
with a durative stative actionality. In 9.14.2, a yddi-clausc for "lix, decide" may be used analogically to the contiguousyddi-clause, which depicts the soma "as he is clothed in milk" (4.28),
and which therefore displays a dur.tlive, atclic, and non-agentive actionality. In 1.11.3, the verb
has a middle voice. In 5.48.4. the verb is inserted in a series of similes, which draw attention to
the development of the process in its successive stages, and which therefore are compatible
with the imperfective aspect. 3.5.10 contains the verb "kindle" innccted in the perfect
(samidhe). In no ca.o;e we have a prototypical tmnsitive verb, such as han or vadh "kill", which
is frequently used with yada. In no case we have a periphmsis with kt; "make", which signals
agentivity or telicity with yadii (in 1.82.1, 4.17.10, 4.33.2, 8.21.14, 8.80.9, and 10.16.1-2).
114

consider 4.41.3: "When the two friends enjoy (miidayaite) the freshly
eezed soma-juices." Rather than an event, the root mad expresses the state
5 1~rcjoicing, being glad" resulting from drunkenness and exhilaration, which
~ pedes consciousness and control on the part of the subject. In regard to the
~~possibility of using a perfect tense to describe facts personally experienced,
1 ~d therefore verbs inflected in the first person of the perfect, Renou ( 1925:
: 6) remarks: "Le grammairien autorise par exception la premiere personne du
parfait lorsqu'il est question de faits survenus dans l'ivresse ou dans le sommeil du sujet". The exact words of the grammarian Patafijali (3.2.115) are
suptamattayor uttama iti valctavyam lit., "a first person can be said in the two
cases of sleep (supta) and drunkenness (matti)". The root mad does not appear
in yadh-clauses.
.
With respect to yadii-clauses, temporal clauses introduced by yadi present
a higher frequency of perfects and of middle voice, and are commonly associated with stative verbs. The semantic connection among these categories,
based on the notion of non-agentivity, is well-known. In (4.39), a passive
voice is associated with stativity, redundantly expressed by the root sad "sit"
(sattii + loc.; sidati + loc.). The passive, which indicates the complete loss of
control exerted by the grammatical subject, does not occur in yada-clauses.
(4.39) yadi pavitre
adhi m!Jytite
haril?
when sievc.N-l.OC.SG on cleanse-IND.PR.PS3SG golden-NOM.M.SG

sattii

ni

y6nii

kalasesu

sidati

sitter.M-NOM.SG down place.F-LOC.SG vat.M-LOC.PL sit-IND.PR3SG

"When the golden one is cleansed on the sieve, he sits in the vats as one
who is sitting down in his place." (9.86.6cd)
Unlike yada-clauses, yadi-clauses comprehend some be-predicates. In
1.178.3, lndra upholds the songs "when he himself is present" (yadi ea tmanii
bhut). Here the root bhii "exist, be" is inflected in the injunctive. The injunctive is associated with atemporal and universal state of affairs (Hoffmann
1967). Predictably, it occurs more frequently with yadi, which signals durativity meant as a continuous action or as a state, than with yadli, which introduces non-durative events. For the same reason, ytidi appears with a nominal
clause, which represents atemporal situations (Benveniste 1950). Two examples of nominal clauses can be found among the subordinates that Hettrich defines as "unclear". In 10.12.3, the gods fixed the sky and the earth "since the
ambrosia ofthe divine dawn (is) easily acquired". In 10.22.10 lndra instigates
the heroes to slay Vpra, "even when they (are) hidden among the tribes of the
poets as numerous as stars". Nominal clauses are not introduced by the conjunction yada.
If we examine the 9 "unclear" yadi-clauses (Hettrich 1988: 796), we observe the presence of 6 cases of the TENNR type, which present features ana115

logue to the 35 "clear" yadi-clauses in terms of aspect and actionality9. W

have again the perfect (4.27.3, 10.61.25}, the similitude (1.79.2), and the a e
tional features of durativity and atelicity. In (4.40), preaching and plyingc..
press-stone are durative continuous processes. Moreover, the participle sadan~
tal} emphasizes the association of the conjunction yadi with stative expres.
sions.
(4.40) dhito;a
yadi dhi~a"yantah
sara11y&n
devotion.F-INSTR.SG when prcach-P.PR.NOM.M.PL ply-SB.PR3PL

sadanto

adrim

a'USijasya gohe

sit-P.PR.NOM.M.PL slone.M-ACC.SG Ausija-GEN abode.M-LOC.SG

"When they ply the press-stone, preaching with devotion, sitting in Au.
sija's abode" (4.2l.6ab)
In (4.4 1) durativity involves the psychological domain.
(4.41) yuvor
yadi sakhyayii:mze
.Mrdhiiya
your-GEN.DU when friendship.N-DAT.SG.us-LOC troop.M-DAT.SG

.'itomalfl

juju~e

m1masviin

pmise.M-ACC.SG appreciate-PF.MID I SG paying. venemtion-NOM.M.SG

"When, in order to get your friendship for us, I appreciate a praise for the
troop (ofthe Maruts}, paying veneration" (10.61.25ab)
This stanza continues with a wish: "May this praise be a wide way for joy
for everybody in whom all the songs (are) united". In addition to the usual
nominal clause, we can observe purposive expressions (sakhy&ya "for friendship'', siinftiiyai "for joy"), which semantically express non-factuality and
therefore are particularly appropriate to ayadi-clause.

4. 6. 3. Connection with purposive and causal expressions

Purposive expressions are present with ytidi-clauses and absent in yad/iclauses. In the ytidi-clause in (4.42), the verbal phrase sisnathe dhat, composed of a purposive dative and of an injunctive, literally means "he established for the sake of piercing".
9. The 3 remaining cases (4.5.11, 8.61.10, and 10.129.7) are interpretable as indirect interrogative clauses. In 4.5.11, the interrogative reading is suggested by the presence of the present
middle participle pt;chyamiilla/J, from the root prach "ask": "I proclaim the order with homage,
while wondering whether this (comes) from your order." In 8.6l.IO, the subordinate has an interrogative illocutionary force similarly to a kuvid-clausc: "Perhaps the destroyer of fortresses
may hear my prayer; we call Jndra." The subordinate in 10.129.7 depends on the root vid
"know": "Whence this creation happened, and whether he created it or not (yadi vii dadhe yadi
vii mj), the one who is the supervisor in the high sky certainly knows this, or may be not (so
a11ga veda, yadi vii mi vida)." The last occurrence of yadi here is probably analogical to the
previous ones, with which it shares the basic disjunctive structure.

116

42 ) mahf

(4

. ytidi dh~$tif!a

grcat-NOM.f.SG ~hen Dht~ana-NOM

,
si.~llathe
dhat
sadyovrdham
picrcing-DAT establish-INJ.AOR3SG one.day.grown-ACC.M.SG

When the great Dhi!iaf!a established to pierce the one who grew in one
daY" (3.3 J.l3ab)
,
Temporal clauses introduced by yada display some similarities with causal
tauses, as the state of affairs of the subordinate not only precedes, but also
~rings about the state of affairs of the main clauses, according to a causeeffect relation. "Der Nebensatz-Sachverhalt legt den des Hauptsatz zeitlich
rest; der Hauptsatz-Sachverhalt kommt durch die Einwirkung des NebensatzSachverhaltes zumindest eher zustande, als es ohne diesen der Fall ware.
(Darunter UiBt sich auch eine Grund-Folge-Beziehung als Speziellfa}l
subsumicren)." (Hettrich 1988: 217) A main clause &overning a yadasubordinate often presents a resumptive element such as ad, id, and atha (26
occurrences out of 39 clauses), according to the pattern "when, because of ...
then, for that reason". By contrast, a resumptive is rare in yadi-temporal
clauses (6 occurrences out of 44 crauses, "unclear" sentences included), as
there is not such a cause-effect correspondence.
The transparency of the two subordinators allows recovering the morphological motivation of their different functions. We already mentioned that
yadli and ytidi were originally an instrumental and a locative form of the relative pronoun. In Vedic, instrumental is not only the case of an instrument participant (called karaqa, e.g. datrel)a lunati, knife.N-INSTR.SG cutIND.PR3SG, "he cuts with a knife"), but also the case of the agent and of the
cause. The agent, expressed by means of a nominative (kartr) in active clauses,
is usually encoded by means of an instrumental in passive clauses: maya tat
k[tam, me-INSTR this-NOM.N.SG done-NOM.N.SG, "I have done this". As
we already mentioned (3.3), in Old Indian the passive voice is extremely frequent, so that there is a special connection between the instrumental form and
the agentive meaning. In the expression of the cause (called hetu), the instrumental competes with the ablative, which is the case for origin or source e.g.
vidyaya yasa}J, wisdom.F-ABL glory.N-NOM, "glory due to wisdom"). That
the same structure may express the functions of instrument, agent, and cause
mirrors the semantic relation among these roles, which denote the person or
the object that performs lm event. Such a notion is also found in the aspectual
and actional features of yadli-clauses.
On the contrary, the locative, used to express a spatial or temporal location
(adhikaral)a), is associated with stativity. This typically occurs for feelings

117

(Speyer 1886: 139), insofar as verba sentiendi are stative 10 For exam 1
root saiij literally means "stick, adhere, be attached to" (also referred ~ e, the
and arrows), and figuratively means "be devoted, love". Das. tasya: 111li)s
priisajal, she-LOC he-NOM fall.in.love-IND.IPF3SG, "He fell in lov as~
her". The same locative complement is found with the roots ii-.~ams .~
(4.43) and vi-svas "trust". Pafic. visvasiti satrusu, trust-IND.PR3s~ 0 Pe"
emy.M-LOC.PL, "he trusts the enemies". Accordingly, the locative fon en.
which ycidi is based can be interpreted as meaning "to be in a certain phy~ on
1Cil
or psychological condition".
(4.43) iisa1f1Sante
surab [... ]
asya adhijye
dhan~i [... ]

"'tb

hope-IND.PR3PL god.M-NOM.PL his bent-LOC.N.SG bow.N-LOC.SG

pauruhute

ea vajre

belonging.to.Puruhiita-LOC.M.SG and weapon.M-LOC.SG

"The gods hope for his bent bow and for PuruhUta's weapon." (Sakuntali)

10. Verba sentiendi governing a locativc complement usually concern positive feelings. such as
love, hope, trust, via the metaphor of being stuck, glued, and therefore spiritually close. The
root snih properly means "to be greasy or gluey", whence the meaning "to love" derives. Various forms maintain the basic meaning and the metaphorical meaning at the same time: snella is
both "grease, oil" and "affection"; snigdlla is both "viscous, oiled" and "tender, affectionate''.
By contrast, verbs of negative feelings have an accusative or an ablative complement. depending on whether one emphasizes, respectively, the direct involvement (llvis "hate"+ ACC) or the
emotional detachment (bhi "fear" + ABL) with respect to the object. The scarce grammaticalization favors the maintenance of the various basic meanings over the analogical leveling to the
super-ordinate taxon of verba senliendi sive affect1111m.

118

s. rhe conditional relation

5.1. Semantics of conditional clauses .

A conditional sentence consists of a protasis, which sets an antecedent
situation P, and of an apodosis, which represents a consequent situation Q, so
that, if P is true, then Q is necessarily true: In logic, P ::J Q. However, the
conditional relation as used in natural languages differs in many respects from
the truth-functional definition of conditionals in logic. Comrie ( 1986) emphasizes the distinction between the "meaning" of a conditional, which corresponds to the logical material implication, and its "interpretation" in discourse.
The latter involves a set of conversational implicatures, which can be canceled
in the appropriate context.
Unlike in logic, in languages the protasis and the apodosis of a conditional
sentence must be semantically related to each other. The antecedent is often
interpreted not only as a sufficient, but also as a necessary condition enabling
the consequent, so that a conditional clause may be paraphrased with a causal
clause. Cf. (5.1 ).
(5.1) IfJohn gets the tickets, Ma1y will go to the concert.
In (5.1) we assume that John's getting the tickets is what determines
Mary's going to the concert, and that if John does not get the tickets Mary
will not go to the concert. This is not implied in logic: if P is false and Q is
true, P ::J Q is true. The conversational implicature of a necessary causal relation between the protasis and the apodosis is due to the fact that there is no
point in uttering the protasis if the speaker knows that the apodosis is true in
any case. Thus, although causal clauses and conditional clauses represent factual and non-factual relations, respectively, we expect that in a language the
structures used for the causal relation resemble the structmes used for the
conditional relation. This also holds true in Vedic, where the subordinator yird
is occasionally ambiguous between a conditional and a causal reading.

ll9

Complex sentences where the realization of the state of affairs describ .

the apodosis depends on the realization of the state of affairs described .ed 11l
protasis represent only a part of the functional domain covered by condi~~ the
clauses in languages, and particularly those conditionals that are conceiv~~ll"
a content level, in Sweetser's ( 1990) terminology. Like causal re tar at
(6.2.1 ), conditional relations may be additionally interpreted in the epist:~~s
and in the speech act domain. In the epistemic domain, the knowledge of t~t
situation presented in the protasis allows the speaker to conclude the apodos e
as in (5.2).
_1S.
(5.2) If Ma1y goes to the concert, John must have got the tickets.
In the speech act domain, the fulfillment of the situation described in the
protasis enables the speaker to perfonn the speech act contained in the apodosis, as in (5.3).
(5.3) Ifyou are in the mood, there is a good ccmcerl tonight.
In the speech act interpretation, the prepositional content of the protasis
cannot be assigned a truth value. Rather, a pragmatic relation of mutual rete.
vance is established between the main and the dependent clause. The consid.
eration of these clauses, which are also labeled "metalinguistic conditionals"
or "pseudoconditionals", is especially significant in a discoursive or textual
analysis. It appears that many conditionals are not used to figure out the prob.
ability of an event given certain premises, but rather to allay a command, to
introduce a question, or to link a piece of information to the preceding discourse. Clauses such as "if you don't mind", "if I am not indiscrete", "if you
are interested", "if you like", etc. are very common, and often represent fixed
expressions in languages. Pseudoconditionals are largely attested in the early
lE languages (for a discussion of these clauses in Latin, cf. van de Griend
1989). In the Rig-Veda, the speech act reading is particularly evident when
the main clause has either an imperative or an interrogative illocutionary force
"If an utterance is imperative or interrogative in form, then it cannot reasonably be causally conjoined to another utterance except at the speech-act level."
(Sweetser 1990: 78)
Material implication in logic corresponds only to those conditional clauses
whose propositional content is presented as unknown, as in (5.1 ), where it is
unce1tain whether John will be able to get the tickets. Although these conditional clauses, also called "open" or "hypothetical" conditionals, represent the
prototype of the conditional relation, at least two further clause types must be
taken into consideration, i.e. Counterfactual and Given conditionals. Counterfactual relations imply that the prepositional content of the protasis is false.
For example, the sentence in (5.4) implies that John did not find the tickets,
and consequently that Mary did not go to the concert.
(5.4) IfJohn had bought the tickets, Ma1y would have gone to the concert.
120

. nan ( 1978) has drawn attention to a third type of conditional sentences,

flailthe protasts
contams
gtven

mfionnatton,

an d tJ tere fiore Itas a true pro-

wh~~~onal content. Cf. (5.5).

~ A: There is a good concert tomorrow at the Arena.
(S.S) B: If there is a good concert, we beller hook the tickets.
1 the dialogue (5.5), the conditional clause of the second speaker does not
~ion the fact that a good concert will take place, but rather gives this inqu.:ation for granted, and uses it as a strategy of discoursive cohesion to info duce a personal comment and advance the conversation. Haiman observes
:: t 50111 e genetically unrelated languages, such as Turkish, Tagalog, Hua, etc.,
~ the same structures to mark a conditional clause and the topic of a converu:tion, and argue that this structural similarity reflects a functional similarity.
conditional clause is (perhaps only hypothetically) a part of the knowledge
shared by the speaker and his listener. As such, it constitutes the framework
which has been selected for the following discourse." (1978: 583)
In the following, after a preliminary illustration of the available morphosyntactic strategies for the conditional relation in Vedic (5.2), we will atialyze how the functions of Given (5.3), Hypothetical (5.4), and Counterfactual conditionals (5.5) are expressed in this language. Of course, this tripartition is a mere generalization of the different degrees of certainty that conditionals can convey. Modal particles or manner adverbs may specify a higher
or lower probability of the proposition contained in the protasis.

!A

5.2. Morpho-syntactic strategies of conditionals

In Vedic, explicit subordination is more frequently found than implicit
subordination for the conditional relation. This is cross-Iinbruistically a common situation. Comrie (1986: 87) shows that languages like Mandarin Chinese, where a construction may have a conditional interpretation without any
overt indicator of conditionality, are rare. In the Rig-Veda, among the 15 1
subordinate clauses marked only by verbal accent (cf. Hettrich 1988: 791-92),
Oldenberg (I 906: 725ff.) identifies only 17 passages where the first clause,
which presents verbal accentuation, is the framework (Grundlage) of the second clause, as illustrated in (2.3). Klein ( 1992: 70) further restricts this group
to five certain instances of subordinate clauses ( 1.62.3, 4.22.4, 6.4 7.31, 6.48.8,
10.148.1 ), which receive a when or if interpretation, but which are translated
as temporal rather than as conditional clauses. This is because the temporal
relation is more basic than the conditional relation (Thompson and Longacre
1985: 177ff.). Cf. 5.6. A conditional relation can also be represented by
121

headless RCs or by RCs with a non-referential head noun. DelbrUck

562) discusses the case of a RP that can be translated as wenn einer (S. 6 ~ 188&:
(5.6) ya
iipir
nityo
varuva
priyah

RP-NOM.M.SG ally.M-~OM.SG cl'!se-NOM.M.SG Varul}a-VOC dcar-NOM.M.sa

san I

tviim

iigiii!1Si

lqqtlvat

.wikhii

he-r.IR.NOM.M.SG you-ACC.SG sin.N-ACC.J>L makc-SB3SG friend.M-NOM.SG e I

mii la
bwsvanto
yaksin
bhujema
Your
NEG you-GEN.SG sinner-NOM.M.PL living-VOC.M.SG cxpericnce-OJ>TI PI.

"If a close ally that is dear to you, 0 Varuqa, commits sins against y
your friend, may we, as sinners, not experience you, 0 living one." (7.88. 6U.
The RP yah has here a generic referent, which also includes the speaker a-1:)
can be seen in the first plual agreement of the main clause verb. Geld~1as
( 1951: 11, 260) translates this RC with a conditional clause: "Wenn de~r
gewohnter Genosse, der dir lieb ist, Varuqa, sich gegen dich versi.indigt hat.~
Although it is briefly wound up in grammars as grammatically aberrant
(Speyer 1886: 453-54; 1896: 272.2), the conditional interpretation of a
relative clause is widespread both in the Rig-Veda and in Classical Sanskrit.
Vendryes (1946) identifies independent manifestations of this phenomenon in
a series of ancient and modern lE languages. He calls relatif pregnant this
type of RP, since it can contain in nuce various subordinating functions in
addition to relative modification.
In case of explicit subordination, the protasis may be marked by the
adverbial subordinators yad, yadi, or ea. The conjunction yad is the universal
subordinator, as we have seen in 2.4. In the conjunction yadi (5.7), yad is
added to the Jocative ending -i, which is etymologically related to the deictic
stem *ei- I i-. Cf. also (4.34). Accordingly, yadi is built similarly to the
conditional marker of Ancient Greek ei and Gothic ei, which go back to the
locative of the pronominal stem *e- I o-. A locative ending also appears in
Latin si < sei, which belongs to the deictic stem *so. These structures
originally have the function of resumptive pronouns or adverbs, with the
meaning "thus, in this case" (cf. Gonda 1956: 163ff.).
(5. 7) yadi me sakhyam
avara
if

my friendship.N-ACC.SG PRE.choose-SB.AOR2SG

unasya

piihy

andhasa/J

this-GEN.N.SG drink-IPV2SG soma.plant.N-GEN.SG

"If you will choose my friendship. drink this soma plant." (8.13.21ab)
The conditional function of ea < PIE *IC1e has parallels in Latin, Gothic,
Hittite, and in the Slavic languages (2.3.3.2), all of which independently derive by contextual inference from the original coordinate function of the enclitic particle. According to Klein (1985a: 248-49), the conjunction ea originally had a coordinating function with respect to the preceding clause, and
was at the same time located in a context already marked as subordinate by
122

ccntuation with respect to the following clause. Subsequently, for

vetb'1 ac 1 inference, ea acquired a subordinating value on its own, when the
.;011te."~~ween the protasis and the apodosis was considered more relevant
ne;(US h nexus between the protasis and the preceding clause, which was
dtll~ ~1 another hemistich or stanza.
P1118 indras ea mdayiiti
no

(5 ) I dra-NOM ifhave.~ercy-SB3SG us-OAT

:a

nah

pasciid

agham

na8at

NEG us-ACC from.behind sin.N-NOM.SG reach-SB3SG

'"If Jndra will have mercy of us, sin cannot reach us from behind."
2 41.1lab)
( The: overt marking of the protasis is much more common than the overt
arking of the apodosis. Conditional clauses marked by yad and by yadi
~ver have a correlative in the main clause, and for conditional ea a correla~ve is attested only once (adha in 8.100.2, cf. Hettrich 1988: 255). That the
protasis is more frequently marked than the apodosis is a typological tendency.
comrie (1986: 87) observes that, if the apodosis is marked with explicit morpho-syntactic strategies, the protasis is usually marked as well, while the opposite does not hold.
The cross-linguistically prevalent order conditional clause - main clause
(Greenberg 1963: 84-85; Comrie 1986: 83ff.), which has been confirmed in
studies on written and spoken English (Ford and Thompson 1986), also appears in the Rig-Veda. Hettrich ( 1988: 234-242) notices that clauses introduced by yadi are more commonly preposed when they have a conditional
meaning than when they have a temporal meaning. For conditional ea, the
usual preposed order with respect to the main clause contrasts with the consistent postposition of coordinating ea (2.2) 1 Thus, cases where a conditional
subordinate is postposed, and where its postposition cannot be imputed to
analogy, as in the case of Classical Sanskrit ced, are particularly significant.
We will see below how conditional yad exhibits the association between different word orders and different pragmatic functions.
We will also discuss how the interaction of the same conditional subordinator yad with different moods expresses different degrees of probability and
different degrees of commitment ofthe speaker to the truthfullness of the state
I. Analogy to the regular postposition of coordinating ea probably motivates the two cases
(1.129.1 and 8.93.10) where the conditional clause introduced by ea is postposed to the main
clause. A similar analogy may explain the position of conditional clauses marked by the conjunction ced "if' < *ea + d. In the Rig-Veda, the rare examples of these clauses do not show
an established order: out of four passages, two (7.72.4 and 8.79.5) are preposed, and two
(10.109.3 and 10.146.5) are postposed to the main clause. In Classical Sanskrit, the whole subordinate follows the main clause, and the conjunction eed appears at the end of the subordinate
clause. Kathas. bhagavan vaktu, vetti cet "Sir, say it, if you know it."

123

of affairs represented in the protasis. It appears that indicative, subjuncti

and optative are used, respectively, for Given, Hypothetical, and Counterr:e,
tual conditional relations. Whereas the irrealis value of optative condition~
clauses is also highlighted in grammars (DelbrUck 1888: 341 ~ Speyer ts9:.
89ff.; Renou 1952: 390ff.), both indicative and subjunctive conditionai
clauses are generically assigned the same real or probable denotation in Vedi
studies. The lack of distinction may be due to the fact that these studies wer:
conducted in a period when semantic and pragmatic research was rather undeveloped, and Given conditionals had not been identified. Typological findings, however, indicate that different verb fom1s are chosen in languages to
express different epistemic values. Higher probability is usually expressed by
indicative without tense backshifting, i.e. a past tense is used only if a past
event is denoted. Lower probability is associated with non-indicative moods
which often involve tense backshifting with present or future events (e.g. "If'
you c~me tomorrow, you'd be able to join us on a picnic''. Comrie 1986: 92;
for the use of subjunctive in open conditionals of spoken English, cf. Declcrck
and Reed 200 I: 197ff.). Insightful remarks on the use of moods in general,
and in conditional clauses in particular, can be found in Gonda ( 1956), who
wrote before the spread of typology and still was very much in the spirit of the
typological research tradition, as he used to compare lE and non-lE data.
The influence of different moods on different degrees of probability of the
conditional state of affairs can be better illustrated with the subordinator ycid
than with ea or yadi. The conjunction ea has a restricted distribution, since it
cannot introduce Given or Counterfactual conditional, and it is only attested
for Hypothetical conditionals. The conjunction ylidi can mark all types of
conditional clauses, like yad, but does not show a clear relationship between
moods and degrees of probability. Unlike yad, ycicli can occur in indicative
subordinates with a counterfactual meaning. In (5.9) the optative in the main
clause contrasts with the indicative in the two conditional clauses.
asmi
(5.9) adya murlya yadi yiitudhano
today die-OP ISG if

yadi vayus
if

sorcerer.M-NOM.SG be-IND.PR I SG

talilpa

pfiru~asya

or.life.N-ACC.SG bum-INI>.PFISG man.M-GEN.SG

"May I die today if I am a sorcerer, or if I have burnt the life of a man."

(7.104.15ab)
The privileged association of yadi with Counterfactual conditionals, independently of moods or tenses, is probably due to the intrinsic value of nonfactuality that this subordinator has even beyond conditionality. In addition to
conditional clauses, yadi introduces habitual temporal clauses (4.4.3, 4.6)
and indirect interrogative clauses (4.33), both of which represent non-factual
relations. The same holds for those completive clauses that in Classical San124

"t select yadi, with a main clause expressing doubt or inquiry (9.2.3). On
skr contrary, yad can also mark factual clauses. i.e. temporals of anteriority
~: 2.1 ), causals (6), and concessives (8), and therefore it is not intrinsically
( ~-factual in conditional clauses. In Classical Sanskrit, yadi becomes the
110
. I mark er.
most
common cond"1t1ona

s.3. Given conditionals

In the Rig-Veda, the function of Given conditionals can be identified in
those conditional clauses that are introduced by the conjunction yad and that
present an indicative mood. Seventeen indicative conditional <;lauses are attested, particularly in recent passages (1.162.17, 1.178.1, 1.185.8, 7.58.5,
8.93.5, I0.58.1-12), and twelve of these apl?ear in the same hymn. The hymn
10.58 is a prayer of the priests Bandhu, Srutabandhu, and Viprabandhu to
have back the soul of their brother Subandhu, who has been killed by two rival priests of king Asamati (cf. Geldner 1951: Ill, 221 ). That Subandhu is
dead is known information, and is the very reason why his three brothers utter
their magical speech. Accordingly, the subordinate in (5.10), where the soul
has gone to Yama, i.e. the god who rules the spirits of the dead, must be interpreted as a Given conditional.
(5.I 0) yat te yama11J vaivasvatam
mano
if your Yama-ACC Vivasvat's.son-ACC.M.SG soui.N-NOM.SG

jagama durakam I tat

go-PF3SG far

IQ-ayaya

ta a

vartayamasiha

this-ACC.N.SG your PRE tum-CS.IND.PRIPL.her

;zvase

dwelling.place.M-DAT.SG live-IF

"If your soul has gone to Yama, Vivasvat's son, far away, we make turn
hither this (soul) of yours in order that you may dwell and live here." (I 0.58.1)
The same reading of Given conditionals must be applied to the subordinate
clauses of the subsequent stanzas, where the soul of the dead brother is described as dwelling in different natural places, such as the sky (2), the fourcornered earth (3), the four quarters of the world (4), the billowy sea (5), the
rays and the slopes (6), the waters and the plants (7), the sun and the dawn (8),
the high mountains (9), all this world ( 10), the more distant distances ( 11 ),
and what has been and what will be (12). These conditional clauses do not denote exclusive alternative situations and do not express uncertainty, but rather
are compatible with each other, since Vedic culture assumed that dead souls
were fused in various components of nature. Consider the passage l 0.16.3,
which is addressed to a corpse: "May your eye go in the sun, your vital breath
in the wind. Go in the sky and in the earth, according to the cosmic law", etc.
125

Whenever the protasis of an indicative yad-clause refers to alternative

situations, the speaker does not express his doubts in regard to which of these
options may be fulltilled, but rather figures out a set of situations that are cumulatively meant, and that do not affect the apodosis state of affairs. For example, 1.162.17 is addressed to the sacred horse: "If m~e, when riding, with
the power of a spurring has vexed you with his heels (piir.r11yii vti) or with his
whip (ktisayii va), all these things I make for you with a sacred word." The
priest is not questioning whether the horse has been vexed with the heels or
the whip of a rider, since it is clear that this is the case. Rather, he relates
some typical actions of a horse to some moments of the ritual performance, so
that the situation described in the protasis allows him to utter the speech act of
the apodosis, with the performative predicate ''I make".
The Maruts represent the topic of the stanza 7.58.5: "lfthey either in secret
(yat sa.,varta) or openly (yad avih) have been hostile, we beg the strong ones
for forgiveness for this sin." The speaker's request does not depend on
whether the Maruts manifest their hostility either in secret or openly, but
rather on the hostility of the Maruts in general, which is backgrounded in
Vedic culture. The divinized wind (marut-) is represented as a troop of gods
that are always impetuous and enraged. In this hymn, in the second stanza,
they are described as "terrible" (bhimasah) and "very angry" (tlivi-manyavah).
so that at their departure "whatever has eyes is afraid (hhayate)."
Another apparent alternative is in 1.185.8: "If we ever committed sins
agai11st the gods (devan vii) or a persisting friend (sakhiiyam vii sadam it) or
the head of a family ua.\patil/1 vii), may this thought be an apology to them."
The protasis displays a set of possible faults of the speaker, in the assumption
that a fault has been committed. In this case, the speaker asks for indulgence
even if or although he has committed a sin, as in the passage previously mentioned he asks for indulgence even if or although the Maruts are angry with
him. The semantic value is close to concessive conditionals, and particularly
to alternative concessive conditionals, which have a non-factual protasis and a
factual apodosis (8.2), and which therefore have a higher rate of factuality
and probability than merely Hypothetical conditional clauses. Moreover,
when a conditional subordinate has an indicative verb, the indicative mood
also appears in the main clause. In these sentences, the indicative is the mood
of actuali7.ation, as illustrated in Gonda ( 1956).
All indicative conditional clauses are preposed to their main clause, and
represent the framework for the subsequent main clause, according to the
topic-comment schema. The function of "topic marker", which Lehmann
( 1985) and Traugott ( 1985) generically ascribe to yad, must be restricted to
these cases of indicative conditionals. In Haiman ( 1978), the preposed order is
considered revealing ofthe function of Given conditional. This is particularly
126

signifi~ant i_n the Ri~-":f eda to .the extent that it contrast~ with_ th~ postposition
of subjunctive condtttonals (5.4), and suggests an eptstemtc mterpretation.
swcetser ( 1990: 125ff.) argues that conditional clauses that pertain to the content domain are never presupposed. The sentence "If John gets the tickets,
Mal)' will go to the concert" in (5.1) implies that the speaker does not know
whether John is able to get the ticket or not, i.e. that an open conditional relation is established. This is more evident with a postposed conditional clause,
as in "Mary will go to the concert if John gets the tickets''. Here the background shared by the speaker and by the hearer is likely to be the general information that a concert will take place. By contrast, in case the piece of information of getting the tickets in (5.1) is already known, the interpretation of
the sentence shifts to the epistemic domain. This is particularly evident in
(5.2), where the speaker's conclusion that John has probably found the tickets
is based on the previous knowledge of the fact that Mary will go to the concert. "We have social reasons to present our own speech acts and conclusions
as conditional even when we know or strongly believe the precondition to be
true, where we normally have equally strong social reasons not to present
real-world events as conditional unless the precondition really is hypothetical
(and the resulting event thus still in doubt)." (Sweetser 1990: 130-31) This
confirms the importance of epistemic and speech act domains for Vedic conditional clauses.

5.4. Hypothetical conditionals

Unlike indicative conditionals, subjunctive conditionals mainly present the
main clause - subordinate clause order. Out of 11 passages, 9 conditionals are
postposed (1.165.7, 1.179.3, 6.45.23, 7.70.4, 8.70.14, 8.93.28, 8.93.29,
10.32.1, and 10.97.5) and only 2 conditionals are preposed ( 1.54.5 and
8.24.30) to the main clause. Unlike indicative conditionals, subjunctive conditionals represent the discourse comment.
For example, in 1.179.3 the sage Agastya replies to the advances of his
wife Lopamudrii, who has suggested him to interrupt the long labor of a fervent prayer. "Not in vain is the tabor that the gods favor, and we can overcome all rivals. The two of us may win this competition that has a hundred
tricks, if we run it (yat ... abhy ajiiva) as a united couple." In Agastya's view,
the success of an endeavor against temptations depends on whether he and his
wife are in agreement with each other, i.e. on whether his wife will respect his
vow of chastity. The situation represented in the protasis is not given, and in
fact it will not occur: in the subsequent stanzas, Lopamudrii convinces her reluctant husband.
127

In 8.70.14 the poets promise praise to king Sara only if he will be general .
"By many poets provided with sacrificial grass you will be praised ,someho~s.
if you will give (yat ... pariidiulaii) calves to each of them, 0 Sara." Th
king's munificence is by no means assumed by the speaker. Rather, Sara hae
previously given only one calf to three singers, and the speaker ironically e><.~
presses his gratitude for this (cf. Geldner 1951: 11, 396).
In 10.97.4-5 the poet addresses some medical herbs, which ought to heal a
sick man: "0 mothers, 0 goddesses, called plants, I speak to you: May 1 obtain a horse, a cow, a gannent, and your life, 0 man. In the Holy Fig tree is
your abode, in the Pal1}a tree your nest is prepared. You might be possessors
of a cow, ifyou will obtain (yal sanavalha) this man." Here the desired prize
is dependent on the effective curative power of the plants, which represent the
focused information of the clause.
In these conditional clauses, the subjunctive expresses a visualized rather
than an actual situation. As Gonda ( 1956: 69-70) put it, the function of the
subjunctive in the lE languages is that ..the speaker views the process denoted
by the verb existing in his mind or before his mental eyes, or rather: as not yet
having a higher degree of being than mental existence. The subjunctive, in
other words, expresses visualization." This modal value is consistent with the
meaning of open conditionals. Since the protasis of these subjunctive conditional clauses is not actualized, and in Hypothetical conditionals the realization of the main clause situation depends on the previous reali1..ation of the
subordinate situation, the main clause as well often contains a subjunctive
verb (1.165.7, 1.179.3, 6.45.23, 70.70.4, 10.32.1, and 10.97.4), another nonfactual mode (imperative in 8.93.28 and 8.93.29), or a non-factual tense (indicative future in 8. 70.14).
The functional competition between subjunctive and indicative conditional
clauses can be observed if we consider how these subordinates represent the
same state of affairs in different passages, and how they are used in the same
passage to express different states of affairs. A common situation is that of a
poet's request or affirmation of power on condition that the god listens, or has
mercy, or is friendly, etc. This is also expressed by means of conditional yadi
(cf. 1.30.8, 5.2.11, 8.1.15, 8.13.21, 8.32.6, 8.33.9) and conditional ea (cf.
1.129.1, 2.41.11, 8.61.1, 8.93.10, 8.97.13, 8.100.2, 10.124.5). Conditionals
marked by yad present this situation with both a subjunctive and an indicative.
The indicative appears in 1.178.1: "If you have this complaisance indeed, 0
lndra, with which you were of help to the singers (ydyii babhiitha jaritlhhya
iiti}, do not blast our wish, which makes us increase." In this passage, unlike
in the analogous passages with ea and ytidi, a parenthetical clause reminds
previous manifestations of the god's favor, which make the poet more confident in the realization of his prayer. This assigns a higher degree of probabil128

. to the conditional state of affairs than in the passages 8.93.28 (5.11) and

1~ 3 .29, where a similar situation is represented.

8 11 ) bhadram-bhadrmfl na
ii bhare~am
(5.
exccllcnl.lhing.N-ACC.SG us-OAT PRE bring-IPV2SG.Iibation.F-ACC.SG
~rjam
satakrato I
strength.M-ACC.SG having.hundredfold.insight-VOC.M.SG

yad indra
if

mrJayiisi

nafJ.

Indra-VOC havc.mercy-SB3SG us-OAT

"Bring us every excellent thing, libation, and strength, if you, 0 Indra,

who have hundredfold insight, will have mercy on us." (8.93.28)
The subjunctive conditional in (5.11) appears in a hymn where also an indicative conditional is attested, in the fifth stanza: "If you, 0 increased one, 0
mighty lord, think: l will not die, even this of yours is real indeed (ut6 tat
satyam it lava)." In this case, the preposed indicative subordinate introduces
Indra's thought, whose truthfulness is declared in the following main clause.
The main clause is a nominal clause, which expresses atemporal situations
that are always true. Even in the same context, conditional clauses with the
same subordinator but with different moods represent different points on the
epistemic scale that expresses the speaker's commitment on the veracity of
the protasis state of affairs.

5.5. Counterfactual conditionals

The counterfactual function is identifiable in those conditional clauses that
contain an optative protasis, as in (5.12).
(5.12)yadagne sy&m
ahaf!l tvaf!l
if

Agni-VOC be-OPlSG I-NOM you-NOM.SG

/Vaf!l

vii ghii sya

aham

you-NOM.SG or PTC be-OP2SG I-NOM

syu~

te

saty&

ih&si~ah

be-OP3PL your reai-NOM.F.PL here.wish.F-NOM.PL

"0 Agni, if I were you, or if you were me, your wishes would be real."
(8.44.23; cf. also 8.19.25)
The Rig-Veda has 15 optative conditional clauses (1.38.4, 3.33.11, 5.64.3,
5.74.10, 6.47.15, 7.32.18, 8.9.9, 8.9.13, 8.14.1, 8.14.2, 8.19.25, 8.44.23,
8.45.18, 8.73.5, and 10.33.8, cf. Hettrich 1988: 801). Unlike Delbri.ick (1888:
341) and Speyer (1896: 89ff.), who call these clauses irreale, Hettrich (p.
36lff.) uses the broader termfiktiv, sim:e some ofthem do not necessarily denote an unreal situation, and might be included in our category of Hypothetical conditional clauses. It is unsurprising that counterfactual situations and relations of (low) probability may be occasionally encoded by means of the
129

same structures. None of the optative conditional clauses, however, ea

11 te.
ceive the interpretation of a Given conditional.
The use of the optative in Counterfactual conditional clauses, as comp
to the use of the subjunctive in Hypothetical conditional clauses, Jnat~~
DelbrUck's ( 1888: 172) traditional definition of optative and subjunctive es
moods of wish (Wiinsch) and will (Wille), respectively. In DelbrUck's vie as
the speaker uses the subjunctive when s/he is able to perform the action d\V,
noted by the verb, and the optative when his/her successful perfonnance is ne..
implied (cf. 9.11.1). Accordingly, the referred state of affairs has a high~t
probability of achievement with the subjunctive than with the optative. Th{
corresponds to the sema~tics of Hypothetical and Counterfact~al conditionals~
Lyons ( 1977: 795) considers wi.~h a counterfactual marker, smce expressions
such as "I wish I had a car" obviously entails that I do not have a car.
Optative conditionals often also present an optative apodosis (in 9 out of
IS passages), as in (5.12). This must not be considered an instance of modal
attraction, since mechanical assimilation of the mood of a clause to the mood
of another clause is rare in the early records of the lE languages, where moods
usually maintain their own meanings. "The harmony of the verb forms in both
parts of a compound sentence is [ ... ] mainly due to homogeneity in the
speaker's view of the relation between (the process contained in) the utterance
as a whole and reality, not to thoughtlessness, mechanical, and secondary
developments." (Gonda 1956: 107) According to Gonda (p. 47ff.), the
optative expresses the emotive influence of a situation that might be desired,
feared, or somehow expected.
While semantically motivated in Vedic, in Classical Sanskrit the presence
of an optative both in the protasis and in the apodosis of a conditional clause
(Paqini 3.3.156) is related to the simplification of the system of moods
(9.1.11 ), and in particular to the disappearance of the su~junctive. As a result,
the taxonomy of the optative considerably changes in the different stages of
Old Indian. For a detailed analysis of conditional clauses in Vedic prose, cf.
Durkin ( 1991: 211 ff.). In Classical Sanskrit, on the one hand the optative also
covers the functional domain of Hypothetical conditionals, together with the
indicative without tense backshifting. On the other hand, not all counterfactual
relations are expressed by the optative mood: when the denoted situation
might have happened in the past but did not, the conditional mood is selected.
The conditional, which morphologically is an imperfect of the future, occurs
only once in the Rig-Veda (2.30.2). inside a relative clause.

130

56)lelationship between conditionals and temporals

1 the conditional functional domain, Hypothetical conditionals are con. e~ed the prototype of conditional clauses in Haiman (1978). They can be
~ad "Jy translated from a language where they overlap with Counterfactual
easlditionals, such as English, into another language where they overlap with
6~en conditionals, such as Hua. In Vedic, Hypothetical conditionals have the
1
1 gest set of available strategies, as they are the only type of conditional
~:uses that can be introduced by the subordinator ea.
c vedic Hypothetical conditionals correspond to the relation of "future predictive", i.e. to conditionals that have a future time reference and a high probability ofrealization (or low hypotheticality, in Comrie's 1986 terms). This is
the first conditional relation that is explicitly marked as subordinate in children's spontaneous speech (Bowerman 1986: 299). All subjunctive conditional clauses of the Rig-Veda refer to future states of affairs, and usually ex-.
press a high degree of certainty that the referred situation will occur. For example, the sense of the sentence ( 5.11) is not only that Indra will provide the
poet with many good things if he has mercy, but also that the poet hopes and
expects the acceptance of his request. In this case, the subjunctive is meant to
allay the previously too direct way of addressing a god by means of an imperative. The high probability expressed by subjunctive conditional clauses in
the Rig-Veda lies behind the unitary discussion that indicative and subjunctive clauses usually receive in Vedic grammars, as well as in Hettrich's (1988:
357-60) monograph. However, that probability is higher in indicative conditionals than in subjunctive conditionals emerges from the fact that indicative
conditionals commonly denote past events. In (5.10) the speaker evokes the
soul of a man who has gone (jagiima, PF) to the realm ofthe dead.
Studies on child languages assess that conditional clauses are acquired
later than temporal clauses. Temporal and conditional clauses often overlap,
especially in the description of recurrent activities or habitual states. Hypothetical conditionals may be paraphrased with temporal clauses when the
situation described in the subordinate takes place every time that the main
clause situation occurs. "When and if structures overlap semantically in so far
as they both link real-world sequential or simultaneous events. It appears that
the more regular the eo-occurrence relationship between these events, the
more interchangeable the when and ifstructures." (Reilly 1986: 314) Some
languages use the same subordinator for both conditional clauses and habitual
temporal clauses, as in the case of German wenn, Dutch als, Polish jak plus
indicative. However, Reilly (1986) observes that temporal and conditionals
are acquired interactively, i.e. children begin using conditionals before they
completely master temporals.
131

These findings tally with Vedic data. The distribution and the frequen
Vedic temporal and conditional clauses confirm the basicness of the tern C)' or
relation. Every subordinator that has a conditional meaning (yad, Yadrlll
also has a temporal meaning in the Rig-Veda, while the opposite is not trCQ)
Moreover, the same subordinator more often has a temporal function tha uc.
conditional function. In Hettrich's (1988: 798ff.) count, yad marks temp: ll
clauses in 489 passages and conditional clauses in 73 passages.
rat
The Rig-Veda suggests an evolution of conditional clauses from temporal
clauses via context inference of habitual temporal clauses. When yadi and
have a temporal meaning, they only mark habitual temporal clauses (eo::.
sponding to the TENNR type of Hettrich 1988). On the contrary, ternporaJ
subordinato~s marking clauses that refer to single events (Hettrich's TER type)
such as yadii do not have a conditional function.
Hypotactic structures are recorded earlier for the conditional relation than
for the relation of temporal posteriority. We have seen that b~fore-clauses altd
until-clauses are considered cognitively marked, and are not regularly expressed by subordination in the Rig-Veda (4.2.2; 4.3.2). This manifests the
gradual, concurrent, and interactive development of temporals and conditionals.
The derivation of conditional subordinates from the reinterpretation of basic subordinate clauses such as temporals might account for the productivity
of conditional clauses in Early Vedic. After temporals, conditionals represent
the relations for which hypotactic strategies, i.e. finite clauses marked by a relativizer, are most frequently used in the Rig-Veda. Hypotaxis is definitely
more common for conditional than for causal relations. We have seen (5.2)
that implicit marking of conditionals is very rare. Among the explicit strategies, hypotaxis by means of yad (73 occurrences) and ytuii (35 occurrences)
outnumbers subordinatio111 by means of ea (14 occurrences). By contrast, hypotactic strategies are much less frequent for <:ausal clauses than nonhypotactic strategies. Heftrich ( 1988: 792ff.) counts 48 causal clauses introduced by yad vs. 389 causal clauses introduced by the particle hi. Conditional
clauses represent one of the most frequent type of subordinates also in Old
Hittite (Luraghi 1990: 60).
However, the early extension of ya-constructions to conditional relations
does not match the order of acquisition of these relations in child language.
Children produce conditional clauses relatively late, and particularly after
causal clauses (Bloom et al. 1980). Conditional relations represent an exception with respect to other adverbial relations, for which parallels appear between order of acquisition and patterns of syntactic change in Vedic, as discussed in the following chapters. Leaving aside the possible reasons of the belated acquisition of conditional clauses in child language, we agree with Bow132

(!986) that this is not due to the putative abstractness or complexity of

etfll;~onal relations. Some scholars argue that conditional clauses represent

cOil ~ 18 ry situations, which are allegedly more complex than factual relations

iJY18S 1 ~ng to the real world. Bowerman (1986) refutes such a hypothesis, since
rc~~~en deal with hypothetical events or with situations not coinciding with

cb ctual world very early, and certainly much earlier than they effectively

ch~uce sentences with an overt conditional marker.

P cognitive complexity is not an objective criterion that can be measured acrding to whether a certain relation reflects events occurring in the extraf.~guistic world. Rather, it must be subjectively meant as reflecting the
~aker's point of view. Accordingly, clausal relations are complex if they are
~ontral)' to the speaker's expectations, as we will see for some contrastive relations such as concessive subordination and adversative coordination (8}, or
if they denote situations that cannot be precisely predicted, as in the case of
purposive and consecutive subordinates (7). From this perspective, conditional relations are not cognitively complex, since they combine two situations that usually eo-occur. As remarked in Reilly's (1986: 314) quotation reported above, the interchange between temporal and conditional relations.
which we have considered a possible starting point for conditional subordinates, is favored when a regular eo-occurrence of situations is denoted. In
Vedic, some non-factual relations such as purposives precede some factual
relations such as concessives in the overt expression of subordination. This
indicates that factuality or correspondence to the real world is not the decisive
factor for the evolution of hypotaxis in this language. Such a principle will be
also observed in the following chapter, devoted to causal clauses, which typically have an epistemic, subjective interpretation, where adherence to causeeffect relations of the real world is scarcely relevant.

133

6. The causal relation

6.1. Grammatical sources

6.1.1. Particles
In the lndo-Iranian languages, the causal relation is mainly encoded by
anaphoric adverbs or by particles. For example, Old Persian avahyariidiy "for
this reason" anaphorically resumes the content of the subordinate inside the
main clause, according to the pattem of the correlative diptych. It derives
from the grammaticalization of avahya (< *avasya, GEN.SG of the pronoun
ava- "that") plus the postposition riidiy. The latter is the rigidification of the
LOC.SG of riid-, a eo-radical fom1 of 0.1. riidh "complete, succeed" (Kent
1950: 173; 205). The meaning of this composite construction is that the dependent state of affairs is accomplished when the main state of affairs takes
place: a causal clause is typically a factual clause.
In A vestan, the primary marker of a causal relation is the particle zi (Jackson 1892: 739), corresponding to Old Indian hi. Both of them derive from
PIE *i'i, also present in A.Gr. nai-khi "yes, certainly" and ou-khi I mikhi
"no", and in Lat. *ne-gi implied in negotium (< *negi-otium) and negiire
(KEWA: Ill, 592; EWA: 11, 814). Avestan zi and Old Indian hi are assevemtive particles that, while connecting two clauses, do not background one of
them, but rather juxtapose them with an emphatic nuance. Scholars of Iranian
languages consider zi a coordinating conjunction (cf. Jackson 1892: 739),
included among phenomena of parataxis (cf. Reichelt 1909: 732). Similarly,
I. A mere emphatic value emerges from the Old Persian eo-radical enclitie particle -diy, which
is incapable of expressing a causal function. Cf. DR 4.69 "the man who shall be a lie-follower
or who shall be a doer of wrong- unto them do thou not be a friend, (hut) punish them well."
(Kent 1950: 132; emphasis added) The correspondence proposed by Kent (1950: 33; 191) between O.P. -diy, Av. zi, and 0.1. hi is based on a phonetic law. whereby lE/> O.P. din front
of a vowel (e.g. lE *dhi/a > 0.1. dehi-, A.Gr. teiklros, O.P. didii "wall, fortress"), but
Mayrhofer considers uncertain this etymology (KEW A: Ill. 592; EW A: 11, 814 ).

134

al markers corresponding to Av.

zz and to

0.1. hi, i.e. English for,

1~c caus denn, French car, etc. are considered coordinators (Kortmann 1998:
uefl11~10 wever, in Vedic hi determines the accent on the verb, which involves
<~6) dination at least for this language.
sub~hitney ( 1879: 595) asc~ibes a "slight subordinating force" to. hi, and arthat "in its fullest value tt means for, but shades off from that mto a mere
guesverative sense". According to MacDonell, hi "is used throughout as a
as;,:,rdinating conjunction." (1916: 252) The same claim is sustained in
su yer (1896: 263). Verbal accent signals that the hi-clause is perceived as
~PJ~nging to the same prosodic unit of the adjacent clause, as in subordination,
ed the context usually clarifies the semantic link between the two utterances.
;e hi-clause represents the cause or the argumentation justifYing the main
Jause, which describes a state of affairs at the third person (6.1 ), or expresses
~direct speech (6.2). The nexus between the two propositions is often underscored by mean~ of precise }exical similarities.
'(6.1) vaisviinaniya prthupiijase
vipo
ratnii
Vaisvanara-DAT far.shining-DAT.M.SG inspired. words peari.N-ACC.PL

vidhanta

dharu11e~u

g&tave I agnir

hi dev&n

offer-JNJ.IPF3PL certain-LOC.N.PL going-DAT Agni-NOM PTC god.M-ACC.PL

amito

duvasyaty

athii dharmii1']i

immortal-NOM.M.SG serve-IND.PR3SG thus law.N-ACC.PL

sanatii na dud~at
from.of.old NEG spoil-INJ.AOR3SG

"To the far-shining Vaisvanara (the poets) offered pearls of inspired

words 2, in order to go on certain paths, for Agni, the immortal one, serves the
gods, and thus never spoils their laws from of old." (3.3.1)
(6.2) te
biilnibhyiil!l
dhamit(im
agnim
asmani
they-NOM arm.M-INSTR.I'L kindlcd-ACC.M.SG fire.M-ACC.SG rock.N-LOC.SG
naki}J
.~0
asly GI'OIJO
none-NOM.M.SG he-NOM.SG is enemy.M-NOM.M.SG

jahUr

hi tarn

leave-PF3PL PTC he-ACC.M.SG

"They (found) the fire kindled by means of their arms in the rock, (and
said): He is not an enemy, for they had left him there." (2.24. 7cd)
In (6.1) the main clause event, i.e. the offering devoted to Agni (of which
vai.~viinara- lit., "belonging to all men" is a typical epithet), is motivated by
the situation reported in the hi-clause, i.e. that Agni is a god worthy of being
venerated. The relation between the two clauses is emphasized by the eo2. The tnmslation "pearls of inspired words" of vipo ralnii follows Geldner's (1951: 337, note)
interpretation of this expression as unferliges Komposilum, where the first member vipo (sandhi
for vipaiJ) is the genitive form of vip- "inspired". Members of compounds which exceptionally
maintain traces of their case ending were mentioned above in 3.1 0.

135

radicality between the nouns dharuf]a- and dharman-, which describe

taws as something stable (from the root dhr "establish, be fixed"). a:l'lll
remarks that dharu11e~u and dharmii1]i "stehen begriffi ich nahe". ( 195 1: 1 3ner
In (6.2) the hi-clause explains the statement uttered by the poets once'th31)
saw the fire again. "Sie fanden das Feuer wieder, das sie bei ihrem erst~
Zuge am Vala zuriickgelassen batten. lnsofern wares nicht fremd." (Getdnen
1951: I, 307, note)
er

6.1.1.1. Independent hi-clauses

Some usages of hi are apparently at odds with subordination. According to

Grassmann ( 1873: 1664-65), hi can express: I. the motivation of the adjacent
clause (Germ. denn); 2. a general statement or a known fact, particularly at the
beginning of a hymn (Gem1.ja); 3. an order, i.e. a verb inflected in imperative
optative, or exhortative subjunctive (Germ. doch, so). Among these groups,'
only the first, which is also the largest one, is assigned a proper causal
function, as in (6.1) and (6.2). This classification is substantially endorsed by
Delbriick ( 1888: 522ff.), who considers subordinates all clauses belonging to
Grassman's first two groups, while regarding the third group as consisting of
independent clauses. In this group, hi works as an emphatic particle, which for
Delbri.ick is the original function of hi. This is exemplified in (6.3), where the
hi-clause follows, and in (6.4 ), where it precedes.
(6.3) satriiyatam
a bharii
bhOjaniini I
enemy-J.J>R.GEN.M.PL here bring-IPV2SG property.N-ACC.PL

vadhena

dasyum

pra hi catayasva

deadly.wcapon.M-INSlRSG foc.M-ACC.SG PRE I'TC trightcn.away-IPV2SG

"Bring here the properties of the enemies, and with your deadly weapon
frighten away the foe, indeed." (5.4.5d-6a)
hy ciru~l
nithe
harito
(6.4) yulcyva
hamcss-IPV2SG PTC rcd-ACC.F.PL ehariotM-LOC.SG golden-ACC.F.PL

deva

rohita}J I

go,d.M-VOC.SG

t1amin~-ACC.F.PL

tiibhir

devan

iha vaha

thcy-INSTR.F.PJ. god.M-ACC.PJ. here bring-JI>V2SG

"Harness, pray, the red, golden, flaming (mares) to the chariot, and bring
here the gods with them." (1.14.12)
Lexical and grammatical means signal the connection of the correlative
diptych. In (6.3) the same referent is denoted by dasyu- "foe" and by .~atriiyat-,
which is literally a present participle of the denominal verb satriiyati "to be an
enemy" (from sdtru- "enemy"). In (6.4) the image of the mares, portrayed in

136

/If-clause as "red, gol~en, flaming", is anaphorically resumed in the main

with the pronoun tiibhi}J "by means ofthem".
c;Ja~ettrich distinguishes between nicht ergiinzende and ergiinzende hi:s "ob sie selbstandige Sprechakte darstellen und ob sie einen
c;JsU~ bsrsatz implizit erganzen" ( 1988: 172). Apart from the label of Er]llaC :mgssalz (which also concerns the forms kuvid and ned), at least two new
~d~~s appear in Hettrich with respect to Grassman and DelbrUck. Firstly, in
~ hi-erganzende group, clauses are included that do not have a causal mean. e (p. 176- I 79; 794 ), i.e. concessive, adversative, purposive, and temporal
~:uses. Secondarily, the series of nicht ergiinzende hi-clauses is much more
conspicuous than the group of non-subordinating hi-clauses in Grassman and
~elbrilck: in addition to imperative clauses, it also comprehends some dectarstives, and counts 118 occurrences (p. 173; 794-95). Declarative clauses
(Aussagesiitze) are particularly controversial. Whereas the presence of an imperative can be an objective criterion to rule certain clauses out ofthe analysis,
it is not clear what allows to include or to exclude an indicative mood. The
example in (6.5), which represents one of the passages considered as nichtergtJnzende bzw. diesbeziiglich unsichere hi-Siitze (p. 174; 795), is here reported
with Geldner's translation that Hettrich himself reproduces.
(6.5) ime
cetluo
anrtasya
bhzirer
th0

they-NOM.M.PL punisher.M-NOM.PL disordcr.N-GEN.SG many-GEN.N.SG

mitro

a1yanui

hi s{mti I

varuqo

Mitra-NOM Aryaman-NOM VaruQa-NOM PTC be-JND.PR3PL

una

rtasya

viivrdhur duroqe

this-NOM.PL order.N-GEN.SG grow-PFJPL house.N-LOC.SG

sagmasa}J

putra

aditer

adabdhii}J

mighly-NOM.M.PL son.M-NOM.PL Aditi-GEN inrallible-NOM.M.PL

"Sie - Mitra, Aryaman, Varuqa - sind ja die Bestrafer der vielen

Unwahrheit; sie sind im Hause der Wahreit groB geworden, die tiichtigen
Sohne der Aditi, die Untriiglichen." (7.60.5)
The semantic link between the hi-clause and the following clause is underscored by the usual lexical similarities. Since they are the punishers of disorder (anrtasya), the gods grew in the house of order (!tasya). Moreover, a series of theonyms (Mitra, Aryaman, and Varuqa) connects the hi clause with
the preceding stanza, quoted in (3.2). "To the brilliant wave the Sun rose, for
whom the Adityas make his pathway ready: Mitra, Aryaman, and Varuqa in
agreement." With respect to this stanza, the hi-clause in (6.5) might be interpreted, broadly speaking, as a postposed causal subordinate: "for they- Mitra,
Aryaman, and Varuqa- are the punishers of injustice", etc.
To analyze unitarily all hi-clauses, verbal accent must be considered the
manifestation of the semantic link between two clauses. Such a link also ex137

ists when hi is related to an imperative. In (6.3) the act of taking the propen
of the enemies implies that the enemy has been overcome. In (6.4) the acr'es
of bringing the gods by means of mares presupposes an earlier action of h100
ing yoked the mares to the chariot.
av,
The embarrassment of including imperative hi-clauses among subordinat
is due to the fact that in Standard Average European a clause provided with
imperative, and more generally with its own illocutionary force, is not consid~
ered subordinate. Nevefltheless, we have seen that in Vedic some clauses signalled by verbal accent, and therefore marked like proper subordinates, may
show their own illocutionary force (cf. 2). In this regard, Hettrich posits the
category of Ergi:inzung for the forms kuvid, hi, and ned. It is appropriate to
consider the reason why some constructions occupy a grey area between the
two poles of an independent clause and of a hypotactic clause (the latter prototypically expressed by the stem of the relative pronoun ya-). The explanation is diachronic, and involves the scarce syntacticization of the early shategies of clause linkage, whereby a clause included under the same intonational
unit as another clause did not necessarily express backgrounded information.
Interestingly, DelbrUck (1888: 522ff.) compares hi with the Vedic particle id
and with the Ancient Greek particle gar "for". An emphatic or asseverative
origin justifies the cases in which hi is used with an imperative or is placed in
the initial position of a hymn. Rather than etymology, which is a faded approximation to the PIE linguistic sign, "anomalous" syntactic usages which
may be checked in texts provide a major clue to the original function of hi.
To the hypothesis of an original emphatic function for hi as for id, Hettrich
( 1988: 181-82) objects that verbal accentuation is determined by these two
particles under different conditions. While id must immediately follow the
verb to make it accented, hi regularly brings about verbal accentuation independently of which syntactic position it occupies. However, as already observed in 2, the use of verbal accent first to mark the semantic relation between two clauses, and later to signal subordination, follows a long and occasionally inconsistent path. ofwhich the Rig-Veda still maintains some traces.
Some clauses are only marked by verbal accent, without any segmentallinker.
Some forms arc supposed to be stressed but are unstressed: kuvid, which usually determines verbal accent, does not do so in three passages belonging to
the most ancient nucleus ofthe Rig-Veda (2.35.1; 5.3.10; 5.36.3). Conversely,
some forms are supposed to be unstressed but are stressed: the coordinating
conjunction ea. occasionally introduces a subordinate clause, mainly with a
temporal or -conditional function (Klein 1985a: 238ff.). In a couple of passages (1.84.20 and I 0.110.1 ), to which Hettrich devotes a paragraph entitled
Problematische Fi:ille (1988: 259), the verb with the ea-clause not only is
stressed, but is also an imperative. That hi determines verbal accent in differ-

:s

138

1 conditions compared to other particles, or more generally that different

e~ticlcs exhibit a different scope, does not impinge upon the similarity of
~eir emphatic function. Likewise, the particle hi may have a different scope
ith respect to a relativizer even though both of them may work as adverbial
~bordinators. 1-lettrich ( 1988: 187-89) reports the passages where, when hi is
5elated to more than one verb, either all verbs are stressed, or only the first
~erb takes the stress, which is apparently the most frequent situation. Differently, subordinators based on the stem of the relative pronoun bring about the
stress on every verb they are related to.
These data show that, under the subordinating system characterized by the
stem of the relative pronoun, alternative strategies crop up, in which clause
linkage is carried out by means of prosody, demonstrative pronouns, and emphatic particles. The synchronically anomalous status of hi can be justified as
a relic of an earlier type of sentential nexus. In the Rig-Veda, the records of
causal-hi are much more frequent than the records of causal-yad: Hettrich
counts 389 examples of the former and 48 examples of the latter (1988: 792794; 802). In Classical Sanskrit, causal relativizers increase their frequency at
the expense of the particle hi. Predictably, only relativizers have been kept in
Middle- and Neo-Indian languages3 to express a causal function (Bioch 1934:
316). The strategy of hi has not left any trace after Old Indian. Moreover, the
change from hi- to yad causal clauses ushered in more flexible syntactic patterns, which set subordination free of the rigid juxtaposition of the correlative
diptych. First, a correlative element in the main clause is frequent with hi but
extremely rare with yad. Second, hi exhibits a lower word order freedom, as it
commonly occupies the second slot, devoted to Wackernagei particles, while
yad occurs in a larger range of alternative positions, even in the final slot (6.6).
Evidently, the word order freedom that is typical of the relative pronoun is retained in conjunctions derived from its stem.
(6.6)jajfianarl')
sapta mataro
vedham
asasata
bom-P.PF.ACC.M.SG seven mother.F-NOM.PL sage.M-ACC.SG teach-IND.IPF3PL

sriye I

ayari'J

dhruvo

ray'iTJam

ciketa

yat

glory.F-DAT this-NOM.M.SG firm-NOM.M.SG richness.F-GEN.PL understand-PF3SG as

"The seven mothers taught the sage, born for glory; this (soma) is firm in
the richness, as he understand that." (9.1 02.4)

3. Middle- and New-Indian languages not only maintain the relative stem, but also record innovations for causal clauses. On the one hand, subordinators derive from the grammaticalization
of autonomous words with the meaning of "cause" or "motive", as in Bg. kiiran and Gj. kiirarJ
(< 0.1. kiirarJa-), or from adverbial phrases meaning "having done this way", as in Pa. iti katvii
(< 0.1. iti /a:tva, gerund of k~ "make"). Similar phenomena occur in English be-cause and in
French etant donne que. On the other hand, a contamination with the interrogative stem appears
in Hindi kyon ki, by which both a question and an answer are introduced.

139

6.1. 2. The relative pronoun

Yad is the only conjunction derived from the stem of the relative pronoun
for which a causal function is unquestionable since the Rig-Veda. For other
causal relativizers of Classical Sanskrit (yatas, yasmiid, yena, and yathii), this
is a matter of debate, in both grammars and translations. Delbrilck ( 1888: 572.
598) does not include yatas among subordination markers, probably consider.
ing it as a mere form of the relative pronoun (although he does not explicitly
discuss yatas in the section on relative clauses, p. 554-572). Renou mentions
yatas among relative pronouns (1952: 384), but ascribes the meaning etam
do1me que to the RigVedic passage 1.25.17 (p. 389). The same rendition of
this passage is found in Geldner ("Wir wollen jetzt beide abermals
miteinander darUber reden, da mir der SilBtrank gebracht ist", 1951: I, 27) and
in Griffith (6.7).
punar
(6.7) SGTfl nu vociivahai
PRE now speak-SB.AORIDU again

yato me madhv

abhrtam

as me-DAT meath.N-NOM.SG bring: PP.NOM.N.SG

"Once more together let us speak, because my meath is brought." (1.25.17;

Griffith 1889: 16)
Hettrich ( 1988: 318-327) devotes a proper place to yatas among subordinating conjunctions, and divides the clauses in which it appears in three
groups. I. Indirect interrogatives: only four instances are found in the whole
Rig-Veda (1.22.19, 5.48.5, 10.73.10, 10.129.6-7), three of which belong to
recent hymns, cf. (6.8). 2. Subordinates depending on a head noun located in
the main clause: here yatas functions as a full-fledged relative pronoun that is
inflected in the ablative case and expresses an Ausgangspunkt, cf. (6.9). 3.
Subordinates deprived of a head noun in the main clause, like (6.7): "In diesen
Satzen dilrfte yatas also bereits vollstandig zur Konjunktion erstarrt sein."
(Hettrich 1988: 325) In these cases, however, Hettrich interprets ycitas as a
temporal rather than as a causal subordinator (his translations nachdem, sobald, or seitdem imply a Zeitpunkt). A causal clause presupposes a temporal
relation, according to the implicature post hoc ergo propter hoc.
(6.8) yatal} prajajiici
indro
asya
veda
whence be.bom-J>F3SG lndra-NOM this-GEN.N.SG know-J>F3SG

"Whence he was born, (only) Indra knows that." (I 0.73.1 Od)

(6.9) aycil,n
le yonir
rtviyo
this-NOM.M.SG your original.place.M-NOM.SG ordered-NOM.M.SG

yato jiilo

arocathiil}

whence bom-NOM.M.SG shine-IND.IPF3SG

140

This is your ordered original place, whence you shone forth, once you
ere born." (3.29.1 Oab)
"' The form yatas shows a syntactic change from the category of relative
ronoun (6.9) to the category of adverbial subordinator (6.7). In Vedic, howpver, it can be already considered a conjunction (and it is properly included in
~lettrich's analysis), since it is usually replaced by yasmiid in the paradigm of
the relative pronoun (MacDonell 1916: 114). While the ablative form yasmiid regularly agr~es in gender and number with the modified head noun, the
ablative forms yiid and yatas are rigidified constructions in, the Rig-Veda.
They may lack a head noun (which is always the case with yiid) or, if a head
noun is present, they may lack grammatical agreement. With regard to yatasSatze mit Nukleus, 1-lettrich remarks: "der Numerus der Nukleus ist beliebig;
die Belege enthalten Singular, Dual und Plural." (1988: 322) Once they exit
the closed system of an inflectional paradigm, fonns have higher chances to
decay and to be replaced. This occurred particularly with the conjunction yad,
which is recorded only in 4 idiomatic expressions in the Rig-Veda (4.4.2),
and which disappears after Vedic.
In Classical Sanskrit, the causal relativizers yad, yatas, yasmiid, yena, and
yathii represent what Paqini ( 1.1.3 8) considered an a-sarva-vibhakti "noncompleted declension", since only some forms of the original pronominal inflection become subordinators. Some of these relativizers (i.e. the rigidified
ablatives yatas and yasmiid) are exclusive of the causal function, while others
are also common to the purposive function, as in the case of the old instrumental yena. We will see below (6.3) that cause and purpose, albeit opposite
to each other from a logical point of view, commonly present fonnal overlaps.
This also holds for the conjunction yathii, which in Vedic expresses primarily
manner and secondarily purpose, and which analogically subsumes a causal
meaning. This is, however, a rather marginal function: a couple of examples
( 1.175.6 and 8.68.1 0) are mentioned in Hettrich ( 1988: 296-297), but admittedly their interpretation is controversial among scholars. The same situation
is attested for Avestan yafJa (Jackson 1892: 730). Differently, in Old Persian
a causal function is typical of the subordinator yafJii, beside temporal, manner,
and consecutive meanings (Kent 1950: 295; 305). Consider the famous passage DB 4.63: "For this reason (avahyariidiy) Ahuramazda bore aid, and the
other gods who exist, because (yaOii) I was not hostile, I was not a liar, I was
not an evil-doer of wrong- neither I nor my family." This indicates that the
polyfunctionality of a subordinator does not always follow the same path in
the different Indo-Iranian languages, but it rather proceeds through an independent development.

141

6.2. Semantics of Vedic causal clauses

6.2.1. Cause in Sweetser (1990) and in Noordman and de Blijzer (2000)
Although they derive from different lexical sources, and presumably go
back to different ages, the two markers hi and yad happen to share the same
causal function at the linguistic stage of the Rig-Veda. This function can be
comprehended in the light of the three domains of interpretation of a causal
conjunction, developed in Sweetser ( 1990: 76-86) and tested with a psycholinguistic methodology in Noordman and de Blijzer (2000). Similarly to what
has been observed in 5.1 in regard to conditional relations, Sweetse1 points
out that a causal clause can have three different readings, depending on
whether it is conceived within the content (6.10), epistemic (6.11 ), or speechact (6.12) domain.
(6.10) John came back because he loved her.
(6.11) John loved her, because he came back.
(6.12) What are you doing tonight, because there's a good movie on.
In the content domain, the causal relation involves two state of affairs ordered in the real world, e.g. John's love is the cause of his coming back in
(6.1 0). In the epistemic domain, the two states of affairs are linked in the
speaker's point of view. In (6.11) the speaker's knowledge of John's return is
the cause of the speaker's guess about John's love. In the speech-act domain,
the causal structure does not express a literal causal meaning, but rather allows the speaker to utter the speech act contained in the main clause. In (6.12)
the speaker asks the addressee's plans for the night to suggest that they may
go together to the cinema, and a good movie is the cause of this implicit suggestion. The three domains are equally pervasive of our discomse. The selection of a certain interpretation depends upon pragmatics, since finding reasonable contexts is easier for some readings than for others.
Noordman and de Blijzer (2000) are interested in the psycholinguistic aspects of Sweetser's model. They argue that the three domains of interpretation
present different degrees of difficulty from a cognitive point of view, depending on conceptual order, on linear order, and on the presence of epistemic or
content relations. A content relation is considered easier to process than an
epistemic relation, since the former more directly reflects the situation in the
real world. Moreover, in the cause-effect conceptual order, the so-called "antecedent", i.e. the starting point in a causal deduction, properly corresponds to
the cause, whereas the "consequent", i.e. the end-point of a deduction, represents the effect. All content relations have a cause-effect conceptual order
("John passed the exam because he worked hard"). However, the cause-effect
conceptual order also involves epistemic relations whenever the effect is de142

duced from the cause ("John must have passed the exam, since he worked
hard"). By contrast, in the effect-cause conceptual order, the cause is deduced
frotn the effect, i.e. the manifestation of a given effect suggests what may
have been the cause ("John must have worked hard, since he passed the
exatn"). Given the inconsistency between real world and speaker's deduction
of antecedent and consequent, the effect-cause conceptual order is allegedly
more difficult to parse. In regard to linear order, Noordman and de Blijzer
(2000: 40) claim that a cause-effect sequence is easier to understand, to the
extent that it iconically mirrors the sequence of facts in the extra-linguistic
world. Cf. Table 6.
CONCEPTUAL ORDER
CAUSE-EFFECT

Linear order

Content
Relation

Epistemic
Relation

Cause-effect

Effect-cause

Because John
worked hard,
he passed the
exam.

John passed
the exam, because he
worked hard.

John worked
hard, so he
must have
passed the
exam.

John must
have passed
the exam,
since he
worked hard.

EFFECT-CAUSE

Cause-effect

Effect-cause

John must
have worked
hard, since he
passed the
exam.

John passed
the exam, so
he must have
worked hard.

Table 6. Semantics ofcausal clauses (from Noordman and de Blijzer 2000)

The study of Noordmann and de Blijzer's is synchronic. It is based on

reading tests presented to Dutch speakers, who were instructed to press a button once they had understood the meaning of a given clause. A longer reading
time indicates a major cognitive complexity, and this foremost occurred when
the examined clauses contained epistemic relations, with a conceptual and linear effect-cause order (p. 46ff.). These results can be also tested on the corpus
of causal clauses of the Rig-Veda; occasional comparisons with the linguistic
stage of Classical Sanskrit will allow drawing some diachronic considerations.
If the hypothesis of the two Dutch scholars holds in Vedic, that is, if content
relations with a conceptual and linear cause-effect order are unmarked in this
language, we would expect to find them more frequently, or with a less constrained distribution, or earlier attested than the alternative relations. The latter
point may concern both Vedic with respect to Classical Sanskrit and, in Vedic,
143

ancient vs. recent parts of the Rig-Veda. As illustrated in the following se

tions, this prediction is only partially fullfilled in Old Indian, where the thr c,
levels of relation type, conceptual order, and linear order do not match.
ee

6.2.2. Conceptual order

The situation attested in Old Indian confirms the claim of Noordman e de
Blijzer (2000) as far as conceptual order is concerned. In the whole Rig-Veda
the cause, expressed in the subordinate, is what constitutes the starting pain;
in a deduction. We always have the type "John passed the exam because he
worked hard", and never the type "John worked hard, because he passed the
exam", as can be seen in (6.1 )-(6.2) with hi and in (6.6) with yad. A causal
clause with an effect-cause conceptual order only appears later, in Classical
Sanskrit. In (6.13) the heart logically does not break because it is made out of
stone, but facts are described in a different fashion: the poet concludes that his
heart is made out of stone (CAUSE) on the basis of the fact that it does not
break up (EFFECT). The antecedent in deduction is still placed in the subordinate, but this time it concerns the temporally subsequent event.
me na sa1}'lsaya/J
(6.13) vajra-siira-mayaf!l nunatp hrdaym.n
stonc.solid.made-NOM.N.SG now heart.N-NOM.SG my NEG doubt.M-NOM.SG

apalyantyii na /af!l yad vai pha/alidam

sahasradhii

not.see-GER NEG him because PTC split-IND.PR3SG.it in.a.thousand.parts

"Now there is no doubt that my heart is made out of solid stone, since it
does not split in a thousand parts, without having him (se. my son)." (R.
2.61.9)

6.2.3. Linear order

The prediction ofNoordman and de Blijzer (2000) about linear order is not
supported by Rigvedic data, where causal clauses are prevalently postposed.
Out of 389 hi-clauses with a causal meaning, 243 (62.5%) are postposed and
83 (21.3%) are preposed, while 63 ( 16.2%) passages are placed in the middle
of two independent clauses, so that it is controversial to establish the main
clause they belong to (Hettrich 1988: 792-94). Out of 48 yad clauses with a
causal function, 35 (73%) are postposed and 13 (27%) are preposed (Hettrich
1988: 414; 417; 802). This suggests that presenting first the fact and then the
cause is more natural than the opposite. Noordman and de Blijzer admit that
hypotheses exist in the literature, according to which "inferences are made
only about causes and not about effects. They argue that readers make infer144

ces about causes because these explain the current situation (and the senennce that expresses this situation). The inference forms a backward link".
~;ooo:. 41, cf. Magliano et al. 1993) Rigvedic data agree with the latter assumpuon.

6. 2. 4. Speech act relations

In the Rig-Veda content relations are marked from a frequency point of
view with respect to epistemic relations and speech-act relations. Both hi- and
yad-causal clauses are often connected to an imperative (6.14) or interrogative
(6.15) main clause, which is incompatible with a content relation. As we have
seen in 5.1, a non-declarative main clause indicates that a clausal relation is
conceived in the speech-act domain (Sweetser 1990: 78).
gahi
haribhir
indra
(6.14) upa nai}Sutam

to our presscd.juicc.M-ACC.SG here come-IPV2SG steed.M-lNSTR.PL Indra-VOC

kdibhif)

sute

hi tva

hilvamahe

maned-INSTR.M.PL pressed.juice.M-LOC.SG for you-ACC.SG call-IND.PRIPL

"Come here to our pressed juice, 0 Indra, with maned steeds, for we call
you when the juice is pressed." (1.16.4)
(6. 15) kti
u nu te mahimanaf)
samasyasmat
IP-NOM.M.PL PTC PTC your greatness.M-GEN.SG ali-GEN.M.SG.us-ABL

piirva

[$ayo

'ntam

apuh

prcvious-NOM.M.PL poet.M-NOM.PL bordcr.M-ACC.SG reach-PF3PL

yan miitarCIIJI

ea pitaraq1

ea sakilm

since mother.F-ACC.SG and fathcr.M-ACC and at.the.sarne.time

ajanayathas

tanvaf)

sveyaf)

generate-CS.IND.AOR2SG body.F-ABL.SG own-ABL.F.SG

"Which poets before us have reached the border of all your greatness?,
since you generated your mother and father at the same time from your own
body." (10.54.3)
Hettrich ( 1988: 413-18) distinguishes ydd-clauses representing the motivation for the main clause state of affairs (Sachverhaltsbegriindung) from yadclauses expressing the speaker's motivation to utter the main clause
(A'ujJerungsbegriindung). The latter, corresponding to speech act relations as
described in Sweetser (1990), have 27 occurrences and slightly outnumbers
the Sachverhaltsbegriindung type (21 occurrences, cf. Hettrich 1988: 802).
The difference between content and speech act causal clauses is especially
evident for hi-clauses. We analyzed the 324 causal hi-clauses that unambiguously depend on a main clause (Hettrich 1988: 792-794). A speech act relation appears not only in clauses with an imperative and with an interrogative
illocutionary force ( 191 and 18 occurrences, respectively), but also in the de145

clarative clauses that contain a performative verb, such as "I call", "we a
nounce", etc. (23 occurrences). Imperative, interrogative, and performati~
cases represent the majority (232 examples, 72%) of the total amount of,~
clauses. Cf. Table 7.

,,_

MC with imperative illocutionary force

MCwithiPV

191 (59%)
148 (46%)

MCwithPROH

12 (4%)

MCwithOP

11 (3%)

MC with exhortatory SB

13 (4%)

MC with exhortatory INJ

s (2%)

MC with predicative IF

1 (0.3%)

MCwithPRC

1 (0.3%)

MC with interrogative illocutionary force

18 (6%)

MC with declarative illocutionary force

liS (35%)

MC with performative verb

23 (7%)

MC with non-performative verb

92 (28%)

Total

324(100%)

Table 7. Distribution ofcausal hi-clauses

The discrepancy between the results obtained from the Rig-Veda and the
conclusions of Noordman and de Blijzer's (2000) might be explained by the
different nature of the analyzed data. Noordman and de Blijzer's (2000) tests
are based on the reaction of the hearer, whereas Rigvedic hymns, as any other
written text, contain the expressions of the speaker. The hearer seeks the most
unambiguous interpretation, which involves a direct match between linguistic
and extra-linguistic world, while the speaker seeks the expression that requires a minimum effort, e.g. ellipsis, metaphors, etc. However, this is not the
whole story. The abundance of causal clauses interpreted in the speech act
domain suggests that in natural languages a causal relation is not primarily
used to describe a chain of events occurring in the real world, but rather to
justify an order, to explain a question, to argue the excuse for a refusal, or to
dampen down a strong statement by immediately providing the motivations
for it. This is especially evident for causal clauses marked by hi, whose Ger146

11

correspondent denn is considered a typical epistemic connector

11~illthner 1993). In (6.14) the strength of an order, which may be considered

~ lppropriate if addressed to a god, is toned down by means of an explanation,

utaa sort of captatio benevolentiae. This is a particularly frequent structure:

~e poet usually invites the gods to partake in the worship, or alternatively ex: ~rts them to grant wealth, and immediately justifies the appropriateness of
1\ 5 request. In the same vein, the interrogative main clause in (6.15) does not
~int at getting a piece of information, but rather emphasizes a given situation.
This is an example of how linguistic devices are shaped by pragmatics rather
than by logic. This also accounts for the common automorphism between the
logically opposed, but pragmatically compatible, functions of cause and purpose.

6.3. Automorphism between ~ause and purpose

In Classical Sanskrit, both the value "because of' and the value ''for the
sake of' may be expressed by means of the same form, such as nimitta-.
kiiraTJa-, hetu-, etc. As Speyer put it, "the contrast, which does logically exist
between the conception aim and cause is not to be found. Strictly speaking, they are standing on the neuter territory of the motive which partakes
of both." (1886: 194) A similar account for the formal overlap between
cause and purpose is presented in typological studies. "The semantic explanation for the fact that one morpheme can serve these two functions is that both
purpose and causal clauses can be seen as providing explanations for the occurrence of a given state or action." (Thompson and Longacre 1985: 185)
This explanation only concerns the human sphere of interest and the subjective point of view that humans have on events: the final cause posited by Aristotle is refused by the scientific method of Galileo, since natural phenomena
do not have a teleological explanation.
Moreover, the automorphism between cause and purpose in Old Indian has
a preferential directionality from cause to purpose, rather than the other way
round. In the Rig-Veda, the forms nimitta- and kiirQTJa- are not found. The
former derives from the root mii "measure, make", and originally means
"cause, motive, reason", documented since the Upani~ads. Only later, since
epic poetry, nimitta- acquires the meaning of "purpose, goal" (MW 1899:
551 ). Cause, instrument, and agentivity are the only meanings exhibited by
kiira71a- as an autonomous word. This is a transparent derivation of the root lq:
"make", which acquires a purposive function in composition only by analogy
with forms such as nimitta-. HetU- lit., "impulse" is an action noun derived
from the root hi "impel, stimulate, set in motion" (with a fifth class present
147

hin6tz). From the same root, heti- "arrow, missile weapon" is also derived. 1
the Indian grammatical tradition, hetu- is the technical term for cause. In thn
Rig-Veda, hetu- appears only in one passage (6.16), where the gambler corne
plains about his unrestrained passion for dice that has drown him to ruin,
for which his wife abandoned him.
ekapartisya
het6r
(6.16) ak$ti~yiiham

and

die.M-GEN.SG.I-NOM of.singular.importance-GEN.M.SG cause.M-ABL.SG

anuvratiim

apa jiiyam

arodham

faithfui-ACC.F.SG away wife.F-ACC.SG avert-IND.AORISG

"Because of the die of singular importance, I averted a faithful wife4."

(10.34.2cd)
Here hetu- has the negative connotation of "guilt", similarly to the judiciary uses of the correspondent terms of Ancient Greek aitia and of Latin
causa). In Classical Sanskrit, hetu- is employed either as a postposition taking
a genitive noun, or as ,the final member of a compound, as in (6.17). In this
passage the secondary purposive meaning of hetU- emerges from the coordination with other purposive expressions, such as a dative case and a compound with artha- "goal".
(6.17) na sobhiirthiiv
imau
biihu
NEG beauty.goai-NOM.M.DU this-NOM.M.DU arm.M-NOM.DU

na dhanur

bh~aniiya

me

NEG bow.N-NOM.SG omament.N-DAT.SG my

naszr

iibandhaniiyiirlhiiya

NEG.sword.M-NOM.SG binding.round-DAT.M.SG.goai.M-DAT.SG

na sariil)

stambha-hetavah

NEG arrow.M-NOM.PL filling.up.motive-NOM.M.PL

"These arms are not for beauty, my bow is not for ornament, a sword is not
for binding round, and arrows are not made to refill (the quiver)." (R.2.23.3l)
The same directionality from cause to purpose is also attested in other
early lE languages, such as Ancient Greek and Latin. Luraghi (2005) draws
attention to the preposition dia plus accusative, which expresses cause in
Classical Greek, and which develops the functions of purpose and beneficiary
in Byzantine Greek. Similarly, in Latin the preposition propter originally denotes cause, and displays syncretism with purpose only in the vulgar stage of
this language. The extension from cause to purpose starts from those contexts
where cause is meant as reason, i.e. as the motivation of an intentional act.
Luraghi notices that the extension only occurs when the source structure is
4. The one point marked die is lcQ/i-, the terrible die of loss. This name, probably related to the
root kal "shake, throw", firstly appears in Atharva-Veda (7.109.1) and becomes a Leitmotiv of
the following literature. lt is worth mentioning the famous episode of prince Nala. who loses
his realm and goods 111 gambling because of an anthropomorphic mischievous Knli (MBh.
3.52.79). For an analysis of the player's hymn in the Rig-Veda, see Sani (2000a: 275-276).

148

n-directional. Such a source stmcture may have an original locative mean-

~og, as in the case of Latin propter, which derives from prope ''near", or alter111 tlvely

it may denote motion through space, as in the case of Ancient Greek

;~a. "Dill with the accusative does not denote a straight trajectory which

rosses a landmark from one side to the other, but rather [ ... ] a multidirec-

~onal trajectory that remains inside the landmark." (Luraghi 2005: note 2)
Luraghi's observations also apply to Old Indian. In forms such as nimitta-,
kfirOIJO-, hetu-, etc. the functions of cause and purpose are unambiguously dis-

tinguished by the ablative endings (e.g. kiiraiJiil, hetoh) and by the dative endings (e.g. nimittiiya, hetave). The merge between cause and purpose is limited
to endings of Jocative, where directionality is neutralized, and of accusative
(e.g. nimiltam), which expresses "a multidirectional trajectory", as indicated
by Luraghi in regard to Ancient Greek dia. A further structure which allows
an overlap between cause and purpose in Old Indian can be identified in composition, and especially in possessive compounds such as stambha-hetaval{
"having the motive of filling up" in (6.17). This does not occur in Latin and
Ancient Greek: as we have seen in 3.10 and 3.12, composition is much
more used in Old Indian than in the"other lE languages. We will see below
(7.1) that a path from cause to purpose can also be observed in the Rig-Veda
for hypotactic strategies marked by the relativizer yad.

149

7. The purposive relation

7.1. Disparity between finite and non-finite structures

Jeffcrs and Pepicello ( 1979) show that the privileged strategies used in the
earliest attested lE languages to encode a purposive relation are verbal nouns
(infinitive or supine) and finite subordinates marked by a relativizer. Accordingly, the stem *jo- in Vedic and Ancient Greek originally had the vague
function of an inter-clausallinker (called "includer" in Gonda 1954a), which
could work either as a relative pronoun or as an adverbial subordinator with a
purposive function.
In Vedic, purpose is represented much more frequently by infinitives (7.1),
and more generally nominalizations, than by finite subordinates. Among the
latter, subordinates marked by the conjunctions yad (1 .2) and foremost yatha
(7.3) are well recorded, whereas purposive clauses marked by a relative pronoun (7.4) are marginal.
(7 .l) s6mam
anya
upasadat
p&tave camvoJ,
soma.M-ACC.SG other-NOM.M.SG sit-IND.AOR3SG drink-IF mortar.F-GEN.SG

sutam I

karambhtim

anya

icchati

pressed-PP.ACC.M.SG groulo;.M-ACC.SG other-NOM.M.SG desire-IND.PR3SG

"The one sat by the soma to drink the pressed Guice) of the mortar, the
other one desires grouts." (6.57.2)
(7.2) tvaiJI
tad
uktham
indra barha11a
you-NOM.SG this-ACC.N.SG hymn.N-ACC.SG Indra-VOC strongly

kaiJ

pra yac chat& sahasra sura

dar~i

make-JNJ.AOR2SG PRE that hundred thousand hero.M-VOC.SG break-JND.PR2SG

"You, 0 lndra, strongly make this hymn, to break a hundred, a thousand

(enemies), 0 hero." (6.26.5ab)
( 7.3) sa
indriiya pavase
matsarintamo
this-NOM.M.SG lndra-DAT flow.otT.clcarly-IND.PR2SG exhilarating-SUP.NOM.M.SG

yathii je.~iima

samithe

tvotayaiJ,

that overcome-SB.AOR1PL fight.M-LOC.SG helped.by.you-NOM.M.PL

150

"As such, you, the most exhilarating one, flow off clearly tor lndra, in orthat we may overcome in the fight, helped by you." (9.76.5cd)
de~) sam pii$an
vidu.~ii
naya
yo
1 together Pii~an:VOC wisc-INSTR.M.SG lcad-IPV2SG RP-NOM.M.SG
anjasiinu.sasali I ya
evedam
iti bravat
truly.direct-SR.PR3SG RP-NOM.M.SG here.it-NOM.N.SG thus say-Sll.AOR3SG

"0 Pu~an, lead (us) together with a wise man, who shall truly direct us,
llfld who shall say: Here it is (se., the lost cattle)". (6.54.1)
In the Rig-Veda, purposive clauses are by far less frequent than causal
clauses. Hettrich ( 1988: 792ff.) counts 389 causal clauses marked by hi and
4s causal clauses marked by yad. By contrast, purposive subordinates include
64 yathii-clauses and 26 yad-clauses. The universal subordinator yad marks
cause almost twice as much as purpose. We might argue that the use of yadpurposive clauses starts from causal yad-clauses via contextual inference,
according to the semantic component that cause and purpose share, i.e. the
motivation of a given state of affairs, which in Old Indian spawns
automorphic structures between these two functions (6.3).
The low frequency of purposive hypotactic structures is not due to the fact
that the analyzed text contains environments more appropriate for a causal
than for a purposive clause. Rather, the eulogistic register of Rigvedic hymns
offers more contexts suitable for a purposive relation, as the prayer addressed
to the gods often expresses the speaker's wishes and goals, while we do not
find the report of chronologically ordered events or the description of natural
phenomena where cause-effect relations hold. The marginal status of
purposive subordinates in the Rig-Veda must be attributed to the competition
with nominal constructions, and particularly with abstract nouns inflected in
the dative case. "Der finale Dativ eines Verbalabstraktums stand im RV sowie
auch in den frUheren Sprachepochen seiner Funktion nach dem Finalsatz
nahe." (Sgalll958: 144)
The dative case (sampradiina "donation", Par)ini 1.4.32, 44) is found for
the function of purpose in many genetically and areally unrelated linguistic
domains (cf. Thompson and Longacre 1985: 186-87). In Vedic, this use involves not only action nouns working as infinitives as in (7.1 ), but also the dative of genuine substantives. The latter are called deobjectifs in Haudry ( 1977:
130), since they are tantamount to the objects of verbs such as "give", "receive", "obtain", etc., which are not present but are ea~ily recoverable from
the context. Deobjectifs nouns are considered semantically equivalent to deprecatifs nouns (1977: 123) like (7.1), and more generally to finite purposive
clauses. Geldner uses a finite subordinate clause to translate the dative of the
noun bhriitrfz- "brotherhood", from bhr&tr- "brother", in the passage reported
in (7.5): "Zu dir, Agni, als ihrem Vater (kommen) die Manner mit ihren
151

Wlinschen, zu dir, dem am Leibe gUinzenden mit Opferdienst, auf daB du ih

Bruder seiest." (1951: I, 276).
r
(7.5) tviim agne
pitaram
i~{ibhir
naras
you-ACC.SG Agni-VOC father.M-ACC.SG desire.F-INSTR.PL man.M-NOM.PL

tvdm

hhriitrdya

samyii

taniirzlcam

you-ACC.SG brotherhood.N-DAT.SG scrvicc.F-INSTR.SG having.a.shining.body-ACC.M.SG

"0 Agni, the men (come) to you as to their father with their desires, to You
who have a shining body with the service, in order to get your brotherhood'' '
(2.1.9)
.
Dative inflected genuine substantives with a purposive function are very
frequent in the Rig-Veda, and even outnumber dative inflected action nouns
(7.6). However, in the following sections we will consider finite purposive
clauses equivalent to action nouns where a verbal root is identifiable, rather
than to genuine substantives. We will particularly discuss those action nouns
that have reached the status of an infinitive. This methodological restriction
does not change the gist of the argumentation, since infinitives in Yedic
largely retain nominal features.

7.2. Nominal features of the Vedic infinitive

The scarce grammaticali1.ation of the Vedic infinitive arises from the many
suffixes available, which represent more or less rigidified case endings of action nouns. Beside datives (-dhyai, -e I -ai, -tave, -tavai, -taye, -tyai, -aye, -ase,
-se, -mane, ._vane), we also have accusatives (-am, -tum), ablative-genitives(~
as, -tos), and locatives (-1', -sani, -tani, -tari, -tau). These suffixes go back to
different epochs (Jeffers 1975). Not all of them are etymologically clear: the
origin of -dhyai, in particular, is controversial (cf. Sgall 1958: 154ff. for discussion and references). Even when they have a clear etymology, they are not
always related to an action noun: the suffix -sani, which derives from the heteroclite stem *-ser I -sen, is synchronically detached from any nominal paradigm in Yedic. However, for most infinitive suffixes the relation with nominal
case endings is so straightforward that scholars often disagree on whether a
given morpheme has to be assigned an infinitive or a nominal function. For
example, locative morphemes are generally excluded from the range of infinitives in Sgall ( 1958: 159-60), where only -sani is treated as an infinitive suffix, but are accepted in Disterheft ( 1980: 12-13). Conversely, genitive-ablative
endings are excluded in Diesterheft ( 1980: 126-28), but are admitted in Sgall
( 1958: 234-35).
These suffixes are not isofunctional and not replaceable with each other.
Rather, they are selected by different classes of verbs. Accusative infinitives
152

depend on motion and modal verbs, which govern the accusative case also in
10111 inal syntax. Ablative infinitives depend on verbs of fearing, impeding,
~nd protecting, which imply a psychological removal from an unpleasant
situation, and which also have ablative nominal complements, etc. As Speyer
put it, ''die syntaktische Bedeutung dieser Casus ist iiberall lebendig." ( 1896:
216
) hougI1 bot I1 accusattve
. an d dattve
. .mfitntttves
..
Alt
can express purpose, tI1e
latter have a less constrained distribution with this function. They do not depend only on verbs that imply a physical or emotional approaching toward a
goal, such as "desire", "search", "be suitable", etc., as accusative infinitive.
Rather, dative infinitives can be governed by any verb that denotes a volitional action, such as "make", "offer", "drink", "sing", etc. Dative infinitives
are also the overall most frequent infinitives in the Rig-Veda, where the suffix
-e prevails (Sgall 1958: 158), followed by -taye and -tave (Renou 1937: 26).
The scarce integration of the Vedic infinitive in the verbal system is also
evident in the lack of morphological marking for tense or voice. The future
value ofthe Vedic infinitive ("der indische Infinitiv hat vorwiegend futurische
Bedeutung", Speyer 1896: 215) is not morphologically encoded, but rather
emerges from the context, where verbs of motion or volition entail the future
achievement of a goal, and verbs of fear or impediment refer to a situation
that has not yet occurred. Moreover, in clauses with a positive polarity, a dative infinitive may be interpreted either as active or as passive according to
the context. The following examples contain two main verbs of motion and
two infinitives (stotave and stavadhyai) derived from the same root stu
"praise". In (7.6) the active reading is favored as the subject of the main
clause is the speaker, who comes to praise the god, while (7.7) licenses a passive interpretation, since the subject of the main clause is a chariot, which
comes to receive the praise of the poet. We will see below (9.11.4) that the
infinitive obligatory has a passive value only when it is used as the main
predicate of a negative clause.
(7.6) vemi
tva
pusann [ ... ] stotave
approach-IND.PRISG you-ACC.SG

"I approach to you, 0

(7. 7) a vo vahistho

PU~an,

Pii~an-VOC

prafse-IF

in order to praise you." (8.4.17ab)

vahatu

stavadhyai ratho

here your best.carrying-NOM.M.SG come-IPV3SG praise-IF

chariot.M-NOM.SG

"Your best carrying chariot may come here to be praised." (7 .37 .1 a)

The Vedic infinitive combines morpho-syntactic devices that pertain to both
nouns and verbs, and is capable of governing genitive complements like
nouns (7 .8) and accusative complements like finite verbs (7 .9) (on the possibility of dative objects, see below 7.4).

/53

(7 .8) sanaye dhciniiniim

gain-IF wealth.N-GEN.PL

"To gain a wealth" (4.20.3c)

(7.9) drtha
cid iiruje vasu
hard-ACC.N.PL even break-IF treasure.N-ACC.PL

"To break even the hardest treasures" (4 .31.2c)

Traditionally, only action nouns that have an a~cusative complement have
been considered infinitives ("Wir nennen also Infinitive vor allem diejenigen
Formen, welche einen Akkusativ regieren", Sgall 1958: 152). Sgall further
restrains this criterion to those cases where the accusative complement can be
unequivocally assigned to the infinitive rather than to the main verb, which
occurs when the main verb is intransitive or when it already has another
complement. From this point of view, the one in (7 .I) would not be
considered a bona fide infinitive, since the accusative patient somam ... sutam
"pressed soma" can also depend on the transitive main verb upa-sidati "he sits
near to", with the resulting reading: "One of them sat by the pressed soma of
the mortar, for drinking." Sgall ( 1958: 198) admits this possibility, and only
accepts the interpretation of an infinitive after having taken word order into
consideration. The non-contiguity of somam and srltam, which are located in
different verses of the stanza, indicates that we have to deal with two different
complements that have the same referent. The participle suta- can be also an
alternative name of the soma (MW 1899: 1219). Sgall ultimately accepts
Geldner's translation of the passage in (7.1): "Der eine hat sich zum Soma
gesetzt, urn den in den PreBbrettern ausgepreBten zu trinken". Many other
cases, however, remain dubious. As not all accusative complements are
authentic clues to an infinitive reading, not all genitive complements exclude
the presence of an infinitive, since a partitive genitive is also selected by finite
verbs of drinking, eating, giving, and ruling (Sgall 1958: 211 ). The contrast
between genitive and accusative complements, which, taken literally, rules out
an infinitive reading of all action nouns built on intransitive roots, must be
smoothed over and considered as a criterion to compare the internal syntax of
action nouns with that of finite clauses on the one hand and of ordinary noun
phrases on the other. Accordingly, an action noun can be legitimately viewed
as an infinitive if it governs a further noun that is inHected in the same
grammatical case as a complement in the corresponding finite clause, if it is
modified by an adverb, or if it eo-occurs with a preverb. By contrast, an action
noun that presents an adjective modifier or an adposition cannot in principle
be considered an infinitive.
All this indicates that the Vedic infinitive faithfully retains the morphological and syntactic features of the reconstructed PIE infinitive (cf. Jolly
1873; Gippert 1978). It is less nominal than the Old Irish infinitive, where
154

enitive complements are regular. but it is more nominal than the infinitive of
gther lE languages like Avestan, which generalizes accusative complements,
~r like Ancient Greek and Latin, where the infinitive is regularly marked for
tense and voice.
The mainly nominal status of the Vedic infinitive also contrasts with the
infinitive of Classical Sansk~it. Here only the accusative suffix -tum survives
from the plethora of infinitive suffixes found in the Rig-Veda, where it only
had a minor importance with respect to the alternative accusative infinitive am and to the formally related genitive-ablatives -tave and -Ios. With time, the
infinitive in -tum increases in transitivity (Renou 1937: 24-25), and in Classical Sanskrit it is a verb form, called tumun, that can be regularly built from
any verbal root.

7.3. The influence of pragmatics on the distribution of the infinitive

Whereas overt coding, and particularly the morphological case of the object of the infinitive, is traditionally considered relevant to discriminate between action nouns and infinitives, Disterheft (1980: 17-20) relies on control
properties pertaining to the subject of the infinitive. Accordingly, a verbal abstract is classified as an infinitive if its notional subject behaves as the subject
of an infinitive commonly does in languages, that is, if it is deleted or overt in
case of coreference or non-coreference, respectively, with a noun phrase in
the main clause. The verbal abstract "crash", for example, is an infinitive in
the clause "She heard him crash in the alley" because its subject is coreferential with the object of the main clause, and has been deleted from the underlying structure "She heard him. He crashed in the alley". The same verbal abstract "crash" is not, however, an infinitive in the clause "She heard a crash in
the alley", because in this case there is no subject, either ove11 or implied.
From this point of view, the dative abstract .~ubhe, derived from the root .~ubh
"shine", is an infinitive in (7.10) but not in (7.11). In the former example, it
presents equi-deletion with respect to the subject ofthe main clause. In the latter example, it qualifies the noun rukmiin "gold", with the meaning "gold as
an adornment" (Disterheft 1980: 120-25).
(7 .1 0) samiinam
an;y
aiijate
sub he kiim
same-ACC.N.SG ointment.N-ACC.SG anoint-IND.PR3PL shine-IF PTC

"They anoint themselves in the same ointment in order to shine." (7.57.3d)

(7 .11) vak$ahsu rukman
adhi yetire
subhe
breast.N-LOC.PL gold.M-ACC.PL upon bind-PF.MID3PL adomment.F-DAT.SG

"They bind the gold upon their breasts as an adornment." (1.64.4b)

155

Disterheft ( 1980) has the merit of having considered the whole 8

.
.
enten
rather than the mternal syntax of a verbal abstract, to establish the inti . ~
category. However, the importance of equi-deletion must not be llltll\lt
estimated in the case of the Vedic infinitive, since it appears in very diffi0 "et.
ways with respect to other languages where the infinitive is a grannnatica~~t
verbal fom1. In these languages, only arguments can control the subject ofled
infinitive. In English, for example, only the main clause subject ("I wan the
go") or the main clause object ("I want you to go") are admitted in the p1 ~
tion of controller of the infinitive. By contrast, in Vedic, as Disterheft os,.
know ledges ( 1980: 58-60), the subject of the infinitive can be coreferen~~
with any noun phrase of the main clause, even with a possessive (7 .12) 1
with an instrumental (7.13).
or
(7 .12) ev&
diidhiira le nuino
jivdtave
therefore grasp-PF3SG your mind.N-ACC.SG live-IF

"Therefore he has grasped your mind in order that (you) may Jive!'
( 10.60.8c; Disterheft 1980: 59)
(7.13) en&
vayo
vi tiiry
/tyur
jivase
he-INSTR power.N-NOM.SG PRE strcngthen-INJ.AOR.PS3SG life.N-ACC.SG live-IF

"The power was strengthened by him in order that (he) live his life."
(10.144.5c; Disterheft 1980: 60)
Since control properties are grammatically unconstrained in Vedic, their
heuristic power is undennined. For example, the subject of jlvitse in (7.13)
can also be either the hearer ("in order that you may live") or the speaker ("in
order that we may live"). The hearer lndra is denoted by the second person
enclitic pronoun te in the previous part of the stanza: "The pleasant, unrobbed,
red dwelling of the juice, which the Eagle brought to you with his foot, by
him the power was strengthened, etc." The soma plant is the antecedent of the
instrumental pronoun enfi, which Disterheft considers the controller of the
subject of the infinitive. In this context, however, the reading of a soma plant
that strengthens lndra's power in order to live, as in Disterheft's translation, is
quite odd as compared with an interpretation where the soma plant strengthens lndra's power so that lndra may live. Accordingly, the controller of the
subject of the infinitive must be searched in another clause and in another
verse. The alternative interpretation of the speaker as the subject of the infinitive fiwise is based on many similar passages where we have an explicit first
person pronoun (e.g. 8.48.4 pra qa ifyur jivase soma tiiriq .. Lengthen out, 0
Soma, our life so that we may live", cf. also 8.18.22, 8.18.18, I 0.14.14, etc.).
This reading is also implied in Griffith's translation of the passage in (7.13):
"Through this came vital power which lengthens out our days" ( 1889: 640;
emphasis added). In this way, the controller of the infinitive is not present in
the stanza and must be inferred, which contravenes Diesterheft's criterion of
156

..O let ion. Cases like this, where the controller of the subject of the infini,q\11 ;,not be certainly assigned, are frequent in the Rig-Veda. Despite the

ci~ flY control properties as applied to the Vedic infinitive are not a more

,.o-ve r~l

criterion than the morphological coding properties tested in Sgall

P"';~) and others. As Diesterheft admits, "with a certain group it is debatable

~9 ther the infinitive actually does have a subject that has been deleted or

~ether it is simply an oblique NP expressing a nominal relationship to the

w ~~~ verb. The crux of the matter, then, is whether these datives and accusa~a; fonns are infinitive clauses or simply oblique NPs." (I 980: 120)

uv Jt turns out that pragmatic, rather than syntactic, factors must be considred to establish whether a verbal abstract has a deleted subject, and which
eoun phrase in the main clause can be viewed as its controller. Commonly,
~1 is .nay be identified in the more salient participant, in terms of animacy, ref.
erentiality, and topicality, since only an agentive and volitional individual can
be the subject of a purposive infinitive. If no candidate with these features is
explicitly expressed, the function of subject of the infinitive ought to be assigned to a speech act participant, and particularly to the speaker, which is
111aximally specific and topical.
The frequent indetenninacy of the subject of the infinitive can be explained as a relic of the infinitive nominal status. Geldner renders the abstract
nouns of the passages (7.12) and (7.13) as nouns rather than as infinitives
(zum l.eben, Ill, 225 and 378). On the intermediate status of the verbal abstractjiw:itave in (7.12), see Renou (1937: 18). Action nouns, which represent
presupposed information, only rarely have an overt subject or object, since
this infonnation is recoverable from the context. Cross-linguistically, action
nouns often show phenomena of valency reduction (Koptjevskaja-Tamm I 993:
12-15).
Diesterheft ( 1980: I 04- I06) compares the control properties of the RigVeda with those of Avestan, where the subject of the infinitive cannot be
coreferential with a possessive or an instrumental in the main clause, and
where even the object of the main clause is more constrained than in Vedic as
controller of the subject of the infinitive. She concludes (p. 129-33) that object
controlled equi-deletion independently develops in the different branches of
lndo-lranian, and that Vedic innovates in extending the range of coreference
to other main clause syntactic positions, such as instrumental and possessive.
In must be emphasized, however, that a reduction of control properties with
respect to Vedic also appears in Classical Sanskrit, where the subject of the
infinitive can be controlled by the subject, but not by the object, of the main
clause. To translate the clause "I want you to go" in Classical Sanskrit, one
cannot use the infinitive (7.14), but must use either direct quotation (7. I 5) or
an action noun that does not coincide with the infinitive (7. I6). In the latter
/57

case, the abstract noun gamana- derived from the root gam "go" is tl
different from the eo-radical infinitive gantum, which is ungrammatica~~llll)
function. (Aklujkar 2002: 64-65; for details on verbs or whishing, Ordan ~his
etc. plus infinitive, cf. 9.12 and 9.14.)
er"'&.
(7.14) **yu.$miin gantum icchiimi
you-ACC.PL go-IF

want-IND.PRISG

(7 .15) gacchata iti icchami

go-IPV2PL thus want-IND.PRI SG

(7 .16) yu.$miikaf!l gamanam

icchami

your-GEN.PL going.N-ACC.SG want-IND.PRISG

The reduction of control strategies that appears from Vedic to Classical

Sanskrit manifests a more uniform behavior and therefore an increased grammaticalization of the infinitive. In the same vein we must interpret the reduc.
tion of control strategies of Avestan, which shows a higher grammaticaliza_
tion as compared to Vedic also in the generalized accusative encoding of the
object ofthe infinitive.

7.4. Double datives

Vedic displays structures with two datives, associated by ditlerent syntactic and semantic relations. The most frequent types are those where the dative
noun functions as the agent subject (7 .17) or as the patient object ( 7.18) of the
dative infinitive. Apparently, the infinitive agrees in grammatical case with its
external and intemal argument. respectively, which in Vedic is aberrant from
a synchronic point of view.
(7 .17) sv&di.${haya
madis!hayii
pavasva
soma
swcct-SUP.lNSTR.F.SG gladdening-SlW.INSTR.F.SG flow.pure-IPV2SG Soma-VOC
dharayii 1
indriiya p&tave sutal)
stream.F-INSTR.SG lndra-DAT drink-IF squeeze-PP.NOM.M.SG

"With the sweetest and most gladdening stream, flow pure, 0 Soma,
squeezed so that lndra may drink." (9 .1.1)
(7 .18) indraf!l vrtrirya h0111ave puruhutam
upa bruve
lndra-ACC V[lra-DAT kill-IF much.invoked-ACC.M.SG PRE address-IND.PR 1SG

"I address lndra, the much invoked one, in order that he may kill V,rtra."
(3.37.5ab)
Some scholars explain double datives as derivations from other more regular constructions. From this perspective, two main hypotheses have been put
forward, i.e. attraction and inflection.
The hypothesis of attraction claims that, since a dative ending is semantically motivated in the infinitive, but is at odds with the object function of the
158

,. ted substantive, an influence from the infinitive to the direct object

,SSO"~ave occurred. This explanation is found in Speyer's syntax ("Bei da111~sl1 en Jnfin. steht bisweilen das Object durch eine Art Attraction im Dativ",
ti"1~ ' 65 ), as well as in Whitney (1879: 982a), MacDonell ( 191 ~: 315), and
t890~ ( 1952: 360). Accordingly, the underlying structure of vrtriiya hantave
~e;7 _t8) is vrtraf!l hantave, where the object is regularly inflected in the accu-

vc case. In the Rig-Veda, however, structures with double dative and

sallctllres with dative infinitive plus accusative coexist, and therefore the forstr~ cannot be reduced to the latter. Moreover, that the infinitive exerts attrac'!'e11 on the subject or object noun is in conflict with word order, since subject
uo object a Imost aIways precedt"fi""
and
e t 1e m 1mt1ve.
The hypothesis of inflection was suggested in Renou ( 1937: 28) and, in a
rnoditied version, in Haudry ( 1977: 435-36). Renou observes that double datives are more frequent with -tave infinitives than with infinitives built with
other dative suffixes, and considers this use as going back to voice-indifferent
verbal adjectives in -tu. From this P<?int of view, (7.17) represents the dative
inflection of an original *indral} piituft "lndra devant boire", while (7.18)
represents the dative inflection of an original *vrtro hantuh "V,rtra devant etre
rue". Haudry searches the antecedent of double dative in the dative inflection
of compound nouns, and reduces (7.17) and (7 .18) to indra-p&tave and vrtrtihtintave. The nominal status of these compounds, as well as of the corresponding genitive phrases indrasya p&tu- "lndra's drinking" and vrtrcisya
h(mtu- "V[lra's killing", allegedly motivates the indifference to voice that is
typical of Vedic double dative. Haudry's hypothesis presents some weak
points. First, simple nouns diachronically do not derive from the split and
from the inflection of compounds, but rather compounds derive from the
frequent association of simple nouns (cf. Hopper and Traugott 1993: 40-41 ).
Second, it is not necessary to trace back to a compound in order to explain the
nominal features of a double dative, e.g. indifference to voice, since the infinitive is originally perceived as a noun 1 Third, inflection, like attraction, must
cope with the coexistence of double datives with their putative early forms:
the Rig-Veda also has dative compounds expressing purposes, such as somapitaye "soma-drinking" (4.46.3, 4.46.7, 4.47.1, 4.47.3, 4.49.3, etc.).
Quite differently, some scholars explain Vedic double datives as structures
that have their own rationale (DelbrUck 1869: I 04; 1888: 88-90; 140ft... ; Gae111

I. "The surface verbal chardeteristics of lE infinitives are everywhere secondary, and recognition of this fact is basic to an understanding of any aspect of their development. Rather than
retaining an association with the verb system, through re-interpretation these derived nouns
have been secondarily integrated into the verbal system of the historical languages." (JctTers
1975: 136)

/59

dicke 1880: 253; Sgall 1958: 206-10; Gonda 1962b, etc.). The double dative
is considered an instance of coordination (also called juxtaposition, apposition
or expansion) between a dative substantive and a dative infinitive, both or
which originally abide by their syntactic functions in the clause. In particular
the substantive refers to a marginal participant of the main clause event ("th~
object in view", Gonda 1962b: 142), and often plays the role of a dativus
commodi or incommodi. Accordingly, the double dative can be reduced to two
simple datives, the former of which syntactically belongs to the main clause.
With time, as the verbal character of the infinitive increased, and the contigu~
ous word order rigidified, the appositive relation between dative noun and da~
tive infinitive was reanalyzed as an instance of government. In (7.17), the re~
lation [flow pure for Indra [in order that he may drink]] was re-bracketed into
[flow pure [in order that lndra may drink]]. In (7.18), the relation [I address
Indra against V[l:ra [in order that he may be killed]] was re-bracketed into [I
address Indra [in order that V[l:ra may be killed]].
The analysis of the double dative as an appositive construction is more sat~
isfactory than the hypotheses mentioned above. It allows a unitary account of
other structures where two datives are associated, and where the dative substantive clearly has the function of beneficiary (7 .19) or destination (7 .20).
That these functions originally pertained to the types illustrated in (7 .17) is
consistent with the low grammaticalization of Vedic cases, which commonly
maintain their full semantic value in the clause. In Vedic, the nominative expresses the role of the agent, the accusative the role ofthe patient, and the dative the role of the beneficiary (cf. Rocher 1975: 34-35; Lazzeroni 2002a).
(7 .19) pra dii~use
datave
PRE sacrifier.M-DAT.SG give-IF

"Pour (queje puisse le) donner au sacrifiant" (4.20.10b, Renou 1937: 27)
(7 .20) piirdya
gantave
bank.M-DAT.SG go-IF

"Pour (que nous puissions) aller a rautre {rive)" (1.46.7b, Renou 1937: 27)
Diesterheft (1980: 29-30) disagrees with the interpretation of double datives as appositive constructions, and claims {p. 60) that the subject of the infinitive is inflected in the dative case when it is not coreferent with any NP in
the main clause. The two hypotheses, however, are not incompatible, since
what is synchronically the overt subject of the infinitive in a double dative can
be also a NP that diachronically has been extracted from the main clause. The
hypothesis of apposition only concerns the origin of double datiyes, and admits that they have been gradually reanalyzed as predicative structures consisting of subject plus infinitive or object plus infinitive.
The antiquity of double dative structures emerges from parallels in other
lE languages, notably in the S la vie and Baltic branches (Haudry 1968: 144).
160

At the stage of the Rig-Veda, they are already a relic, as can be seen in their
use in fixed idioms, where the dative noun usually does not show any modifier. By contrast, in the construction of accusative noun plus dative infinitive,
tJte accusative complement is often provided with an adjectival (7.9) or with a
genitival modifier (Renou 1937: 27}, which testifies the productivity of this
type. Predictably, double datives disappear in Classical Sanskrit.

7.5. Purposive clauses marked by a particle

We already mentioned in 2 that, among the semantically ambiguous
clauses marked by a particle, those introduced by etii (or eto < etii + u) (7.21)
and those introduced by kuvid (7.22) express a wish or an expected result.
Since they determine verbal accent on the following verb, these particles can
be included among subordination markers. Like double datives consisting of
dative subject plus infinitive (7.17), these clauses entail a different subject
(DS) with respect to the main clause. Like double datives, they also have a
scarce productivity.
(7.21) eto
nv adya sudhyo
bhaviima
go-IPV2PL PTC today pious-NOM.M.PL be-SB.PRIPL

"Go, in order that we may be pious today." (5.45.5a)

(7.22) naval}'l
nu st6mam
agnciye dival]

syen&ya

new-ACC.M.SG PTC praise.M-ACC.SG Agni-DAT sky.M-GEN.SG eagleM-DAT.SG

jijanam /

vasval]

kuvid van&ti

generatc-INJ.AORISG wealth.N-GEN.SG PTC

nal]

win-SB.PR3SG us-OAT

"I generate a new praise for Agni, the eagle of the sky, in order that he
may win a wealth for us." (7.15.4)
In eta-clauses, the purposive meaning is associated with a verb of motion,
which cross-linguistically is one of the most typical lexical sources for purpose. ln particular, eta is etymologically an archaic full grade imperative from
the root i "go" (Dunkel 1985: 56), which has been superseded in the paradigm
with the more regular zero-grade form ita. The exit from the paradigm contributed to the use of eta as an emphatic particle, commonly translated in
Geldner ( 1951) with the interjection Wohlan! A similar semantic shift can be
seen in the particle hanta, which in Vedic prose determines the accent on the
following verb, and which is originally an imperative form from the root han
"strike". Clauses introduced by etii I eta that govern an internal2 accented verb
2. That the accented verb is non-contiguous to eta I eto is crucial to interpret these clauses as
subordinate, since the accentuation of the second of two contiguous verbs also occurs in parataxis (2.2). Therefore. examples such as 1.33.1 etilyama (eta + dyiima) "Go, we want to go"
(SB.PRIPL) are here excluded. Dunkel (1985: 51) claims that even internal accented verbs like

161

are very rare, five in total in the Rig-Veda: in addition to 5A5.5 in (7. 21
have 5.45.6 previously reported in (2.4), and a formula which is repeat~'~
the three passages 8.24.19, 8.81.4, and 8.95.7. All of them show DS bet dIll
the main verb elii, which is inflected in the second plural person, and thW~n
pendent accented verb, which is a first plural subjunctive.
e c.
Kuvid-clauses have 48 occurrences in the Rig-Veda (Hettrich 1988: 790
Excluding two instances where a main clause is lacking (4.51.4 and 7.91.! ~
l-lettrich p. 151), we have 30 instances of DS (1.143.6 three clauses, 2.16~7
2.35.1, 2.35.2, 3.42.4, 3.43.5 two clauses, 5.3.1 0, 5.36.3, 6.23.9, 6.42.4, 7.ts 4
7.58.5, 8.26.1 0, 8.91.4 four clauses, 8.96.1 0, 8.96.11, 8.96.12, 8.1 03.9, 9.1 9
I0.119.2 I 3 I 4 I 6 I 1) and 16 instances of same subject (SS) ( 1.33.1, 2.s:s
3.42.2, 8.75.11, 8.80.3, 10.64.12, 10.64.13, 10.119.1 I 5 I 8-13, 10.131.2)
Cases of subject coreference between main clause and kuvid-clausc especially
appear in the recent sections of the Rig-Veda. They also occur in unclear contexts, as in the case of2.5.5 (Geldner 1951: I, 283).
Generally, the main verb expresses a volitional act, mainly performed by
the speaker ("I_ sing", "I offer a sacrifice", etc.), and the dependent kuvidclause represents the pursued consequence of this act, which involves either
the hearer or a third person addressee ("that you will come here", "that the
god may accept this offer", etc.). Cf. also (2.7) and (2.8). Although it derives
from the stem of the interrogative pronoun, and it has been occasionally interpreted as a marker of an indirect interrogative clause (2.3.2), kuvid never depends on a verb of asking, and is commonly translated by Gcldner with an assevcrative particle (gewijJ or sicher). Semantically, kul'ic/-clauses are close to
purposive clauses introduced by a relativizer, as noticed in Delbriick ( 1900:
295) and confirmed in Hettrich (1988: 145ff.). They occur in the same contexts as purposives, and share with them the mainly postposed word order
with respect to the main clause. The interrogative stem of kuvid efficaciously
represents the preference for a OS between a main clause and dependent
clause: a purpose that entails someone else's action has less certain accomplishment than a purpose implying the- speaker's own action. The former function is also clearly expressed by another form of irrealis such as an imperative
in eta-clauses.

S'

that in (7.21) belong to paratactic structures, and ascribes their accentuation to emphasis. Differently, Hettrich (1988: 156) and Klein (1992: 74-76) view these clauses as instances of
subordination.

162

Eyolution from purposive nominalizations to purposive finite

16

eJauses

fhe progressive dismissal of eta-clauses, kuvid-clauses, and many nomitizations that convey a purposive meaning is related to the ascent of finite
":rposive clauses, which is already patent in the Rig-Veda. In 2 we disp ssed some factors (heterogeneous lexical sources, etc.) that presumably
c~ntributed to the progressive disappearance of subordination marked by ver~al accentuation plus a particle. We now focus on the decline of the infinitive.
Although there is obviously nothing necessary in this, we can evaluate a posteriori the communicative efficaciousness of the infinitive, which was rather
toW in comparison with that of finite subordinates marked by a relativizer.
Nominal status entails predicative weakness. To the extent that the infinitive is not marked for tense and voice, it is not adequate for describing events.
Moreover, that the infinitive has the form and the distribution of a noun undermines its capability of taking accusative objects as in (7.9), which is constrained ("il n'apparait pas qu'il y ait beaucoup d'exemples de noms d'action
suivis d'un accus. regime", Renou 1937: 19) and competes with government
of genitive (7 .8) and dative (7 .18) o~jects. The experimental ism attested in the
Rig-Veda can especially be observed when a dative infinitive is associated
with both a subject and an object. In this case, the subject noun is inflected in
the dative and the object noun is inflected in the accusative (7.23).
(7.23) visvasmii it svar
drse
all-DAT.M.SG PTC sun.N-ACC see-IF

"In order that everybody may sec the sun" (9.48.4a)

This passage represents an extended case of double dative with a dative
subject (7.17) rather than of double dative with a dative object (7.18). Predictably, subjects are better candidates than objects for a dative coding, since
datives are typically used in languages for definite referents (Givon 200 I: I,
473). According to the hypothesis of double datives as originally appositive
constructions (7.4), the dative subject in (7.23), as well as the dative object
in (7.26), must be considered the dativus commodi and incommodi of the main
clause, which are only partially affected by the action of the main verb. By
contrast, when both subject and object are inflected in the accusative as in
(7.24). we deal with a causative structure, where the subject of the infinitive is
totally affected by the implied -verb karoti "he makes" (Geldner 195 I: Ill,
369).
(7 .24) kesf
ViSVOlJ'l
svar
dfSe
Iong.haired-NOM.M.SG all-ACC.M.SG sun.N-ACC see-IF

"The long-haired one (makes) everybody see the sun." (I 0.136.lc)

163

Beside structures with dative subject and accusative object as in (7.23) and
(7 .25), the latest book of the Rig-Veda also presents one example where both
subject and object are dative nouns, with a resulting construction consisting f
three dative forms, infinitive included (7.26). Renou (1937: 28) considers th~
8
passage "un cas curieux de combinaison".
(7 .25) brahmadvi.yal}
sarave
hantawi u
Brahman.enemy.M-ACC.PL arrow.F-DAT.SG kill-IF

PTC

"So that the arrow may kill the enemies ofthe Brahman" (l0.182.3b)
(7 .26) brahmadvi.ye
sarave
hantavti u
Brahman.enemy.M-DAT.SG arrow.F-DAT.SG kill-IF

PTC

"So that the arrow may kill the enemy of the Brahman" (I 0.125.6b)
In (7.26), the high animacy of the object ("the enemy of the Brahman") as
compared to the subject ("the arrow") may have contributed to the overt coding of the object as a dative, given the above-mentioned association between
dative and human referents3
Cases as (7 .26), where both arguments of an infinitive receive the same
overt coding, are tolerable to the extent that the purposive construction consists of few elements, whose lexical meaning drives the assignment of syntactic functions. In the same vein, the grammatically unconstrained control properties of the infinitive require a limited number of main clause participants
that can be antecedent of the subject of the infinitive. Both in the case of infinitives and in the case of genuine substantives as in (7.5), purposive nominalizations are commonly used in short and compact clauses, and mostly do
not have any complement or modifier. In the fourth book, which belongs to
the oldest nucleus of the Rig-Veda, we counted 25 infinitives, out of which 17
examples of the simple type, 5 examples with an accusative object, and 3 examples with a double dative. In the same book, we counted 62 purposive action nouns, including 42 simple nouns, 5 nouns plus an adjective, 8 nouns
plus a genitive, and 7 compound nouns.
As can be seen, purposive action nouns (62 instances) are more frequent
than infinitives (25 instances). Moreover, the overall amount of purposive
nominalization in the fourth book (87 instances) is almost equal to the number
of purposive finite subordinates introduced by a relativizer (yathii and yad put
together, 90 instances) in the whole Rig-Veda. In the fourth book there are
only 6 purposive subordinates, unequally distributed between the 5 with yathii
(4.16.20, 4.54.1, 4.55 .3, two times in 4.57 .6) and 1 with yad (4.16.11 ). The
conjunction yathii becomes more frequent in the tenth book (Hettrich 1988:
283) and continues spreading in Classical Sanskrit, where it shares the pur3. Sgall (1958: 202) has reservations about another structure with three datives, in the recent
passage 1.1 I 1.4, where both the dative patient (siitaye "booty") and the dative agent (dhiye
"poetic thought") have inanimate referents.

164

osive function with the conjunctions yena and Y,&vat, in addition to the obso-

rete yad (Speyer 1886: 471 ). With yena and yiivat, the set of available purosive conjunctions increases. The progressive diffusion of purposive finite

~ubordinates parallels the dramatic reduction that the infinitive undergoes

over time, both morphologically (only one suffix remained out of about 20
suffixes) and syntactically (only the subject of the main clause is admitted as
coreferential with the subject of the infinitive).
All this manifests the search of predicative structures that are capable of
bearing more arguments with their modifiers. Finite subordinates introduced
by a relativizer allow representing a higher number of participants, each one
unambiguously marked for case in the same way as it would be expected in an
independent clause. Purposive finite subordinates usually do not share their
participants with the main clause, but rather represent a state of atTairs that is
independent ofthe main clause in terms of tense, aspect, and modality. In particular, they almost never have the same subject as the main clause. DS is
found in 78% of the cases with yatha-clauses (32 out of 41 instances) and, in
a slightly lower percentage (73%), with yad-purposive clauses ( 19 out of 26
instancest. Although DS is also allowed for the infinitive in the Rig-Veda, it
occurs more rarely than in yatha and yad-clauses. Sgall's (1958: 229-30)
statement that only accusative infinitives privilege SS, whereas dative infinitives do not, is corrected by Diesterheft ( 1980: 33) on the basis of a larger
corpus, where SS appears as often associated also with dative infinitives (7 .I).
Double datives, which apparently are specialized for DS, are rare: Diesterheft
(1980: 60) counts only fifty-odd double datives as (7.17) out of almost 500
clauses collected.
The scarce importance of DS in nominalizations and the late diffusion of
DS-purposive finite clauses represent two sides of the same tendency,
whereby purposive structures with SS are more natural in languages than pur-

4. lbc yathii-clauses with a DS with respect to the main clause arc the following: 1.10.5,
1.43.2-3 (here ycitlrii appears 6 times, but only 2 times it is linked to a verb), 1.89.1. 1.89.5,
1.111.2, 1.114.1, 1.138.2, 1.173.8-9 (2 purpose clauses), 1.186.1, 1.186.3, 2.4.8-9, 2.5. 7-8,
2.24.1, 2.30.11. 3.35.2, 4.16.20, 4.55.3, 4.57.6 (2 purpose clauses), 6.23.5, 6.34.5, 6.36.5,
6.48.15. 7.3.6-7, 7.26.1, 7.64.3, 7.97.2, 7.104.3, 8.102.7-8, and 9.76.5. Theyatlui-clauscs sharing the SS with the main clause arc in 1.186.2, 2.26.2. 4.54.1, 5.61.4, 6.23.1 0, 6.44.16, 6.63.2,
7.24.1, and 7.100.2. 'lbeydd-clauses with l>S arc 1.61.13, 2.17.1, 3.9.6, 3.14.4, 4.16.11, 5.6.4,
5.31.6 (which however Geldner considers an explicative), 5.34.2 (a temporal clause for Ueldner), 6.26.7, 7.27.1, 7.28.5 (a temporal clause for Geldner), 7.30.2-3 (only one of these two purpose clauses differs in subject from the main clause), 7.61.2, 8.5.22. 8.45.33, 8.45.39, 8.62.1,
8. 93.30 (a temporal clause for Ueldncr), and 10.89.14. The ycid-clauscs with SS arc 1.173.1.
1.173.2, 3.19.4, 6.26.5 (a temporal clause for Geldncr), 7.8.6, 7.30.2 (only one out of these two
purpose clauses has the same subject as the main clause), and 7.32.7 (a temporal clause for
Geldner).

165

posive structures with OS. A purposive relation implies the intentionality

the subject of the main clause, and it is more natural for one to express the .or
tention to do something that concems his or her, rather than someone else'~
sphere of interest. "The reference of subject of purpose clauses is most of ths,
time predictable (i.e. it is coreferential with the main clause subject) becau c
people are egoistic and act for their own purposes." (Haspelmath 1989: 30~e
The diachronic change that is observable in Old Indian from nominali:t.ation t)
finite subordinates mir~ors a change from unmarked to marked purposive con~
structions in Haspelmath's sense. The syntax ofpurposive finite clauses intro.
duced by a relativizer will be discussed in 7.7. We will deal, in particular
with those factors that may have favored the diffusion of )ldthii at the expen~
ofyad.

7.7. Purposive clauses marked by a relativizer

7. 7.1.Basic similarities and differences between yatha- and yad-clauses

Purposive finite subordinates marked by yathii and by yad share several
syntactic features, as shown in Hettrich ( 1988: 278fT.; 386ff.), such as: I. Both
conjunctions occupy an intemal, rather than initial, position inside the subordinate clause. 2. The prevailing mood in the subordinate is the optative, followed by the subjunctive. 3. The subordinate clause is postposed to the main
clause (although many yathii-clauses traditionally translated as purposives are
preposed to their main clause). 4. The main clause does not present any correlative element (except for one case with yathii where a correlative appears).
These featlll'es can also be identified in Ancient Greek and Latin purposive
clauses (Jeffers and Pepicello 1979: 12-14), which led to the hypothesis of a
purposive subordinate clause already existing in PIE.
However, some syntactic differences exist between yad-purposive clauses
and ytlthii-purposive clauses. The latter exhibit a lower connection with the
main clause and a lower predictability of the represented purposive state of
affairs. We already mentioned that yathii-clauses more often than ytid-clauses
show a diffetent subject with respect to the main clause. Moreover, yathiiclauses are more extended than yad clauses, and ofien are articulated across
an entire verse, hemistich, or stanza, with an evident metrical and syntactic
separation from their main clause (7.7.2). Yathii-clauses commonly exhibit
explicit anaphora for noun phrases introduced in the main clause, and therefore resemble the cohesive strategies of discourse rather than of the sentence
(7.7.3). Only sentences marked by yathii display environments that are considered anomalous for a purposive clause in Vedic, such as a non-accented
166

b the additional presence of a coordinator, a preposed order with respect to

~er ,;1ain clause, and a correlative in the main clause (7.7.4). Thatytithii- and

t,:d-clauses are not isofunctional can be especially observed when they appear
~ the same context (7.7.5).
111 such different usages arise from the examination of the 26 ycid-purposive
Jauses found in the entire Rig-Veda (for reference to the single passages see
~ettrich 1988: 80 I), and, among the 64 yathii-clauses, of the 41 instances beJouging to the first nine books. In this section, both conjunctions occur, albeit
uuequally, while in the tenth book yathii is generalized. "I m I 0. Buch des RV
die mit yatha eingeleiteten Finalsatze im Verhaltnis zu den mit yad
eingeleiteten erheblich haufiger sind als im RV insgesamt." (Hettrich 1988:
283) This determines the progressive disappearance of purposive yad since
Vedic prose (cf. Delbri.ick 1888: 329). In Classical Sanskrit, purposive yad is
very rare (Speyer 1886: 466; 1896: 279e). Accordingly, to find out whether
a functional opposition between yathii and yad-purposive clauses exists, it is
appropriate to focus on books I-IX of the Rig-Veda. The syntactic contrast
between yathii and ycid-clauses, as well as the progressive disappearance of
ytid-clauses in Classical Sanskrit, can be explained by taking into account the
different morphology of the two subordinators (7.7.6).

7. 7.2. Same vs. different hemistiches or stanzas

Main and subordinate clauses are placed in different hemistiches5 in 35 out
of 41 passages marked by yathii, i.e. in more than the 85% of the cases. Some
of these even involve different stanzas, which is particularly significant
considering that metric and syntactic units commonly coincide in the RigVeda (Gonda 1958). The purposive clause in (7.27) depends on the verb stuse
"I praise", which is located in the previous stanza. As usual, main and
subordinate clauses differ in subject. Cf. also (7 .30) and (7 .35). In 8.1 02.8, the
verb of the main clause appears two stanzas before the subordinate.
(7 .2 7) tvesaTfl
sardho
no m&rutaf{l
tuvisva1]y
impetuous-ACC.M.SG troop.NACC.SG like MarutGEN.PL loud.sounding-ACC.N.SG

anarva1'jam

pusafJGTfl SCtTfl

irresistible-ACC.M.SG

Pii~an-ACC

kArisac

yathii sat&

I SCtTfl

sahasrii

together that hundred together thousand

carsal'Jibhya/J

pour-SB.AOR3SG people.F-ABL.PL

5. It is worth mentioning that the hemistich, which represents the basic metrical unit of Rigvedic hymns, denotes half a stanza in the Indian grammatical tradition, and generally consists
of two verses, despite its terminological inaccuracy.
167

"(I praise) Pii~an, impetuous like the loud-sounding troop of the Marut
irresistible, in order that he may pour together a hundred, a thousand
(treasures) from all people." (6.48.15a-c)
The placement of yatha-clauses in the same hemistich as their lllai
clauses occurs in 6 out of 41 passages, i.e. in 15% of the cases ( 1.138.2"
2.26.2, 6.23.5, 6.63.2, 7.26.1, and 9.76.5). Even in this minor group'
disconnecting factors between the two clauses intervene. For example, i~
6.23.5 three different subjects appear inside the same hemistich: "In the
squeezed juice we say praises, (the priest) sings a hymn, so that the prayer is a
growth for Indra." Cf. also (7.3). With the conjunction yad, main and
subordinate clauses belonging to the same hemistich are found in 10 out of26
passages (1.173.1, 1.173.2, 2.17.1, 3.19.4, 6.26.5, 7.27.1, 7.28.5, 7.32.7,
8.62.1, and 10.89.14}, i.e. in 38% of the occurrences. Although they are a
minority, their proportion is more than double with respect to yatha- clauses.
Their structure is brief and compact, as can be seen in (7.28), where main
clause and ycid-clause share the same subject.
(7 .28) hhava variitham
maghavan
maghonaf!l
be-IPV2SG protection.N-ACC.SG gencrous-VOC.M.SG generous-GEN.M.PL

yat samajasi

.Mrdhatal]

that subduc-SB.PR2SG bold-ACC.M.PL

"May you be the protection of the generous, 0 generous one, in order that
you may subdue the bold." (7 .32. 7ab)
This succinctness remains unchanged even when the main clause and the
subordinate clause are placed in two different hemistiches and have different
subject, as in (7.29). There are no intervening verses full of epithets addressed
to the gods and detached from the argumental structure of the sentence, which
are typical of ytitha-clauses instead. The articulation of the sentence across
different stanzas is never found.
(7 .29) tcived
u tal]
suk'irtciyo
'sann
you-GEN.SG.PTC PTC this-NOM.F.PL praise.F-NOM.PL be-SB.PR3PL

uta prasastayafJ

yad tndra

mrtayast

nah

and prayer.F-NOM.PL that Indra-VOC have.mercy-SB.PR2SG us-OAT

"May these praises and prayers be yours, so that, 0 Indra, you have mercy
of us." (8.45.33)

7. 7.3. Implicit vs. explicit anaphora

With the subordinator yatha, main and subordinate clauses usually represent two independent states of affairs, each one with its own participants. A
bunch of yatha-purposive clauses belongs to hymns that are addressed to all
168

ods (viJvedevii/t, 1.89.1, 1.89.5, 1.186.1, 1.186.2, 1.186.3, and 4.55.3) or to

~oups of gods (1.111.2, 2.30.11, 5.61.4, 6.48.15, and 7.104.3). In these

ltylllns. a particularly loose cl.ause linka~e appears .. While hymns devoted to
one deity follow a coherent d1scourse (w1th a prem1se, a central part summarizing the deed of the god, and a final request of help), here the juxtaposition
of disconnected images is preferred. An example of this is the passage in
(7.27), selected from a mantra which is described as a hymne composite in
Renou (EVP XV, p. 142), as it is addressed to Agni, the Maruts, and Pii~an.
The context in which (7 .27) is inserted runs like this: "I praise this god of
yours, as wise as Indra, as artful as Varuf!a, as pleasant as Aryaman, who has
abundant food like Vi~f!U, to beckon at him, PU~an, impetuous etc." Since
various gods are mentioned, and create a potential interference in the reference-tracking, the name of Pii~an is explicitely repeated in the following stanzas. Hymns addressed to all gods or to groups of deities, which manifest a
syntaxe brisee (Renou, EVP XV, p. 142), never contain yad-purposive clauses.
A contrast between explicit anaphora with yathii and implicit anaphora with
yad can be observed in (7.30) and (7.31). Their argument structure is similar:
in both of them the indirect object of the main clause is also the subject of the
purposive claus~. Still, their anaphoric strategies are remarkably different.
(7.30) kad rudriiya pracetase
ml/hu~tamiiya
what Rudra-DAT wise-DAT.M.SG bountiful-SUP.DAT.M.SG

tavyase

vocema

SiurztamaTfl

hrde

11

strong-COMP.DAT.M.SG say-OP.PRISG dear-SUP.ACC.N.SG heart.N-DAT.SG

yathii no
that

aditil]

yathii gave
that

karat

pasve

nihhyo

us-GEN Aditi-NOM make-SB.AOR3SG cattle.M-DAT.SG man.M-DAT.PL

I

yathii to/cJya

cow.F-DAT.SG that

yathii no

mitr6

rudriyam

11

progeny.N-DAT.SG Rudra's.favor.N-ACC.SG

varUr]O

yathii rudras ciketati

that us-GEN Mitra-NOM Varul}a-NOM that Rudra-NOM care-SB.PF3SG

yathii visve
that

sa}6sasal}

ali-NOM.M.PL accordant-NOM.M.PL

"What can we say to Rudra, the wise, the most bountiful, the strongest one,
that may be dearest to his heart? In order that Aditi may make Rudra's favor
to our cattle, men, cows, and progeny, in order that Mitra and Varuf!a, Rudra,
and all gods in accordance may care for us." ( 1.43.1-3)
(7 .31) pro asma upastutim
bharatii
yqj ju}osati
PRE he-DAT praise.F-ACC.SG bring-IPV2PL that rejoice-SB.PF3SG

"Bring him a praise, so that he may rejoice." (8.62.1 ab)

In (7 .3 0) the name of Rudra is redundantly expressed beside other proper
names (Aditi, Mitra, and Varuf!a) that function as subjects of the purposive
clauses. The cohesive capacity of lexical repetition commonly emerges in discourse rather than in a sentence (cf. Halliday and Hasan 1976: 277-284 ). Here
169

we have a c~mplex se?tence .articulated in three stanzas, the first of Which

con~ains the '?terrogattve mam clause, where~s the otl~er t~o present Pllrpostve subordmates (headed by karat and by ctketalt} wtth dtfferent subject
with respect to the main clause. By contrast, in (7.31) the coreferentiality.:.
tween the indirect object of the main clause and the subject of the purposive
subordinate is indicated by implicit strategies of anaphora, particularly by
grammatical agreement. The dependent verbjujo$ali "may he rejoice" implies
a 3SG animate subject, and such grammatical and semantic properties only
match the demonstrative pronoun asmai "to him" in the main clause. 1t is important that the whole complex sentence here is included inside the borders of
the same hemistich, since grammatical agreement (as implicit devices of
anaphora in general) requires that other semantically compatible participants
do not interfere in driving the reference.

7. 7. 4. Anomalous environments
Some ycitha-clauses belonging to the most ancient sections of the RigVeda appear in an environment that is anomalous for a purposive subordinate.
In 3.35.2 the verb of the purposive clause exceptionally does not carry the accent, which normally occurs when two clauses are not comprised under the
same prosodic contour. In 6.23.1 0 main clause and subordinate clauses are
linked not only by the subordinator yathii, but also by the coordinator uta
"and", which is a further clue to the scarce clause connection. In 4.16.20 and
in 7.64.3 the main clause contains a correlative element (eva "thus" and tdd
"this"). Similar phenomena never occur inycid-purposive clauses.
Moreover, in a group of passages. Geldner's (1951) and Renou's (EVP)
translations present a purposive clause preposed to the main clause. This is
more frequent for yatha (1.111.2, 1.186.1, 2.4.9, 2.5.8, 2.24.1, 4.55.3, 7.3.7.
and 10.37.10) than for yad(7.30.3). Nevertheless, since the typical position of
purposive clauses, not only in Vedic but also in Ancient Greek and Latin, is
after the main clause, Hettrich connects the subordinate to the previous clause
in these passages, and obtains again a postposed purposive clause. "Wegen
der grof3en Anzah I cindeutiger Be lege fiir die Reihentolge HauptsatzNebensatz diirfte dies die richtige Losung sein." (1-lettrich 1988: 288. See also
392) In pat1icular, three instances of yathii (2.4.8-9, 2.5.7-8, and 7.3.6-7) can
be interpreted either with a preposed purposive clause, as Geldner and Renou
suggest, or with a syntactic link to another stanza, as claimed by Hettrich. The
ambiguity depends on the Rigvedic style, based on repetitive syntactic structures and on a hem1etic lexicon. An example of this is illustrated in (7.32), together with alternative renditions.
170

(?.32) asme agne

sal'[lyadv'lram

brhtintal'[l

us-LOC Agni-VOC with.store.of.heroes-ACC.M.SG high-ACC.M.SG

lcyumantal'[l

vajal'[l

svapatyaf{l

provided.with.food-ACC.M.SG booty.M-ACC.SG rich.in.good.offspring-ACC.M.SG

rayif!l

diif)

tvayii

11

yathii grtsamadaso

richness.M-ACC.SG give-SB.AOR2SG you-INSTR that

G[tsamada-NOM.PL

abhi ~yzih 1
Agni-VOC secretly win-P.PR.NOM.M.PL neighbor.M-ACC. PL ovcrcome-OP.PR3PL
agne

guha vanvanta

suvfriiso

uparan

abhimiitisahal}

:muil suribhyo

rich.in.good.heroes-NOM.M.PL foe.subduing-NOM.M.PL PTC chief.M-DAT.PL

grrtate

tad

vayo

dhiif)

singer.M-DAT.SG this-ACC.N.SG vital.power.N-ACC.SG place-SB.AOR2SG

"0 Agni, give us a high booty with store of heroes, provided with food,
richness with good offspring. In order that the G,rtsamadas secretely win and
overcome the neighbors through you, rich in good heroes and subduing foemen, give this vital power to the chiefs and to the singer." (2.4.8-9; cf. Geldner 1951: I, 282; Renou, EVP XII, 44; Sani 2000a: 98)
"0 Agni, give us a high booty with store of heroes, provided with food,
richness with good offspring, in order that the G,rtsamadas secretely win and
overcome the neighbors through you, rich in good heroes and subduing foemen. Give this vital power to the chiefs and to the singer." (2.4.8-9; cf. Hettrich 1988: 284)
In (7.32) the separation between the different clauses is particularly evident because of explicit anaphora. The same referents, i.e. the authors of the
hymn, are denoted in stanza 8 with a personal pronoun (asme) and in the subsequent stanza with a proper name (G,rtsamadas). The subject of the subordinate clause is different from the subject of the main clause. Although eight
passages do not represent substantial evidence that yathii-purposive clauses
have a free word order like temporal or causal clauses, we ought not to exclude a priori the possibility of a preposed purposive clause as a marginal
strategy, since Vedic constituent order is not syntactically determined.

7. 7. 5. Presence of yatha and of yad in the same context

The functional difference between the two purposive conjunctions yathii
and yad clearly emerges in the (unique) case in which they are present in the
same hymn, quoted below in the relevant parts. In both (7.33) and (7.34),
where yad appears, the structure of the complex sentence is compressed inside
the borders of a hemistich, and main clause and subordinate clauses share the
same subject.
171

(7.33) gavo

dhenavo

co~v.F-NOM.PL

ii

barhi$y

adabdhii

mi,Jk.giving-NOM.F.PL sacred.grass.N-LOC.SG unimpaired-NOM F

yat sadmlinaq1

divyaf!l

viviisiin

-PL

J>RE that sittcr.M-ACC.SG heavenly-ACC.M.SG obtain-DES.SB3PL

"The milk-giving cows, unimpaired, (are) on the sacred grass,

in order to obtain the one who sits in heaven." (1.173.lcd)
vi~a
vi~ahhih
sveduhavyair
(7.34) ltrcad
sing-INJ.PR3SG buii.M-NOM.SG buii.M-INSTR.PL sweat.offering-INSTR.M.PL

mrgo

naJno

titi ytij jugwyat

wild.beast.M-NOM.SG like.hungry-NOM.M.SG PRE that shrick-OP.PF3SG

"May the bull sing with bulls that offer their sweat as a sacrifice, to give a
shriek like a hungry wild beast." (1.173.2ab)
In (7.35) each ytithii-purposive clause occupies a whole hemistich, while
their main clause (visvii ... hhiid gault) is placed in the previous stanza. Main
and subordinate clauses are separated not only by a strong pause, but also by a
temporal ytidi-clause. Different subjects occur both between main and pur.
posive clause, and between the two purposive clauses.
anu JO~ya
hhiid
gauh
(7.35) visvii te
cvery-NOM.F.SG you-DAT.SG after delightfuiNOM.F.SG bc-INJ.AOR3SG cow.F-NOM.SG
cid ytidi dhi~cl
ves1
jimiin 11
hero.M-ACCJ'L even when inspiration.F-INSTR.SG visit-IND.PR2SG people.M-ACC.PL

siirflfl.~

a.mma

ytithii SU$akhczya

ena

be-SB.PR I PL that having.a.~ood.friend-NOM.M.PL he-INSTR.M.SG

svabhi.~lliyo

nariilfl

nci.MI!Isaih I

wcll.aidcd-NOM.M.PL men.M-GEN like praise.M-INSTR.PL

asad

ytitl1ii na indro

be-SR.PR3SG that

turo

vandane$th&s

our Jndra-NOM residing.in.praise-NOM.M.SG

na karma

ntiyamiina

ukthcJ 11

strong-NOM.M.SG like work.N-ACC.SG Jcading-P.PR.MID.NOM.M.SG hymn.N-ACC.J>L

"Every delightful cow is after you, when you visit the people with your
inspiration, and even the heroes, so that we may have a good friend in him,
well-aided as it were through praises of men, so that Indra may reside in our
praise, leading hymns like a strong one (leads) a work." ( 1.173.8cd-9)

7. 7. 6. Morphological motivation
The distributional differences between ytithii and ytid purposive clauses
can be explained taking into account their morphology. The conjunctionyathii
displays a manner function, and the same automorphism between manner and
purpose exists, in the IE domain, for Ancient Greek hos and for Latin ut.
Leumann (1940) argues that manner is the original function of these subordi172

rs. and that purpose independently developed in the different languages.

the semantic change started in sentences like ita paravi copias
,\CJ facile ut vincam (Pseud. 579) lit., "I prepared the troops in such a way
~t 1 will easily win", which can receive the consecutive-purposive Umdeu~g "I prepared the troops to easily win"
1111 Leumann's hypothesis is compatible with subordination as posited in DelbrOck (19~0: 295f!.), ~hereb~ on.ly RCs can be reconstructed ~~r.PIE, whil_e
ubordinatmg conJunctions anse m the daughter languages. CnttcJsm on this
~ieW has been expressed in Hettrich ( 1987), who put forwards two main objections to Leumann. First, Old Indian, Ancient Greek, and Latin purposive
clauses share many structural details, and therefore go back to the same PIE
model. In addition to the feasible common derivation of the purposive conjunctions yathii, hos, and ut from the stem of the relative pronoun (cf.
Ehrenfellner 1995), a purposive clause has a subjunctive verb and is postposed to the main clause in the three languages. Moreover, in Vedic and Ancient Greek the subordinate verb often presents an optative mood, and no correlative element is employed in the main clause (differently, Latin purpose
clauses present a correlative like manner clauses, which Leumann considers
evidence of the derivation of the former from the latter). Hettrich's second
objection concerns the semantic difference between manner and purpose
clauses. He claims that a manner clause is equivalent to a restrictive relative
clause. Consider 3.5 1.7 "0 lndra, drink the soma here as (yathii) you drank of
the juice by the Saryata". Here the content of the subordinate is necessary to
specifY the state of affairs described in the main clause: lndra must not just
drink, but rather he must do it in the way he did once by the river Saryata. By
contrast, a purpose clause, which represents an adverbial relation, is
tantamount to an appositive relative clause. In this perspective, a correlative
element is lacking because the subordinate resumes the content of the whole
main clause, rather than of one particular constituent of it. In Vedic and in
Ancient Greek, "findet sich kein Belag, der ohne Zwang sowohl modal als
auch final verstanden und so als Ausgangspunkt ftlr die Entwicklung der
Finalsatze betrachtet werden konnte." (Hettrich 1987: 228)
Alternatively, Hettrich suggests that in PIE already the purposive relation
was encoded by a subordinating strategy. In accordance with a hypothesis
originally developed in Hittite studies (Sturtevant 1930; Hahn 1946 and 1964),
Hettrich (1988: 744ffs.) claims that PIE possessed two stems of the relative
pronoun such as *)6- and */(16-. The former had an original anaphoric function and was used for ARCs, while the latter had an interrogative-indefinite
function and was used for RRCs. The appositive function of *)6- is more
compatible with the semantics of a purpose clause. The restrictive function is
closer to the semantics of a relative-manner clause, which was presumably
IIB100 rdingly,

173

marked by the stem *kl!o- since PIE. Rather than a shift from manner 1
causes
to purpose clauses, as argued in Leumann ( 1940), Hettrich ( 1987) po .
shift from RRCs to manner clauses on the one hand, and from ARCs t:ns a
pose clauses on the other. As a result, the fonnal overlap between pu Pllrclauses and manner clauses occurred when only one RP remained in a~ose
guage, i.e. *j6- in Vedic and Ancient Greek and *k116- in Latin.
an.
However, even assuming that PIE had two different RPs (which is contr
versial, cf. Montcil 1963 and Kurzova 1981 ), the derivation of the mannoconjunctions from the restrictive RP and of the purpose conjunctions from l~r
appositive RP would remain to be proven. Admittedly, Hettrich { 1988) shoW:
that yatha-manner clauses have a restrictive value in only 13 passages (''der
Typ ist nur mit wenigen Beispielen vertreten", p. 271 ). The other type of
manner clauses (Weiterftihrende) is equivalent to ARCs ( 11 instances) or to
proper adverbial clauses (48 instances).
Moreover, if automorphism between manner and purpose clauses depend
on a change peculiar to the lE domain, i.e. the loss of one of the two original
RPs and the consequent overlap of their derivate conjunctions, we would not
expect to find the same structure for manner and purpose in languages that are
genetically and geographically unrelated. This is, however, what we do find.
For example, in Swahili a consecutive or a purposive clause can be marked by
the complex subordinator kwa jinsi ya lit., "in the manner of' {from jinsi
"manner, type"). This fonn is e<Juivalent to ili, which is the most typical.
marker of purposive clauses in Swahili (Johnson 1969: 30). In Mandarin Chinese, the so-called "complex stative construction" (clause + de + phrase or
clause describing a quality or a condition) can have a manner inferred or an
extent inferred reading (Li and Thompson 1981 ). In the former, the stative
constituent "may be interpreted as a description of the manner in which the
event described by the first clause of the complex stative construction occurs."
(p. 623) The second reading is equivalent to a consecutive clause: "the event
in the first clause is done to such an extent that the result is the state expressed
by the stative clause or verb phrase. (p. 626) The very same structure is often
ambiguous between the two values: women chide hen kaixin (we eat de very
happy) can mean either "We ate very happily" or "We ate to the point of being very happy" (p. 627). In Korean, a manner clause (broadly meant as the
representation of the way how the event ofthe main clause takes place) can be
marked by the consecutive conjunctions -key and tolok, which are also employed for clauses oftemporal posteriority (Sohn 1994: 72).
Automorphism between manner and consecutive-purposive expressions is
even found in Vedic, in RCs with a purposive meaning. Most passages provided by traditional grammars on this issue (cf. Speyer 1896: 273; Reichelt
1909: 746; MacDonell 1916: 356; Renou 1952: 385) show a RP inflected in
174

 1strumental case (7.36). The instrumental case is typically associated with

dJC: ~1111 er function: Speyer defines the instrumental as "the how-case". To wit:
~ 111 is always used, when it is wanted to express the circumstances, instru1111ts, means, ways, properties accompanying the action and qualifYing it. In
~~er terms, the instrumental has the duty of telling the how of the action or
:ate, expressed by the verb or verbal noun, it depends on." (Speyer 1886: 63)
?.36) indriignl
yuvtir11
su nah stihantii

Jndm.Agni-VOC.DlJ you-NOM.DU PTC us-DAT conquer-P.PR.NOM.M.DtJ

rayim I

dasatho

give-SB.AOR2D~J

samtitsv

ii

yena

dr/hii

richness.M-ACC.SG RP-INSTR.M.SG lirm-1\CC.N.PL

vl/u

cit

siihi~lmtihi

light.F-LOC.PL PRE stable-1\CC.N.SG even conquer-OP.AOR I PL

"0 Indra and Agni, may you two, conquerors, give us a richness, by which
we can conquer in the fights even what is finn and stable." (8.40.1 ac)
That manner phrases and clauses show formal similarity with consecutive
or purposive expressions, both typologically and inside the PIE domain (cf.
J1alian in modo che "so that", from modo "manner"), suggests that the two relations share a semantic component. This automorphism may occur once the
comparative value is not interpreted as a static comparison between two states
of affairs, but rather as the manner how an event takes place, or an instrument
with which a result is obtained. It is a sort of asymmetrical, dynamic, or directional comparison. This is a marginal value for manner clauses, where the two
compared situations are typically placed on the same level. Accordingly,
automorphism between comparative structures on the one hand and consecutive or purposive structures on the other involves comparative proper and superlative, where the standard and the comparee are placed on two different
levels, more often than equative or similative structures. Languages showing
an allative comparative use the same constructions for consecutive and, more
rarely, for purposive clauses (in regard to the latter, Stassen 1985: 136ff. mentions the case of Kanuri). Among ancient languages, foamal overlaps between
purpose and comparison of inequality appear in Middle Egyptian, where the
same structure r is also used for the function of terminus ad quem (Gardiner
1927: 163).
All this is compatible with Leumann 's (1940) hypothesis regarding the
derivation of purpose clauses from manner clauses, even though it cannot be
established whether the change occurred in PIE or not. Not only Vedic, Ancient Greek, and Latin purpose clauses are similar among each other, but also
manner and purpose clauses look strikingly alike in each of these languages.
Hettrich (1987: 223, note 14) criticizes the analysis of Jeffers and J>epiccllo
(1979: 12ff.), who neatly distinguish purpose from non-purpose (i.e. manner
or temporal) clauses marked by ytid or ytithii. According to Jeffers and
175

Pepicello, only non-purpose clauses are consistently preposed to the rna

clause and consistently have an indicative mood. Hettrich, however, sho~n
that clause postposition and non-indicative moods, regular with purposiv 8
yad- or yatha-clauses, are also found when yad and yathii mark manner 0~
temporal clauses. Structural similarities increase in Vedic prose (Minard 193 6.
83ff.), where purposive clauses have a quite free distribution: they can be pre-
posed to the main clause and can contain a correlative element. Despite the
observation on the numerous fonnal features that manner and purpose clauses
have in common, Hettrich considers their structures homophone, and justifies
their semantic similarity as the result of their fortuitous formal convergence.
"Mit diesem sekundaren Zusammenfall waren dann die Voraussetzung und
der AnlaB daflir geschaffen, daB im Ved. und im Latein im Laufe der weiteren
Entwicklung Final- und Modalsatze sowohl fonnal als auch semantisch sich
noch weiter einander anniiherten." (1987: 236) More commonly, the diachronic path is the opposite with respect to that indicated by Hettrich, that is,
semantic similarity is what brings about syntactic similarity.
Apparently, the syntactic independence of a purposive ycithii-clause with
respect to its main clause is a legacy of the original manner function. A comparison represents two different states of affairs on the same level. If the order
of the comparee and of the standard is reversed, the propositional content does
not change (if P is like Q, then Q is like P), which justifies the cases where a
yatha-purpose clause is preposed to the main clause. This is supported by the
fact that only main clauses taking a yathli-subordinate present a correlative
element (in 7.64.3 and probably in 4.16.20), which is typical of manner structures. The paucity of such cases is due to the fact that yatha-clauses are based
on a non-prototypical (dynamic rather than static) comparison.
Differently, the subordinator yad maintains some features of the relative
pronoun, in particular its anaphoric property. The semantic change from the
relative function to the purposive function probably started via context inference from those passages where ycid was at the same time coreferential with a
constituent of the main clause and linked to a subjunctive verb in the subordinate clause. The coreference with a neuter singular noun favored the interpretation of yad as a relative pronoun. The association with the subjunctive suggested a purposive reading. The passage in (7.37) is rendered by scholars either as a relative clause (Geldner 1951: I, 373; Hettrich 1988: 593) or as a
purposive clause (Renou 1956: 26; 1961: 20; EVP XVII, 76; Sani 2000a: 235).
(7 .3 7) etad
vaco
jaritar
m&pi mrsthii
this-ACC.N.SG word.N-ACC.SG singer.M-VOC.SG NEG.PRE neglect-INJ.AOR2SG

& yat le

ghosiin

uttarii

yug&ni

PRE that you-GEN sound-SB.PR3PL future-NOM.N.PL generation.N-NOM.PL

176

"0 singer, do not neglect this word, that the future generations may sound
fyou." (3.33.8ab)
0 These considerations can explain why yathii becomes increasingly more
widespread, while yad decays with time. The syntactic independence with respect to the main clause, which is evident in a ydtha-clause, epitomizes the
type of purposive function for which a finite subordinate is recruited in the
first place. This is a purposive relation where the subject of the subordinate is
non-predictable from the arguments of the main clause, and where the subject
of the main clause exerts a low influence on the desired situation denoted in
the subordinate. Alternative types of purposive relations are better represented
by the various dative constructions, which are lighter than yad-clauses.

7.8. Cognitive markedness of purposive and consecutive relations

A cognitive explanation probably lies behind the fact that in Vedic purpose
is rarely expressed by means of hypotaxis as compared to temporal and to
causal relations. Similar phenomena emerge in other lE languages. Hittite, for
example, possesses a causal subordinator (kuit) derived from the stem of the
relative pronoun, but lacks a subordinating conjunction for the purposive
function, which is expressed by clause juxtaposition (Friedrich 1960: 163 ).
The markedness that purposive finite subordinates show in Vedic from a frequency point of view reflects a later development with respect to other subordinates. The arrangement main clause - subordinate clause that is regularly
used with purposive sentences not only contrasts with the preposed order prevailing with the other subordinates, but is also at odds with the most typical
feature of subordination, i.e. verbal accentuation. As we have seen in 2.2,
verbal accentuation manifests a rise in intonation, which originally is only
compatible with a subordinate occurring in the first part of the sentence, as a
sign of a non-finished utterance (Kiein 1992: 90fT.). Accordingly, verbal accentuation is no longer motivated in postposed subordinates, where it rather
reflects the generali7..ation of an intonational pattern. The consistent postposed
order ofpurposive clauses, which refer to the consequence of the situation denoted in the main clause, shows that these subordinates cannot express an
anti-iconic order, which is a further property of subordination( 1.3). In regard
to this, Vedic purposive clauses resemble coordinate clauses.
The markedness of purposive finite clauses is related to their preferred use
in case of a different subject with respect to the main clause. This is a cognitively marked situation as compared wiith a state of affairs where the desired
situation concerns the subject of the main clause (7.6). The purposive relation is more marked than the causal relation also in noun phrase syntax: we
177

:o

have already mentioned that in case of automorphism between these t

tions, as in nimilla-, karaTJa-, lu!tu-, etc. meaning both "because of'' dfunc.
the sake of', cause is attested earlier than purpose (6.3). Some eo" ."~Ot
studies (Pasch 1987) suggest that purpose requires a considerable abstgnlt!ve
effort. Visualizing a future event is apparently more difficult than visu:~~t~ng
a past event.
~Ill&
Moreover, inside the purpose functional domain, visualization is
marked for an event that will occur than for an event that will not occur.~~
may justify the paucity of negative purposive strategies with both nominar 18
tion and ,hypotaxis. We do not find double datives such as *indriiya na pjj11'4or *vrtriiya na hantave. According to Haudry, "ce fait syntaxique n'a pas";;:
fondement semantique: it existe des propositions finales negatives (en ned 0
yathii nci) et des datifs finaux de composes negatifs en a-.[ ... ] L'usage s'e~
developpcra largement dans la prose." (1977: 124) A semantic basis for this is
likely instead. The cognitive markedness of negative purpose is reflected in its
distributional constraints. In nominalizations, negation is solely admitted in
main clauses, where it shows a quite restrained behavior, since it can receive
only a passive reading (cf. 9.11.4). Vedic lacks a negative purposive subordinate ti1at corresponds to Latin ne, Ancient Greek me, or English lest. A
negative purposive clause is never tound with yad, and only twice attested
with ycithii. In 4.16.20 the locution nif cid "never" appears: "For lndra we
made a prayer, like the Bhrgus (made) a chariot, so that he may never abandon our friendship". In 7.104.3 the indefinite pronoun eka.~ cana "someone" is
modified by the negation nci with the resulting meaning of "nobody": "0 lndra and Soma, plunge the evil-doers in the obscurity, in the darkness deprived
of support, so that none of them may return from there". A subordinate
marked by ned (< na + id) appears in the Rig-Veda only four times; among
these, two instances are contained in the tenth book, and one instance does not
signal a proper purposive clause, but rather depends on a verbum timendi (cf.
note in 9.7).
That syntactic constraints of purposive expressions are semantically motivated is supported by the absence of an explicit marker for the consecutive relation. Like purposives, consecutives entail the association between a cause,
described in the main clause, and an effect, represented in the subordinate.
Since they are temporally oriented in the same way, these two relations are
expressed in many languages by means of similar structures. Unlike purposive
clauses, however, consecutive clauses are factive, i.e. entail the achievement
of a consequence. In lE languages where the subjunctive or the optative contrast with the indicative, the latter is the mood employed in consecutive
clauses. Moreover, consecutives do not imply intentionality, while purposives
often present forms with an allative or volitional meaning. In the Rig-Veda,
178

bordinate clauses denoting the consequence of the situation represented

;~JI stJ main clause also imply the intentionality of the subject of the main
ill de
c~ 11 use-

Hcn Ncbensatze des RV, die diesem semantischen Bereich angehfiren, eine
111 ~chl des Hauptsatz-Subjekts oder des Sprechers erkennbar ist; es kommt kein Satz
,4bSI dcssen In halt eindcutig als eine zwar mOgliche, aber unbeabsichtigte Folge des
~or. ptsatz-Sachverhalts hingestellt wird. Somit sind alle diese Slitze als Finalsatze zu
tfn~chten, und die Sprache des RV kcnnt aber cbensowenig finite Konsekutivsatze
b~e das frUheste Griechische. (Hettrich 1988: 278-79)

Wl

consecutive clauses are not inherited from PIE, but rather independently
arise in the daughter languages (cf. Ehrenfellner 1996: 300). In Vedic, the
consecutive relation is expressed by coordinating two clauses either syndetically or asyndetically. The first clause denotes a ce11ain situation, while the
second anaphorically resumes this situation and denotes its result. In (7.38)
the correlation between the verb "they sacrificed" and the following resumptive phrase "from this sacrifice" has the same function as a consecutive relation such as "they sacrificed, so that" etc. For the consecutive use of the demonstrative pronoun in .wi-fige, cf. 2.3.3.1 and (2.12).
(7.38) tena
devli
ayajanta
siidhyfi
this-INSTR.M.SG god.M-NOM.PI. sacrilicc-IND.IJ>F.MID3PL dcmigod.M-NOM.J>L
t.yaya.~
ea
11
ttilmiid
yajiilit
poet.M-NOM.PI. and RP-NOM.M.PL this-ABL.M.SG sacrilicc.M-ARL.SG

ye

sarvahutal}

pr.yadiijyam I

sitmbhrtam

all.oiTcrcd-ABL.M.SG prcpared-PP.NOM.N.SG sacrcd.buttcr.N-NOM.SG

"With this (primeval man) the gods, the demigods, and the poets sacrificed, from this entirely offered sacrifice the sacred butter was prepared."
(I 0.90. 7cd-8ab)
Coordinating structures for the consecutive relations can be found in other
IE languages. Avestan ae(i, mentioned in Reichelt (1909: 731) as a consecutive form together with its Old Indian correspondent athii "thus", is a particle
employed in coordinate clauses. Reichelt includes aM in a section devoted to
parataxis, and assigns a Kopulatives Verhiiltnis to it, similarly to -e{i, ut{i, at
etc. (p. 357). In Ancient Greek, the consecutive subordinator hi5ste contains
the coordinating conjunction te, which is added to the relativizer has with the
meaning "and so". In Classical Armenian, the consecutive value is rendered
by mine 'ew (plus infinitive), where the coordinator ew "and" is added to
mine' "until", having the function of tenninus ad quem. In Latin, where both
consecutive and purposive clauses are introduced by the same marking ut, the
former does not follow any eonsecutio temporum, by which subordinates
179

obligatory abide, and show a considerable freedom in the selection oft

like independent clauses. Hamp (1982) claims that the consecutive eo e~ses_
tion ut is etymologically related to the Old Indian coordinator uta "an'iUnc:,
traces back the Latin ut-consecutive clause to the grammaticalization ~e
paratactic construction, unlike ut-purposive and completive clauses, for w~ 8
the derivation from the relative stem is acknowledge~. The different etymch
ogy of purposive and of consecutive ut is revealed by their different negat~l
structures, as we find ne for purposive and completive clauses and ut non ~e
consecutive clauses. The conjunction ut non goes back to a nexus between i~~
dependent clauses6

6. Differently, Ehrcnfellner (1995) relates Latin 111, 11ti, and ulei to the relative stem *!(!, and
explains the absence of the velar by an analogy to correlatives with initial vowel such as ita, ibi,
inde, or alternatively to the vclarless variant in couples like sic I si. From this point of view, the
consecutive value of Latin 111 derives from I he purposive marker.
180

g. fhe concessive relation

s.t. Rarity of concessive subordinate clauses

Concession is the adverbial relation that is most rarely expressed by
hypotaxis in Vedic. In most grammars (DelbrUck 1888; Speyer 1896;
MacDonell 1916) there is no mention of concessive clauses. Renou ( 1952:
377) ascribes the value bien que to the form yac cid dhi, but he does not
consider it a proper conjunction. Rather, he includes yae eid dhi among the
uses of the particle hi, in the group of the words "emphatiques (sans prejudice
d'autres acceptions), c'est-8-dire soulignant le mot annexe" (p. 374).
Hettrich ( 1988: 328fT.; 369ff.), however, observes that yac eid dhi (8.1)
and yad (8.2) occasionally mark concessive subordinate clauses, which present the following syntactic features: I. Indicative mood; 2. Preposed order
with respect to the main clause; 3. No resumptive element in the main clause.
The subordinator yae cid dhi has a parallel in Avestan ya]eiJ, which is assigned the concessive value aueh wenn, wenn schon in Reichelt (1909: 776;
cf. also Bartholomae, 1904: 1261).
(8.1) yae cid dhi tvii
Jana
tme
niinii
although

havanta

you-ACC.SG people.M-NOM.PL lhis-NOM.M.PL differently

utclye 1

a.~mlikam brahma

call-rNI>.PRJPL help.F-DAT.SG our

bhutu

te

'hii

idam

indra

pmycr.N-NOM.SG this-NOM.N.SG Indra-VOC

vtsva

ea vtirdhanam

be-JPV.AOR3SG you-DAT.SG day.N-ACC.PL aii-ACC.N.PL PTC slrengthening-NOM.N.SG

"Although these (other) people call you differently, 0 lndra, may our
prayer be strengthening for you every day." (8.1.3)
ea ytin ntiras
ea
(8.2) gnli.~
woman.F-NOM.J>L and although man.M-NOM.PL and

viivrdhtinta

viJve

dev&so

nar&1fl

increase-INJ.PPF3PL aii-NOM.M.PL god.M-NOM.PL man.M-GEN.PL

swigurtii/J I

praibhya

indriivarui'Jii

exulting.in.themselves-NOM.M.PL before.lhcm-DAT.M.PL Jndra. Varuna-VOC

181

mahitvii

clyazi.~

ea pflhivi

bhiitam

urvi

greatness-INSTR sky.M-NOM and carth.F-VOC be-INJ.AOR2DU widc-NOM.F S

''Although all gods, women and men, exulting in themselves am~nG

men, have increased, you two, 0 lndra e Varul}a, and you two, 0 wide ~athe
and Sky, surpassed them in greatness." (6.68.4)
Tth
The scarcity of concessive subordinate clauses in the Rig-Veda, which d
termined the recent and non-unanimous individuation of them with respect e.
other subordinates, appears when we consider the different readings of 1~0
same subordinator. As compared with the 437 causal clauses (out of Whi ~
389 are marked by hi, and 48 are marked by yad, cf. Hettrich 1988: 792;)
o~ly 31 conce_ssive subordinates are found (I 0 with y~c ci~ hi,, an.d 21 wi~h
yad, cf. Hetlrtch p. 328fT.; 369ff.). The same subordmator yad mtroduces
causal clauses twice as much as concessive clauses.
As in the case of purposive clauses, for concessive clauses the scarce frequency does not depend on the particular text we analyze. Although it is predictable that temporal or causal clauses are more frequent than concessive
clauses, the Rig-Veda does not lack contexts for concession. Rather, the teligious register provides the suitable ground for it. Concessive relations represent the negation of a state of affairs that is considered normal and expected
from the speaker's point of view (8.2). The Rig-Veda often mentions humans who are sinners and still beg the protection of the gods, or gods who
overcome the demons despite several obstacles. As deities are continuously
exalted for their superhuman deeds, Rigvedic hymns abound with situations
that contrast with what is ordinary for a human being.
However, in most cases the relation is not encoded by means of a subordinate, but rather by the juxtaposition of two clauses or by a nominalization
(participle or gerund). The latter strategy is pointed out in Oertel ( 1941 ), who
still does not acknowledge proper concessive subordinate clauses in Vedic.
"Da die vedische Sprache filr die einen Nebensatz einleitenden Kol\junktionen
obgleich, obwohh> mit finiten Verbum keinen Konjunktionen besitzt, so
gebrauch sie statt dessen (a) partizipielle oder (b) gerundiale
Ausdrucksformen!' ( 1941: 71) For our investigation, it is significant that a
subordinating structure may be absent in contexts where the correspondent
semantic relation is present. This phenomenon occurs with concession more
often than with other adverbial relations. In (8.3) the speaker wonders how the
sun can be stuck to the sky without falling. A subordinating conjunction is
employed in Geldner ( 1951: 433): "Wie kommt es, daB er nicht kopfiiber
herabfallt, obwohl er nicht festgehalten, nicht angebunden ist?"

182

(JIIiiyato

imibaddhal)

kathiiyatfl

(S.3) nhold-NOM.M.SG untied-NOM.M.SG how.this-NOM.M.SG

:,yimn

uttiino

'va padyate

nd

dirt:clcd.downwards-NOM.M.SG upright-NOM.M.SG down faii-IND.PRJSG NEG

"HOW (is it possible that) he does not fall upside down, although he is
hold, untied?" (4.13.5ab)
In the fourth book, there are several participles with a concessive function,
in 4.3.9, 4.6.6, 4.7.6, 4.7.9 (two instances), 4.10.7, 4.14.5, 4.27.1, 4.36.3,
~c., but only 3 concessive clauses introduced by a relativizer (4.12.4 and
:J2.13 with yac cid dhi; 4.27 .3 with yad).
1111

8.2. Semantics of concession

The rarity of concessive finite subordinates in Vedic can be explained by
the abstractness and complexity of the concessive relation. Concession represents a state of affairs contrasting with the background knowledge of the
speech act participants. The sentence "Although it rains, John goes out"
means that normally, if it rains, John does not go out: "Although P, Q" presupposes "If P, then non-Q". lt is reasonable to assume that subordination,
which syntactically is a more complex strategy of clause linkage than coordination, has earlier involved relations that share some semantic components
with the main clause (such as space, time, and manner), or that represent
situations immediately connected with the main clause, as in the case of
cause-effect relations. A nexus between incompatible states of affairs, as in
the case of concession, is the last step of a subordinating system that becomes
more and more explicit and articulate. We will see (8.7) that the same process occurs, in coordination, for the adversative relation.
The semantic complexity of concession emerges from the several types of
concessive clauses existing. Prototypical concessive clauses arc factual
clauses: Although P, Q ("Although it rains, John goes out") presupposes that
both the proposition in P ("it rains") and the proposition in Q ("John goes
out") are true. Cf. Hengeveld (1998: 349ff.). In Vedic, clauses marked by the
subordinator yac cid hi have a verb inflected in the indicative, which is the
typical mood of real is. Some other types of concessive clauses, however, can
be interpreted as semifactual, since they only entail the factuality of the apodosis. Such ~lauses are commonly called concessive conditionals clauses
(CCCs, or irrelevance conditionals, concessive relative clauses, concessive
interrogative clauses, etc. cf. Haspelmath and Konig 1998), and split into
three groups. 1. Scalar CCCs ("Even if it rains, ~e will go to the beach"): in a
range of possible situations, one that is extreme and unlikely is specified, so
183

that all non-extreme values of the scale are implied ("If it is cold" ... .
windy", etc.). 2. Alternative CCCs ("Whether it rains or the sun si;. f lt is
will go to the beach"): the subordinate contains two or more protas~nes, \\'e
senting different and disjoined states of affairs. 3. Universals CCCs (~'~p~
ever the weather is, we will go to the beach"): a free choice quantifier ap hat.
which signals that values may be freely replaced with respect to a variab~a~,
the protasis. Universal CCCs resemble free relative clauses, where the rei e.n
i:t..ed constituent is non-specific ("I will buy whatever you sell"). How:tiv.
only free relative clauses play an argumental role inside the main cla~er,
while universal CCCs can be left-dislocated and resumed in the main clause,
by a pronoun ("Whatever you sell, I will buy it"). The three types of cc~
share the non-factuality of the protasis with conditionals. They differ in th~
genuine conditionals relate a single antecedent with a single consequent,
while CCCs relate a single consequent to a series of antecedents, which may
be expressed with quantification (for eve1y P), with disjunction (P ornonP)
or with a scale specifying an extreme value (even if P). Both semantically and
syntactically, scalar CCCs are the most similar to conditionals.
CCCs may be interpreted as concessive via a conversational implicature,
when the antecedent contained in the subordinate receives a factual reading
from the context. "It was the loneliness of the neighbourhood, they supposed,
that kept the house next to their empty [ ... ] The house stood two hundred
yards from the Bartleby's and A. liked looking out of the window now and
then and seeing it, even ifit was empty" (Patricia Highsmith, quoted in Konig
1985: 14-15) In this case, the semantic shift always goes from concessive
condition to concession, and never in the opposite direction. Other clause
types can be paraphrased with a concessive subordinate, which Konig considered "a dead-end for interpretative augmentation" (1985: 2). We may have
coordinates ("I have to do all this work and you are watching TV") and,
among subordinates, manner clauses ("Poor as he is, he spends a lot of money
on horses") and temporal clauses ("There was a funny smile on Dickie's face,
as if Dickie were pulling his leg by pretending to fall in with his plan when he
hadn't the least intention to fall in with it"). This synchronically indicates the
derived character of concessive clauses, which "constitute an endpoint beyond
which such interpretative processes never go." (Konig 1994: 681)
Studies on child language acquisition show that concessive clauses are acquired later than temporal, causal, conditional, and purposive clauses. The
meaning of the relations acquired earlier is presupposed, and further enriched,
in the meaning of the relations acquired later, so that the latter are more specific and more informative (Kortmann 1997: 156-57). Diachronically, the
relative recentness of concessive clauses comes out of the etymologic transparency of concessive markers, which often can be easily analyzed in their
184

nent morphemes, such as English al-though, never-the-less, even

"'111P~ even if, etc. (Konig 1985; cf. also Rudolph 1996: 34ff.) Typically, the
J/1 11g 11 ~es from a factual context are grammaticalized, and an originally coni~~er~al or concessive conditional subordinator becomes a proper marking of
d1110 ession. This is the shift of the English subordinator even though: in Old
~011 ~ish, theah (>though) only marked conditional clauses.
Elltedic yac cid dhi is an example of a complex concessive subordinator
b ilt with a causal form, as can be seen in the particle hi, which is the most
l~jcal causal marker (6.1.1), and which can also have a secondary conces~ve reading. Hettrich (1988: 176-77) includes some concessive and some ad~~rsative clauses among hi-structures. Consider his rendition of the passage
quoted in (8.4): "lch habe zwar nach Verwandten oder Standesgenossen im
Geiste Umschau gehalten, mein Heil suchend, o Indra und Agni. Es gibt fUr
01 ich keine andere Zuversicht als euch beide. [Obwohl ich . . . gehalten
babe ... ]" (1988: 176)
(8.4) vi hy
akhyam
manasa
wisya
PRE although look-IND.AORISG soui.N-INSTR.SG welfare.N-ACC.SG

ichdnn

indragnf

Jnasa

uta va

long.for-P.PR.NOM.M.SG Indra.Agni-VOC.DU kin.M-ACC.PL and or

sajatan 1
nanya
yuvat pramatir
brother.M-ACC.PL NEG.other-NOM.F.SG your providence.F-NOM.SG

asti

mahyaf!l

be-IND.PR3SG me-DAT

"Although I looked around, with my soul longing for welfare and for kin
or brothers, 0 Indra and Agni, I have no other providence but yours."
( 1.1 09. I a-c)
The hi-clauses that are assigned a concessive reading in Hettrich only appear in recent sections of the Rig-Veda, such as 1.109. I, 10.89 .16, I 0. 95.11,
and 10.112.7 (in the other three mentioned cases, i.e. 7.28.1, 8.5.16, and
8.66.12, the subordinator is not simply hi, but rather cid dhi). This indicates
that the reinterpretation of a causal sentence into a concessive sentence is still
incipient at the stage of the Rig-Veda.
The use of the same structure hi for cause and concession in Vedic is motivated by the semantic similarity between these two relations. Both causal
clauses and (prototypical) concessive clauses are factual clauses. Moreover,
concession presupposes a cause and its negation, whence it is also called "incausal", "anticause" or "inoperant cause" (Konig 1994: 680). Konig (1989)
observes that the external negation of a cause is tantamount to the internal negation of concession. Accordingly, the sentence "This house is no less comfortable because it dispenses with air-conditioning" is equivalent to the sentence "This house is no less comfortable, although it dispenses with airconditioning". In the fanner example, which belongs to just one prosodic con185

tour, the scope of negation is extended over the entire sentence ("It is not th
case that this house is less comfortable because it dispenses with . e
conditioning"). In the latter example, two intonational contours are iden~~
able, and negation cannot take scope over although 1
t-

8.3. Morpho-syntactic structures for CCs and CCCs

Liihr ( 1997) identifies a large array of morpho-syntactic strategies that in
Vedic may express CCs and CCCs. Alternative CCCs are expressed by: 1.
The sequence ytidi I yad va, e.g. 10.129.7 "Whence this creation has come
into being, and whether (ytidi va) he made that or not (yadi va nci), the one
who is the supervisor in the highest certainly knows that, or may be not." 2.
The concessive imperative, e.g. I 0.108.6 "0 Paf!i, be (santu, IPV3PL) your
words unreachable to the weapons and your bad bodies unreachable to the arrows, and be (astu, IPV3SG) the way toward you invisible to go, in both cases
may Brhaspati not have compassion on you".
Scalar CCCs are expressed by: 1. The coordinating conjunction uta "and",
e.g. 1.4.6 "Even though (uta, "auch wenn" in Liihr 1997: 61) the pious man
and the people, 0 marvelous one, call us fortunate, may we be under lndra's
protection." 2. The markings ytic cid dhi, cid dhi, cid or yad 'im I .s'im, e.g.
5.54.4 "Even if (yad ... 'im) you go through the fields and inaccessible places,
as the ships (go through the water), you Maruts do not suffer any damage". 3.
Universal quantifiers or generalizing expressions such as dycivi-dyavi "day after day", grhe-ruhe "in any house", etc.
Universal CCCs are expressed by: I. Some markings also employed for
scalar CCCs, such as universal quantifiers as well as ytic cid dhi, cid dhi, cid
or yad 'im I sim. 2. Indefinite pronominal forms, obtained either by reduplication of the relative pronoun (or of the correspondent correlative), or by the sequence of the relative pronoun plus the interrogative pronoun. E.g. 6.75.6
"While staying on the chariot, the good charioteer leads the horses ahead,
wherever (yatra-yatra) he wants."
From Liihr's detailed analysis, some remarks can be drawn. No clear-cut
syntactic difference exists between proper CCs and CCCs, or, in the latter
l. KOnig's (1989) argumentation has been challenged in lten (1997), where causal clauses are
not considered as expressing the same proposition or the same truth-conditions of concessive
clauses in all contexts. This occurs only in those cases where "because" is interpreted in the
epistemic or in the speech act domain. rather than in the content domain. in Sweetser's ( 1990)
sense (discussed above in 5.1 and 6.2.1 ). lien's clarification, however, does not substantially
affects the relation between causal and concessive sentences in Vcdic, since in the Rig-Veda
only a minority of clausal clauses are meant as content relation (6.2.4).

186

d Jllain, among scalar, alternative, and universal types. On the one hand, some

1~uctures are used for more than one relation: yac cid dhi (or only cid) marks
~oth proper CCs and, among CCCs, scalars and universals. The latter two also
hare the reduplicated forms, which iconically convey a notion of generality
:hat is particularly appropriate to those relati~ns labeled. "irrelevance concessives". Therefore, some clauses are semantically ambtguous: the passages
with yac: cid dhi in 1.25.1, 1.26.6, 1.28.5, 1.29.1, 4.32.13, and 8.1.3 are included among CCs in Hettrich (1988: 328-330), and among CCCs in LUhr
(1997: 62-63). On the other hand, all types of concessive relations have more
than one structure available. CCCs are more heterogeneous than proper CCs.
The former exploit morphological processes of inflection (concessive imperative) and derivation (various reduplicated structures, called iimreqita lit.,
"added"), as well as syntactic means. Besides subordinators, coordinating
conjunctions are also used (vii and uta). On the contrary, proper CCs are quite
stable: beside juxtaposition, they are limited to the composite subordinator
yac cid dhi and to its simplified versions.
According to Hettrich ( 1988: 332), the concessive value in yac cid dhi pertains to the complex conjunction as a whole, rather than to its componential
morphemes hi or cid. However, passages exist where concession is expressed
only by hi, only by cid, or by the group cid dhi without the subordinator yad.
The first case is rare, and is due to the inference of a subordination marker
that tends to acquire a more informative meaning in certain contexts, as we
saw in (8.4). Inside yac cid dhi, the component of concession is original neither in hi nor in yad, for which the same inference from cause to concession is
arguable. Some clues, both external and internal to Vedic, suggest that the
particle cid is responsible for the concessive interpretation of yac cid dhi. In
Avestan, the concessive value is attested for the conjunction yajciJ (Bartholomae 1904: 1261; Reichelt 1909: 776), but not for the combinations yal z'i or
yez'i, which have a temporal or a conditional function (the particle z'i corresponds to Old Indian hi, cf. Bartholomae 1904: 1293ff.; 1296; Reichelt 1909:
785). In Vedic, LUhr (1997: 64) notices that the sole particle cid can be
found in participial constructions with a concessive value, as in (8.5), for
which she provides the following translation: "Selbst wenn sie (Mitra und Varul}a) die Augen schlieBen, beobachten sie aufmerksam".
(8.5) ni cin mi~antii
nicira
ni cikyatuh
PRE even close.eye-P.PR.NOM.M.PL attentivc-NOM.M.PL PRE observe-PF3PL

"Even when closing their eyes, they attentively observe." (8.25.9c)

Concession is the most common function associated with cid in noun
phrase syntax, where this particle is interpreted as "even" (MacDoi_lell 1916:
230; sogar, selbst, auch in BR II: 1025 and in GR 454; meme, pourtant in Re-

187

nou 1952: 376; 381). Cid is connected to the particle cami, which usual
means "not even" (8.6).
I}'
(8.6) divas
cid asya varim&
vi papratha
sky.M-ABL.SG even his arnplitude.M-NOM.SG PRE extend-PF3SG

indralfl

nti mahn&

prthivf

canti prati

lndra-ACC NEG grcatncss.N-INSTR.SG eurth.F- NOM.SG not.cven in.proportion.to

"His amplitude extended even beyond the sky, not even the earth wa
8
equal to lndra in greatness". ( 1.55.lab)
Both cid and cana build noun phrases that present a state of affairs contrasting with the speaker's expectations, like concessive clauses. The sentence
"Although it rains, John goes out" is tantamount to the clause "John goes out
even with the rain". Structures of the type even P presuppose that nonnally p
does not occur, and vice versa structures of the type no/ even P presuppose
that normally P occurs. "Concessive relations between two clauses or between
a clause and an adverbial are not only expressed by conjunctions like even
though and although in English, but can also be signaled by prepositions like
English despite, in spite of, and by conjunctional adverbs like English nevertheless, still, etc." (Konig 1994: 679) It is appropriate to interpret factual yac
cid dhi-clauses in the light of cid, the most typical concessive marker in the
noun phrase, rather than of the manifold strategies ofCCCs.

8.4. Concession in the noun phrase

8. 4.1. The particle cami "not even"
Traditional grammars (cf. Delbrlick 1888: 544; Renou 1952: 381) state that
the particle cana appears in four environments, three of which are related to
negation, such as: a) in a phrase explicitly marked as negative (8.6); b) in a
phrase that does not show a negative marker, but precedes or follows further
negative phrases (8.7); c) in a phrase where cana acquires a negative function
in a clause where no other negative marker is present (8.8). d) Alternatively. it
may be that neither cami has a negative function nor the clause containing it
has other negative polarity markers, as we have seen in (2.14), in the chapter
where the conjunctional usages of ea, cid, and can{i have been analyzed. Cf.
also (9.28).

188

yasa~iim

8 7) ev& cana ltll!l

( '

ajustir

thus not.even this-ACC.M.SG glorious-GEN.M.PL disfavor.F-NOM.SG

n&t!lhO

marlal!l

nasate

NEG.anxiety.N-NOM.SG mortai.M-ACC.SG reach-IND.PR.MID3SG

na

pradtpti}J

NEG haughtiness.F-NOM.SG

"Thus, the disfavor of the glorious, anxiety, or haughtiness do not reach

such a mortal." (6.3.2cd)
,
,
(8.8) viSve
caned
ana tva
deviisa
indra
yuyudhu/1
aii-NOM.M.PL not.even.PTC thus you-ACC.SG god.M-NOM.PL lndra-VOC fight-PF3PL

"Not even all gods thus have fought against you, 0 lndra." (4.30.3ab)
From the scrutiny of the whole Rig-Veda, 93 occurrences of cana arise.
Leaving aside the 42 instances where cana follows an interrogative pronoun
and therefore acquires an indefinite meaning, the 51 remaining instances are
distributed in the different environments mentioned above as follows: a) 24
(47%); b) 7 (14%); c) 17 (33%); d) 3 (6%). The cases where canci has a positive value (d) are extremely rare. This is because, since the Sama-Veda, cana
is interpreted as ea plus the negation mi. Whether this is the true etymology of
the particle, as some scholars may assume (Gonda 1957) or may not, the
analysis of the Sama-Veda demonstrates that, at least synchron ically, cana is
related to na. The scarce frequency of cana-phrases coordinated with a preceding or a subsequent negative phrase (b) depends on the fact that ea rather
than cana plays the function of a noun phrase coordinator. The most representative cases of cana are those where it is placed in a negative clause (a), and
less so when it is the sole negative polarity item in the clause (c). The former
case is the original one. The latter must be derived by context inference, as in
French pas, point, and personne2
lt appears that the prototypical function of cana is that of marking the nonoccurrence of a situation that is expected according to the speaker's background knowledge. The sentence "not even the earth was equal to lndra in
greatness" presupposes that under normal circumstances the greatness of the
earth is invincible. This is especially pertinent in Vedic culture, where the
earth is called pflhivi lit., "wide, extended". Notice the etymologic figure with
paprathe, perfect from the root prath "extend" in (8.6). The idiom of an
enormous extension is frequent: in 3.36.4 "not even the earth contained the

2. According to Klein ( 1985: I, 286) a unique case (8.1.5) is attested where cami alone indicates
negation in the clause. In our count. 17 such cases exist: in addition to 8.1.5, we counted
1.152.2, 1.166.12, 2.24.12, 4.18.8 (two times), 4.18.9, 4.30.3, 5.34.7. 5.41.13, 7.18.9 (here the
particle nd has an cquative rather than a negative value, even though a sle~a "pun" between the
two meanings can be present), 7.32.13. 7.86.6, 8.55.5, 8.78.1 0, 10.56.4, and I 0.49.5.

189

lord of tawny courses when the somas cheered him". In 10.1 19.7 Soma .
speaking: "Earth and sky have grown equal not even to one of my wings". IS
The semantics of concession is particularly suitable to describe divi
prodigies. In 8.24.1 5 the poet addresses lndra: "Not even in the past a
was bom greater than you". A portentous fact can be stylistically emphasi.,.e~
by means of a pun. In I 0.33.9, who infringes the divine order "does not live
not even if he has a hundred lives".
'
Sometimes we find a contrast with respect to the nonns of daily life, to re.
lations of space and time, to physiologic rhythms, or to common working activities. In 5.34.7 "the people who have provoked lndra's might to anger can
be safe not even in an inaccessible place". In 7.18.9, after a terrible battle
ended up in a massacre, "not even the fast one was able to come back home"
In 7.86.6 a sinner makes his apologies to Varur)a, since "not even sleep ea~
remove a sin". In 8.1.5 the poet promises to lndra: "not even for a high price 1
would abandon you". In all these cases, the semantics of cana is the nonachievement of an expected event or the atypical lack of a state.

h:;c

8. 4. 2. The particle cid "even "

The function of positive concession, i.e. the achievement of an unexpected
event, is expressed by cid, one of the particles with the highest frequency in
the Rig-Veda (683 occurrences), which however did not receive much attention in the literature. In addition to the meaning "even", grammars (cf. Delbriick 1888: 478; Renou 1952: 376) assign to cid on the one hand an indefinite function, foremost after the stem of the interrogative pronoun, and rarely
with a noun (8.9), and on the other hand an emphatic function, where cid underscores the word falling into its scope (8.1 0).
(8.9) kflcll/1
cid ena/J
pra mumugdhy asmat
done-ACC.N.SG any sin.N-ACC.SG PRE let.go-IPV2SG us-ABL

"Let go any sin committed away from us." ( 1.24.9d)

(8.1 0) &srutkarl}a
srudht
havaf{l
having.listening.cnrs-VOC.M.SG listcn-IPV2SG caii.M-ACC.SG

nil cid dadhi.yva

me girah

now indeed acccpt-IPV2SG my song.F-ACC.PL

"You, whp have listening ears, listen to my call, and now accept my songs
indeed." ( 1.10.9ab)
Of the two functions of cid that are typically associated with nouns, i.e.
concession and emphasis, the latter is quite vague. Occasionally, emphasis is
ascribed to expressions for which a clear meaning cannot be found. Often,
however, emphasis is justified by the importance that some nouns play in the
190

0111ext.

This is the case of proper nouns and personal pronouns. ln I. I 16.22

cid is postppsed to the n~mes of two characters that are protected by the As~ins: "For Sara, indeed, Arcatka's son, you raised on high the water from the
\veil below so that he could drink; for Sayu, indeed, who was thirsty, 0 Na:atya, with your strength you made the barren cow swell with milk". In 1.61.8
cid accompanies other particles to emphasize the name of the god to which
the hymn is devoted: "For him, indeed, for Indra, the women that have the
god as a spouse pronounced a song on the occasion of the killing of the
snake".
Concession, however, is much more frequent than emphasis in the text.
Like cana, cid appears in idioms which describe the extraordinary greatness
of a god. In addition to (8.6), consider 7.20.4: "0 Indra, you filled even
heaven and earth with your greatness". A particularly common idiom is that
of a god that breaks (bhid and ruj are the privileged roots) even the hardest
things (drt/ha-, sthira. viqu-) with his strength. In 4.7.10 Agni, the god of fire,
"breaks even the most solid food with his teeth". In 6.22.6 Indra is addressed:
"You broke even the unmovable, hard, and compact things with your boldness". In 1.85.1 0 the Maruts "pushed the well up on high with their strength,
and clove the mountain, although it was firm". Further typical images are that
of a god that sets in motion even what is stable and that o.f natural elements
frightened by his tremendous power. In 1.64.3 the Marut "set in motion all
heavenly and terrestrial things, even the fixed ones." Cf. also (8.11 ).
(8. I 1) yad dha te
vzsva
gzraya.v
cid
when PTC you-GEN.SG ali-NOM.N.PL mounlain.M-NOM.PL PTC

abhvii

bhiya

dr!hasah

kiranii

naijan

monster.N-NOM.PL fear.F-INSTR.SG firm-NOM.M.PL dust.N-NOM.PL like.stir-IPF3PL

"When all monsters, even the firm mountains, stirred like dust in their fear
ofyou" (l.63.1cd)
Marvelous events are portrayed, which go against the balance of the natural world. In 1.94.7 the poet addresses the god of fire: "You see even beyond
the darkness of the night". In 5.60.2 a triple iteration of cid occurs: ''Even the
strong trees fall in their fear, even the earth moves, even the mountains". In
1.38.7 the Maruts "even in the desert made windless rain", that is, a rain that
cannot be wept away by the wind. Here the paradox is twofold, because the
windless rain is brought about by the deified winds (marut- "wind"). A complex construction is illustrated in (8.12).
ye
te su viiyo
(8.12) ime
this-NOM.M.PL RP-NOM.M.PL your PTC Vayu-VOC

biihvojaso

'ntar nadi

having. strength. in.their.forelegs-NOM.M.PL in

te jJatayanty

Uk$OIJO

river.F-LOC.SG

mahi vradhanta

your fly-IND.PR3PL buii.M-NOM.PL greatly extend-P.PR.NOM.M.PL

191

uk$a~a~ 1

dhanvan

cid ye

anasavo

buli.M-NOM.PL desert.N-LOC.SG even RP-NOM.M.PL not.fast-NOM.M.PL

fir&s

c:id agiraukasa~

fast-NOM.M.J>L albeit not.having.mountain.as.home-NOM.M.PL

"0 Vayu, these (are) your bulls having strength in their fore-legs, You
bulls greatly extending, which fly in the rivers, which even in the desert a/
not fast, albeit fast (in the mountain), which yet do not have the mountain as:
home." (1.135.9a-d)
In (8.12) we have two concessive expressions. In the former, the bulls of
the wind are not fast even in the desert, which as a flat and dry place is particularly suitable for a quick run. This does not mean that these bulls are slow
but rather that they are "nicht schneller als zu Wasser oder im Gebirge'~
(Geldner 1951: I, 190), i.e. that they always go with the same (high) speed.
Renou (EVP: XV, 103) remarks that the name of the desert (dhanvan-) is often opposed to the name of the water or of the moun!ain. Both of them appear
in this passage, in the mentions of the river (nadf-) and in the compound
agiraukas, which is based on the name of the mountain (giri-). Moreover,
immediately after stating that the bulls are not fast, the poet corrects himself
with the second concessive expression "albeit fast": the two occurrences of
cid underscore the oxymoron and.Mvo jiriis "non-fast I fast".
Like with cana, with cicl oxymora express a contrast with respect to normal states of affairs. In 1.94.7 Agni is addressed: "though far (dure cid), you
shine as if you were here". In 2.26.4 Brhaspati is the doer of a wide space
even for the one who comes out of narrowness (al'flhos cid)." In 6.28.6 the
cows fatten even the meager (lqsdm cid) and make handsome even the ugly
(asrirdrrz cid). Such paradoxes are due to the power of the gods, who can infringe the law of nature: In 1.62.9 "the god rich in miracles (sudal'flsas-) put
the cooked milk even in raw cows".

8.5. Basic values of the concessive particles cid and cana

Liihr ( 1997) traces the concessive cid-structure to the indefinite pronoun
*!(!id, which is enclitic and is ultimately related to the stressed interrogative
stem */(!f- I /(!6-. "Das Altindische (wie auch das Avestische) gehort zu den
Sprachen, die fur die Bezeichnung echt Konzessiver lnhalte [ ... ] auf
urspriinglich verallgemeinemde Ausdriicke zuriickgreifen." (p. 75) As a starting point, Liihr assumes a reduplicate indefinite pronoun *cid cid, similarly to
Hittite kuit kuit and to Latin quidquid. Later, a dissimilation of *cid cid in
*yad cid allegedly occurred, with the recruitment of the relative stem. Even tu192

l(y, a masculine fonn yci.~ cid, while leaving unvaried the second element f
0
:he structure, led to a series of indefinite fonns, also employed in CCCs.
However, the generalizing function of cid in noun phrases only appears after relative and interrogative pronouns, such as ktis cid "anyone" (2.3.3.2).
"Parti de fonnules pronominales, s'etend quelque peu au deJa" (Renou 1952:
J76). When a substantive falls into the scope of cid, concession is the most
common use, followed by emphasis (GR 454-55). In particular, concessive
cid is mainly associated with proper nouns (8.13) and inherently definite
common nouns, such as the earth, the sun, the moon, etc. In 5.60.2 "even the
earth" (JJ[IhivT cid) moves. In 1.52.1 0 "even the mighty sky" (dyaus cid)
reeled back in terror at the dragon's roar", i.e. at the cry ofVJ1ra wounded to
death. In 3.56.7 "even the two wide worlds" (rodasi cid urvf) begged Savit.r's
treasure. These nouns can also be found with emphatic cid. In 1.61.6 lndra's
weapon is mentioned, "with which he found the vital part of VJ1ra indeed"
(vrtrasya cid). Emphatic cid, however, is more frequent with demonstrative
and personal pronouns (8.14).
cid ghii tad
abravit
(8.13) indras
Indra-NOM even PTC this-ACC.N.SG say-IND.IPF3SG

"Even Indra said this." (8.33.17a)

agne
viijasiitama
(8.14) yam

tvam

cin

RP-ACC.M.SG Agni-VOC victorious-SUP.VOC.M.SG you-NOM.SG indeed

manyase

rayim

observe-IND.PR2SG richness.M-ACC.SG

"The richness that you indeed observe, 0 most victorious one" (5.20.1 ab)
All functions of the particle cid, i.e. indefiniteness, concession, and emphasis, are compatible with the original interrogative function of the stem /(Ji1 k!o-. The shift from interrogative to indefinite is common in languages, since
both of them imply uncertainty in the reference. This is particularly evident in
Old Indian, where the interrogative pronoun per se, without any particle added,
occasionally subsumes an indefinite function (Whitney 1879: 507; Speyer
1886: 281 ). The shift from the interrogative to the emphatic value can be
seen, for example, in the rhetorical questions ofthe Greek-Roman tradition, or
in the repudiative questions of the popular literature, where an answer consisting of the repetition of the question is used to reply impolitely or to express
indignation or rejection. In Vedic hymns, interrogation is generally used to
emphasize a dramatic point in discourse rather than to present a proper question. The relation between questions and exclamations is discussed in Elliott
(1971), which shows that both English and a dozen of unrelated languages
exhibit the same morpho-syntactic strategies for these two functions. A shift
from an interrogative to a concessive function is also acknowledged. Inter193

rogative forms often grammaticalize into conditional markers (Traugott 198

294) or concessive conditional markers (Haspelmath and Konig 1998: 578
620ff.; Leuschner 1998), which further grammaticalize into genuine con .;
sive markers. An interrogative source expressing surprise is particularly ces.
propriate for a relation such as concession, which partakes in the domaina~
contrast and counter-expectancy.

J=

d:

In the case of contrast the speaker decides to present the sector of reality he has .
mind as being composed of two opposed entities. Their specific property can be
scribed as a Slll11rising combination: in view of the first state of affairs mentioned it i
usually expected that the next state of affairs will be different from that which is ex~
pressed. Contrary to the normal expectation based on our knowledge of the world the
second state of affairs gives new information which may be considered as unu.~ual
surprising. remarkable. (Rudolph 1996: 9; emphasis added)
'

A similar semantic change occurred in the use of the interrogative stem kuas a prefix expressing surprise or disdain. E.g. kukathii- "bad tale" (from
kathii- "tale"), kukarman- "wicked deed", kupatha- "evil way", kuputra"wicked son", kupuru~a- "miserable man", kuriijan- "bad king", kurupa- "illshaped, deformed'', etc. This is a productive strategy, especially in Classical
Sanskrit. Monier-Williams gives the meanings of''deterioration, depreciation,
deficiency, want, littleness, hindrance, reproach, contempt, guilt". and suggests: "Originally perhaps ku- signified how strange!" ( 1899: 285) Cf. also
Bohtlingk and Roth: "Urspnmglich hob ku nur das Ausserordentliche,
Aussergewohnliche einer Erscheinung hervor" (11, 303). For these words, the
interrogative stem manifests a contrast with respect to the custom, which justifies the negative value and the frequent moral connotation: e.g. kudar.~ana
"heterodox doctrine", kumantra- "bad advice", kumata- "bad thought", etc.
This allows building names of demons, such as Kuyava in 1.103.8 (lit., "causing a bad harvest" from yava- "barley, harvest") and Ku~ava in (8.15) (lit.,
"causing a troublesome delivery", cf. GR 331), or names ofnon-Aryan people,
such as the Kikatas in 3.53.14 (from the alternative interrogative stem ki-). In
morphology, the prefix ku- has acquired the same negative function that the
particle cana has in syntax. The shift is based on the semantic relation between interrogative and negative elements, which are both non-declarative,
and therefore may receive the same form, as in English any or ever.
The semantics of interrogation, which entails either a positive or a negative
answer, matches the different distribution of cid and cana, as the positive
value of an event that (unexpectedly) takes place is conveyed by cid, while the
negative value of an event that (unexpectedly) does not take place is assigned
to cana. The synchronic relation between the two particles emerges in (8.1 5).
194

re Jndra 's mother apologizes for having abandoned his son. whom she ad-

~r:sscs s~caking i1~ th~ third person. .

.!.

8 15) mamac cana tva

yuvaliiJ

mamac cana tva

ku!java

( '

my
my

PTC you-ACC.SG young.woman.F-NOM.SG abandon-PF3SG

szsave

mamr4yur

sahasod

ati$!hat 11

PTC Indra-NOM might.N-INSTR.SG.up stand-IND.IPF3SG

mamac cana le
my

PTC water.F-NOM.PL child.M-DAT.SG have.compassion-PF3PL

mamac cid indral}

my

jagara

PTC you-ACC.SG Ku~ava-NOM swallow-PF3SG

mamac cid apal}

my

para.m

maghavan

vyaTfiSO

PTC you-DAT.SG generous-VOC.M.SG shoulderless-NOM.M.SG

nivividhvan

apa hdnu

jaghima

wound-P.PF.ACT.NOM.M.SG off jaw.F-ACC.DU smite-OP.PF3SG

"Not by my intention the young woman abandoned you; not by my intenby my intention may the waters have had compassion of you when you were a child; by my intention Indra stood up with
his might. Not by my intention, o generous one, the shoulderless, after having
wounded you, smote offyour jaws". (4.18.8-9ab)
That in (8.15) we do not deal with indefinite noun phrases is clear from the
form mamat hosted by cid and cana: mamat is a combination between mama
and mat, i.e. the genitive and the ablative of the singular first person pronoun,
and therefore is definite par excellence. Geldner (1951: I, 442) remarks that
the two hemistiches are Gegensiitze, where "cana ist negativ, cid positiv". The
particle cana determines here accentuation on the verbs parasa, jagara, and
jaghand.

ilim Ku~ava swallowed you;

3. According to Klein (1992: 72-73; 108), the accent on partisa and onjagtlra is due their antithetic structure with respect to the two following cid-clauses, while the accent on jaghiina,
which is not inserted in an antithetic context, is an instance of completive subordination. Admittedly, this has the drawback of providing separate accounts for the accent of the three verbs,
but avoids the putative difficulty of explaining why the verbs of the two cid-clauses mamr,4yuf}
and ati$!hat do not have an accent. However, it is unsurprising that the same accentual template
is used for the three verbs partlsa,jagtlra, andjaghtlna, which are inflected in the third singular
person of the perfect, rather than for the verbs mamr,4yuf} and ati#hat, which represent a different person and a different tense, respectively. Moreover, completive clauses of the type "It was
not by my intention that the cobra etc." (Klein p. 73) are not attested in the Rig-Veda.

195

8.6. The semantics of contrast in the conjunction ea "and"

8. 6.1. Preliminaries
The function of contrast associated with cid and eami can also be 'd .
tied in some uses of the eo-radical conjunction ea < PIE *k'le, both ~h ent~works as a concessive marker (8.6.2) and when it is, more typically a en 11
dinating conjunction with the meaning "and" (8.6.3). In regard to this C~r
having considered some hypotheses on the function of ea in the syst~~ er
Vedic coordination (8.6.3.1), we will analyze some uses of this conjuncti or
in phrase coordination (8.6.3.2) and in clause coordination (8.6.3.3) w~
particular attention to the competition with the other coordinator uta ,:an~"
Although these conjunctions may overlap in some contexts, ea prevails i
noun phrase coordination and uta prevails in clause coordination. Mithu~
( 1988: 349-51) points out that those conjunctions that originate as noun
phrase coordinators can also spread to the coordination of clauses, and vice
versa those conjunctions that are originally used to connect a sentence to the
previous discourse can spread to the linkage of single words. She also observes, however, that the possibility of an overlap does not imply that two
conjunctions are equivalent in every functional domain. Eventually, we will
explain the functions of ea, and of its competitor uta, with their etymology
(8.6.3 .4 ).

8. 6. 2. Concessive ea
Occasionally, ea fum:tions like the concessive particle cid. In I. 74.1 the
poets want to utter a hymn for Agni, who hears "even from afar" (iire ... ea),
similarly to 1.94.7, where Agni "though far" (dr1r,? cid) shines as if he were
close at hand. In the hymn 1.74, ea marks a subordinate (the verb is stressed)
that is assigned a Konzessiver Bezug by Hettrich (8.16). "Der HS-Sachverhalt
kommt zustande, obwohl der des NS ihm entgegen-wirkt, denn bei dem
Fahren mit dem Wagen ist das Geriiusch der Pferde das zu erwartende."
(Hettrich 1988: 257)
(8.16) a ea
vahiisi
tan
iha dev&n
PRE even.though bring-SB.PR2SG this-ACC.M.PL here god.M-ACC.PL

upa pral;astaye I
to

havya

su.kandra

vitaye 11

laudation.F-DAT.SG offering.N-ACC.PL fair.shining-VOC.M.SG taste-IF

na yor

a.vvyah

upabdir

NEG going-GEN.M.SG sound.M-NOM.SG coming.from.horses-NOM.M.SG

196

mwl

rtitha.vya

ktic canti 1

~~ar-IND.PR.MID3~G chariot.M-GEN.SG any.onc-NOM.M.SG

ad

agne
yiisi
diityam 11
yhcn ,1\gni-VOC go-IND.PR2SG cmbassy.N-ACC.SG

".:en though you bring here these gods to the laudation, to taste the of-

. ~s, o fair-shining one, not a sound is heard that is coming from a horse or
feJ'Illgoing chariot, when, 0 Agni, you go on your embassy." ( 1. 74.6-7)

of~he fonn ea is also used in paradoxes. In (8.17) it has a function similar to

'd and is associated with two implicit concessive relations, which are only
''pressed by means of lexical contrast: Agni moves in secret (gUhii) but he
:ys not hidde~ (na guhii); Agni is one (ekalt). but the breast that feed him
are many (piirvllt).

(8.17) pitili
cid 11dl1ar
janu~ii viveda
father.M-GEN.SG even bosom.N-ACC.SG by.birth know-PF3SG

lY asya dharii

vi dhenii/J I

asvad

PRE his stream.F-ACC.PL sct.in.motion-IND.IPF3SG PRE voicc.F-1\CC.PL

glihii ctiran/af!l

sakhibhi/J

.fiwlbhir

in.secret move-P.PR.ACC.M.SG friend.M-INSTR.PI. dcar-TNSTR.M.J>L

divci
yahvibhir
na guhii babhiiva 11
sky.M-GEN.SG young.daughter.F-INSTR.PL NEG in.sccret bc-PF3SG
pitU.~

ea gtirbha,

janitus

ea

father.M-GEN.SG even embryo.M-ACC.SG gencrator.M-GEN.SG PTC

babhre
piirv~
eko
nurse-PF.MID3SG many-ACC.F.PL one-NOM.M.SG

adhayat

pfpyiinii/J

suck-IND.IPF3SG teeming.bosom.F-ACC.PL

"(Agni) from birth knew even his father's bosom. He set in motion his
streams and his voices; (they knew him) who, albeit moving in secret with
dear friends, was not secret to the young daughters of the sky. He nursed even
the embryo of his father and generator. Although (he was just) one, he
sucked many a teeming bosom." (3.1.9-10ab)
In (8.17) Agni represents the celestial fire, i.e. the lightning. The sky is his
father, and the cloud swelling with rain is his teeming bosom. The thunderbolts are the voices of the streams (the metaphors ofthis hymn are clarified in
Geldner 1951: I, 333-34). For an amazing image like that of "the father's
bosom", the interrogative stem of the particle cid is particularly appropriate.
This also holds true for ea, which occupies the same metrical and syntactic
position as cid in its first occurrence. In this case, ea highlights a marvelous
state of affairs, i.e. the fact that a father has a son in his womb (garbha- "embryo, fetus"). This implies the conception of Agni as ttiniintipiil- "descendant
of himself, self-generated", i.e. Agni that is at the same time father, mother,

197

and son. For a concessive use of ea in a post-rigvedic stage, cf. Gonda (l 9

21).
57:

8.6.3. Coordinating ea
8. 6. 3.1. Opposite and complementary conjuncts
According to Gonda (1957: 4), the coordinator ea "seems to have been
means of indicating complementary ~nity". In Vedic, ea often connects opp:
site l~xemes. E.g. RV 6.34.1 purii mi1Ui1JI ea "before and now", 4.53.?
k~apiibhir ahabhis ea "by night a~d by day", 8.45.25 sanii ncivii ea "the old
and the new things", 1.35.2 amrtam martyam ea "immortal and mortal",
7.60.2 sthiiturjagatas ea "of what is stable and of what moves", 5.62.8 adit;,11
ditim ea "Aditi and Diti" (or innocence and its opposite), 7.50.4 udanvatir
anudakas ea "watery and waterless things", 1.33.7 rudato jak~atas ea "who
cries and who laughs", etc. A nexus also occurs between verbs or preverbs indicating contrasting events: 6.75. I I sa111 ea vi ea dravanti "they run united
(sam) and apart ( vt)", 1.123.12 para ea yanti punar ea yanti "they go away
(parii) and come back (pzlnar ii)" (this usage is also identified in MacDonell
19 I 6: 229). In Classical Sanskrit, ea acquires the function of the adversative
conjunction "but, yet", as can be seen in the description of Bhima in (8.18).
(8.18) prajiikiimah
sa
c:iiprajalt

creature.dcsiring-NOM.M.SG he-NOM yct.childlcss-NOM.M.SG

"Desiring to have children, yet childless" (NaJa 1.5)

Gonda (1954b) identifies a contrasting function in the eo-radical conjunctions of Latin -que and of Ancient Greek le, and interprets the PIE particle
*k11e as "a marker pointing to, or emphasizing, the fact that two (or more)
words of the same category (substantives, adjectives etc.) were not only considered as belonging together, but constituted a complementary pair (or set).
Hence the predilection for the double *k11e and the frequent occurrence of
opposites connected by this particle." ( 1954: I 89) E.g. Latin terra marique
"earth and sea", domi duellique "in peace and in war", magnas parvasque
"big and small thin~s", etc.; An~ient Greek andron te theon te "of the men
and of the gods", e t' andron e te gunaikon "either of the men or of the
women", hretoi t' anetoi te "said and unsaid", etc.
Parallels may be added to this from Old Irish, which like Vedic was spoken in a lateral area of the lE domain, and therefore often gives evidence of
archaisms. The Old Irish bound morpheme -eh "and"< *l!e competes with
the free conjunction oc:us "and", etymologically associated with the preposi198

oc "at" and to the adjective aeus I ocus "near". In the earliest manuscripts,
preferably render Lat. et and -que, respectively. Both in -eh and
Cll,
~ 'ts derivate fonns noeh and sech, an "adversative force" (Thurneysen 1946:
~~~550) is identifiable. Old Irish and Vedic also match in concession. In ad~'tion to the synchronically transparent conjunctions eammaib and im(m)urgu,
'eaning "false appearance" (from camm-oiph) and "great untruth" (from im~-gau). Old Irish uses the particles cia and cid. They derive from the lE stem
~te 1 */(!i (Vendryes 1959: 91-92), and in particular cid presents a remarkable
similarity in fonn and in function to the Vedic typical concessive particle. Old
Irish cid can mark concession in the phrase domain: cid eo hoir "even for an
Jtour''. It also frequently appears in contexts of miracles: ro-batar cid ferte dia
;mthrenugud "there have even been miracles to confinn it" (Thurneysen 1946:
.

11011 311 d --eh

90b~nda's (1957) hypothesis is criticized

in Klein (1985a). According to

I<.lein, the fact that *lt-e can also function as a clausal coordinator is testified
by Vedic and by other lE languages, such as Avestan, Latin, and Old. Irish.
This demonstrates that ea originally was not limited to connecting opposite or
complementary concepts. Rather, it was "a nonnal conjunction showing a full
distribution of occurrence from the level of the word to that of the word-group
and the sentence". (Klein 1985a: 236) Accordingly, the semantics of complementariness did not specifically involve the function of ea, but rather the
function of a conjunction in general, which is necessarily referred to words
sharing some semantic components. Ca can also be employed beyond
antinomy, either with synonyms (e.g. 6.16.3 adhvana}J pathas ea "streets and
paths") or with tenns belonging to the same semantic field (e.g. 4.30.19 andhalJ'l sroYJalJ'l ea "blind and lame"). Klein (p. 236ff.) claims that the preferential association between ea and antonyms is not due to a functional difference
between ea and the other Rigvedic coordinator uta "and", but rather to the
older age of ea with respect to uta. This emerges both from word order and
from a comparison with the coordinators of other lE languages. The order of
conjunctive coordinators correlates with the major constituent order of a language (Stassen 2000). Ca is postposed to the words falling in its scope (in the
sequence X Y ea and, less so, in X ea Y ea), consistently with the putatively
original SOY word order. Conversely, uta privileges the order X uta Y, which
is hannonic with the more recent SVO word order. Moreover, a reconstruction is more feasible for ea, which has cognates in the entire lE domain, than
for uta, which is limited to Indo-Iranian as a coordinator. In this perspective,
ea originally displays a large range of usages, and progressively is flanked by
uta, according to the same process that opposes kai to te in Ancient Greek and
et to -que in Latin. Antonyms or callidae iuneturae resist the longest to the
199

change~ whereas clausal nexus changes first, since it is more difficult to

memonze.
That the two coordinators ea and uta go back to different periods, howeve
does not impinge upon the possibility that they synchronically compete in th r,
system of Vedic coordination. Klein ( 1985a: 294-95) admits that Ilia "reveat
in and of itself no obvious syntactic traces or being secondary or late". In th:
same vein, ea is by no means residual, but rather it has a higher frequency
(1.019 occurrences, Klein p. 46) than uta (705 occurrences, Klein p. 293) in
the Rig-Veda. In Classical Sanskrit, ea replaces uta (Whitney 1879: 1 133a).
It appears that ea and uta are not used in the same circumstances, and will use
Klein's data to enhance some functional differences between them.

8.6.3.2. Ca and natural coordination

In the coordination of single words or of phrases, ea is unmarked and uta

is marked from a frequency point of view: ea has 902 occurrences (Kiein
1985a: 46ff.), while uta has 320 occurrences (ib. 293ff.). Even Klein's data (p.
168) confirm that the connection of opposite or complementary terms occupies a large part of the occurrences of ea, as already noticed by Gonda (cf.
also Kiihner-Gerth 11, 2, p. 242-43). For example, in the sequence X ea Yea,
lexical opposition covers two thirds of the cases. Moreover, although the form
ea is not limited to lexical opposition, and can also express noun phrase synonymy or clause coordination, the function of lexical opposition has a privileged association with ea rather than with util. This can be seen in the frequent
cases where opposites are only found with ea, as "movable and unmovable",
"biped and quadruped", "mother and son", etc. "The only kinship set conjoined by uta [ ... ] is the non-complementary father and brother." (Kiein
1985a:313)
Apparently, in phrase coordination, ea and ulti are specialized for what typologically is called "natural conjunction" and "accidental conjunction", respectively (cf. Walchli 2005).1n natural conjunction, the conjuncts represent a
sort of conceptual unit, as in the noun phrases "mother and father", "husband
and wife", "boys and girls", "bow and arrows", etc. Many languages represent
these pairs with the lack of an overt coordinator or of an intonational break
(8.19a). By contrast, the looser nexus of accidental conjunction is expressed
by means of an overt marker or of a pause in intonation (8.19b ).
(8.19) Erzya Mordvin (Uralic; Haspelmath forthcoming: 21)
a. 1 'et 'at-avat
b. 1 'iksen di sivel 'en
father.PL-mother.PL
grass and meat
"Father and mother= parents"
"Grass and meat"
200

According to Haspelmath (forthcoming: 21), "the explanation for the

contrast between zero-marking and overt marking must be sought in economy:
Since the conjuncts in natural conjunction occur together very frequently, the
relation between them is quite predictable and overt marking is redundant."
Mithun ( 1988: 332) observes that noun phrases joined with no intonation
break in some languages correspond to single lexical items or to compounds
in other languages. This is reminiscent of Gonda's observation (1957: 9; 15)
according to which the members of a ea-structure often appear in a copulative
compound, or are specified with the duals ubha "both", dva "two", tli "these
two", etc. This indicates that they are conceived as an established pair in
Vedic taxonomy. The Vedic phrase correspondent to the Erzya Mordvin example in (8.19a) is reported in (8.20) and in (8.21 ).
(8.20) pit&
mata
ea rak$atiim
avobhih
father.M-NOM.SG mother.F-NOM.SG and protect-IPV3DU help.N-INSTR.PL

"May our father and mother protect us with their help." ( 1.185.1 Od)
(8.21) ~r}a1J1.
no dyaus
ea prthivi
ea pinvatiim
strength.N-ACC.SG our sky.M-NOM.SG and earth.F-NOM.SG and swell-IPV3DU

pita

mata

visvavidii

suda,.sasii

father.M-NOM.SG mother.F-NOM.SG omniscient-NOM.M.DU powerful-NOM.M.DU

"May earth and sky swell our strength, they who are our father and mother,
the omniscient, the powerful ones." (6.70.6ab)
The two conjuncts "father and mother" are linked by ea in (8.20) and by
asyndeton in (8.21 ). For this pair, Vedic also has the expression pitarii "parents" lit., ''the two fathers", which is quite frequent in languages (cf. Spanish
patres, Lithuanian tevai, Arabic al-abawiin, etc.) The conjunction uta is never
used for this phrase. In (8.21 ), ea signals a further instance of natural coordination ("earth and sky"), which in other contexts is presented as a compound
(dyavaprthivf) or as a single lexeme (rodasi lit., "the two worlds"). The function of natural conjunction can be also identified in cognates ofVedic ea, such
as Ancient Greek te and Latin -que (Viti 2006).
Mithun (1988: 333-35) states that two verbs can be expressed in a single
intonation unit when they indicate a unitary action, such as "take and" (8.22)
or "go and ... " These predicates are commonly represented in languages with
bonded or fused structures, such as serial verbs and verb compounds. In this
case, Vedic resorts to the conjunction ea (8.23). By contrast, when two verbs
describe separate actions or causally related events, an intonation break or an
overt conjunction appears. This is the main domain of the conjunction uta, as
we will see in the following section.

201

(8.22) Parengi (Munda; Mithun 1988: 334)

e-nom d'ar-t-ay zum-t-ay
to-him grasp-FUT-SP cat-FUT-SP

"I will grasp him and eat him."

(8.23) devebhir
yiihi
yak~i

ea

god.M-INSTR.PL come-IPV2SG sacrifice-IPV2SG and

"Come and perform the sacrifice with the gods." ( 1.14.1 c)

8.6.3.3. Ca and symmetric coordination

In the domain of clause coordination, ulll is the unm.arked form, which

connects clauses of considerable extension and clauses belonging to different
stanzas. In this function, ea is severely constrained: only in 90 out of 1.019
occurrences, i.e. in less than I 0% of the cases, ea connects clauses (Klein
1985a: 213ff.). Particularly, ea connects clauses that are placed in the same
stan:z.a: this does not occur in only 2 out of 90 passages (ib. 216). The occurrence of clausal ea are typically limited to four piida-stanzas, which present a
syntactic balance, with the stanza splitting in two parts, and the hemistich
splitting in two parts (ib. 232). Whereas ea favors parallel and opposed structures, uta is much more elastic with respect to metres. Ca signals "tight nexus
within sets of parallel forms" (ib. 214), while uta is a "very weak conjunction
(=mere continuation) in non parallel clause, loose nexus within parallel
clauses, and narrative conjunction", or an "interstanzaic discourse-level conjunction" (ib. 393).
Klein reduces the synchronic importance of this unequal distribution,
which is ascribed to the particular condition of the text, where instances of ea
as a clause linker have been lost. However, his description of the main uses of
ea and of uta significantly matches the distinction between the structural and
the additive functions of "and" in Halliday and Hasan (1976: 233ff.). Structural "and" presents two conjuncts as belonging to the same syntactic node,
while additive "and" has the pragmatic function of discourse cohesion. Some
languages have different coordinators for these different functions: Luraghi
(1990: 4 7ff.) shows that the Hittite connective nu is the typical additive conjunction, which is used to move the narration along, while the conjunction(y)a- "is the marker of a syntactic relation (coordination); it does not, strictly
speaking, contribute to the semantic unity of a text." (ib. 56) Semanticists
posit a similar distinction between symmetric and asymmetric "and". Lakoff
(1971) states that the conjuncts of a symmetric "and" (8.24a) may change
their respective order without changing the meaning of the sentence. By contrast, asymmetric "and" (8.24b) presents two situations in an iconic order, and
implies that the situation of the first conjunct causes the situation of the sec202

011 d conjunct. In this case, if the order

.11g ofthe sentence changes as well.

ofthe conjuncts is changed, the mean-

~g.24a) Mary is eating toa.<a and Fred is chasing the aardvark.

(8.24b) The police came into the room and everybody swallowed their cigarelfeS.

Haiman ( 198Sb) considers coordinate clauses with a non-iconic order only

111arginal
case as compared to tense-iconic coordinate clauses. This is con8
sistent with Lakoffs (1971) observation that asymmetric "and" has a less restricted distribution. The conjuncts of asymmetric "and" present relaxed semantic constraints on the shared topic. and admit a contrast in verbal aspect or
actionality. Differently, symmetric "and" entails that the conjoined situations
are presented with the same aspect and actionality.
These considerations apply to the distribution of the two Vedic conjunctions. Clauses connected by uta often have different subjects, and their verbs
often have a different tense, mood, or illocutionary force. This especially occurs when uta is placed at the beginning of a stanza and is linked to the previous verse, which is very frequent in the Rig-Veda ("so haiifig", GR 248).
(8.25) {kviii'J(J
agnim
indhate
hOtiiram
vispatiltl
singer.M-NOM.PL Agni-ACC kindle-INO.PR3PL priest.M-ACC.SG chief.M-ACC.SG

l'isam 11

avi~a

uta 110 brahmann

tribe.F-GEN.PL and us pious.uttcrance.N-LOC.SG favor-SB.AOR2SG

ukthe~u

devahatamal]

praise.N-LOC.PJ. invoking.the.god-SUP.NOM.M.SG

"The singers kindle Agni, the priest. the chief of the tribes, I and you, who
are the best in invoking the gods, favor us in the pious utterance and in the
praises!"(3.13.5cd-6ab)
In (8.25) the first conjunct has a third person plural subject ("the singers")
and a present indicative verb expressing a declarative illocutionary force. Differently, the second conjunct contains an imperative ("favor!") whose second
person singular subject is coreferential with the object of the first conjunct.
The order of the two conjuncts is temporally oriented: the singers kindle the
fire (Agni), and then Agni is requested to give help. By contrast, the shorter
ea-clauses commonly have the same subject, and exhibit verbs inflected in the
same tense and mood in the Rig-Veda. In (8.26), we have two aorist injunctive verbs with an imperative illocutionary force, both of them addressing the
same referent. Here the order of the two conjuncts is reversible.
ea
ea riri~at
(8.26)

ma ha

ma

NEG and 1eave-INJ.AOR3SG NEG and hurt-INJ.AOR3SG

"May it not leave us, and may it not hurt us." (3.53.20b)
The clausal function of ea as symmetric "and" matches the privileged association between ea and noun phrase coordination (8.6.3.2). A common
topic, which is a crucial prerequisite of symmetric ea, implies conjunction re203

duction, and conjunction reduction is what brings about noun phrase coo .
nation. Lakoff ( 1971: 116-18) comments that noun phrase coordination ird,.
clause such as "John eats apples and pears" can be related to clause coordn a
tion in the sentence "John eats apples and John eats pears", where one oc na.
rence of the common topic, i.e. the part that is identical in each conj~ur.
("John eats"), is deleted. Unless we have tautology or redundancy, the accenct
ability of a conjoined sentence increases the more constituents are shared :~
therefore deleted, and the fewer presuppositions are necessary to the interp~
tation. The clause "John eats apples and pears" is more acceptable than th
clause "John eats apples and many New Yorkers drive Fords" (Lakoff 197l:
116) because a common topic is explicit in the former but not in the latter.
The frequent opposite nuance of words connected by a symmetric coordi.
nator such as ea manifests the semantic relationship existing between the
function of symmetric "and" and the function of semantic opposition, which
in languages is properly associated with the adversative conjunction "but".
Lakoff ( 1971: 131 ff.) identifies two main uses of "but", i.e. semantic opposi.
tion (8.27a) and denial of expectation (8.27b).
(8.27a) Fordv can go fast, but 0/dsmobiles are safe.
(8.27b) Fords can go fast, but Harry will never get a tieketfor speeding.
In semantic opposition, an explicit contrast is established between two antonyms. In (8.27a), fast and safe represent two contrasting properties of cars.
In denial of expectation, the first conjunct carries a presupposition that is contradicted in the second conjunct. In (8.27b), the presupposition is that who is
able to go fast speeds, and who speeds gets a fine. Lakoff ( 1971: 135-36) observes that the two types of "but" are semantically related to the two uses of
"and". Semantic opposition corresponds to symmetric "and": in (8.27a) the
order of the two conjuncts is reversible f'Oidsmobiles are safe, but Fords can
go fast"). Denial of expectation corresponds to asymmetric "and", where a
change in word order causes a change in the meaning of the sentence, gives an
unacceptable meaning, or requires more presuppositions to be adequately interpreted. The sentence **"Harry will never get a ticket for speeding, but
Fords can go fast" is definitely odd, since it is not clear that Harry owns a
Ford, which is the assumption to interpret the sentence in (8.27b).
In the absence of a grammaticalized adversative conjunction (8.7), Vedic
can employ ea to express the function of semantic opposition between conjoined clauses. "Ca seul ou ea repete connecte aussi des propositions, comme
enclitique de phrase; la nuance de contraste (aussi bien ... que, non seulement . . . mais encore) entraine alors normalement la tonification du premier verbe." (Renou 1952: 378) Grammars state that the antithesis between
two states of affairs is marked by verbal accentuation (2.2) plus, optionally,
by a correlation such as anya-anya, eka-eka, vii-vii, ea-ea ''the one . . . the
204

Jter", ''on the one hand . . . on the other hand" (cf. Speyer 1886: 80-81;
~acDonell 1916: 4~8). Th~ exam~l~s in (8.~8) an~ (8.29) illustrat~ a correlaoo with ea and With anya, descnbmg a pa1r of s1multaneous act10ns. In the
~ormer, the songs go together in lndra (sam jagmuh) while the wisdom goes
ut from lndra (vi yanti). In the latter, two birds sit on the same tree: one bird
~ts (atti) and the other one does not (tina.Snan). The inference from temporal
simultaneity to contrastiveness is widely attested in languages (cf. Abraham

1979).
(8.28) saf!l ea

tve

jagmur gira

indra

'
purvlr

together and you-LOC.SG go-PF3PL song.F-NOM.PL lndra-VOC many-NOM.F.PL

vi

ea tvad

yanti

vibhvo

manl$&1!

separately and you-ABL.SG go-IND.PR3PL outstanding-NOM.F.PL wisdom.F-NOM.PL

"While many songs have gone together on you, 0 Indra, outstanding wisdom goes out ofyou." (6.34.1ab)
pippalarrz
sviidv
atty
(8.29) tityor anyah
this-GEN.M.DU other-NOM.M.SG berry.N-ACC.SG sweet-ACC.N.SG eat-IND.PR3SG

anasnann

any6

abhi ciikasui

not.eating-P.PR.NOM.M.SG other-NOM.M.SG around watch-INT3SG

"While one of them eats the sweet berry, the other one watches all around
without eating". ( 1.164.20)
The accentuation on the verb of the first conjunct in (8.28) and in (8.29)
manifests a formal similarity between these antithetic clauses and proper subordinate clauses, whose verb is always accented in Vedic. This is probably
due to the fact that symmetric "and" and semantic opposition "but" do not
necessarily present iconicity between linear order and conceptual order, like
subordination, and unlike asymmetric "and" or denial of expectation "but".
The sentence "When you arrived, I left" is well-formed as the sentence "I left
when you arrived". Because of this, correlations with ea-ea, anya-anya, etc.
may be often interpreted as while-relations, which are referred to simultaneous events. For these relations, the conjunction uta is never used.

8. 6. 3. 4. Morphologic motivation of the contrast between ea and uta

According to Klein, "if PIE *l!e is related to the *l!e- I 6 I i pronoun, this
relationship belongs to a linguistic level so remote as to be devoid of any explanatory power with regard to either *l!e or *l!e- I 6 I i." (1985a: 275) However, this coordinator is compatible with the indefinite value of the enclitics
cid and cana (in the latter, the stress is analogical to na), if it is meant as "indistinctly, indifferently". A pair such as night and day originally meant "night
and day indifferently" (cf. Monteil 1963: 109). Moreover, the ultimately inter205

rogative function ofthe stem *~e-1 o I i, which emerges in many cont .

environments with concessive cid and eami, can motivate the freque rastt\te
trastive uses of ea. For eid and eana, contrast is meant as counter-exp;t col\.
with respect to a set of presuppositions that are largely shared by the ~tanC)'
community. For ea, contrast concerns antinomy between two lexical itePeech
semantic opposition between two propositions.
Ills or
The tight nexus implied in natural conjunction is expressed by the enc)' .
status and by the bisyndetic pattern of ea. An enclitic coordinator such as c ll~c
less overt than a stressed independent coordinator such as uta, and therefora ~s
more similar to the zero marking strategy that languages use for natural c~ IS
junction. Moreover, the bisyndetic postpositive pattern X ea V ea and ~
monosyndetic pattern X uta Y present the two conjuncts as balanced and un~
balanced, and therefore are suitable to express symmetric and asymmetric coordination. Haspclmath (forthcoming: 8) remarks that monosyndetic coordina.
tion is universally asymmetrical. Although a monosyndetic pattern can also
appear with ea, it has a different constituent structure with respect to uta
since uta is prepositive on the second coordinand (X eo-V), while ea is post~
positive on the second coordinand (X Y-eo). In the pattern X Y-eo, the two
conjuncts are adjacent and represented as a conceptual unit.
The tight nexus of ea explains why this conjunction, rather than uta, can
trigger the accent on a preposed verb, similarly to what occurs with the particles eid and cand (Paqini 8.1.57-58). Verbal accentuation signals that the
clause is included in the same intonational contour as another clause, and
therefore that the two clauses fonn together a semantic unit in the discourse
(Kiein I 992). As we already mentioned in 2.2, "Das Verbum des ersten
Satzes wird dann betont, wenn der Gedanke noch nicht abgeschlossen ist,
derart, dass zur VervollsUindigung ein zweiter Satz nothig ist. Der Gedanke
dieses zweiten steht zu dem des ersten im Verhaltniss des Gegensalzes oder
der Folge oder ist sonst irgendwie mit ihm zur Einheit verbunden. (Delbriick
1888: 37-38; emphasis added) This happens not only when ea connects two
antithetical propositions, as in (8.28), but also when it is a proper
subordinating function with the meaning "when" (2.15) or .. if' (5.8).
Although uta prevails for clause linkage, it never has the function of a
subordinating marker. This is because the nexus between two coordinate
clauses is looser than the nexus between a subordinate and a main clause. The
additive or narrative use of uta (X and also Y or X and then Y) is represented
with the stem of the demonstrative pronoun u, which in Vedic is the main
distal deictic (asau, amu "that"). The same root appears in the disjoining
conjunction va "or". Demonstrative pronouns with an anaphoric function are
often recruited to connect different clauses in Vedic (2.3.3.1 ).
206

f m Vedic to Classical Sanskrit, coordinators grammaticalize, similarly

~t observed in 2 for subordinators. In the Rig-Veda, clauses linked by
tow ~ert conjunction are relatively few with respect to juxtaposed clauses.
-" .0 reflects the oral style of this text: Mithun ( 1988) observes that in oral
fhl~h juxtaposition largely prevails over overt coordination, since intonation
srne can reveal the type of relation established between the conjoined
'tments. In Classical Sanskrit, new coordinators appear. For example, some
~~ctures are specialized for the function of representative conjunction, where
be conjuncts imply other non-specified members of a larger category, as in
~nglish and so on, among other things, etc. (Haspelmath forthcoming: 22) In
this case, compounds ending with -iidi (with variants -iidya and -iidika) or
with -prabhfli are used, literally meaning "beginning with". E.g. Jndriidaya/J
surii/t, lndra-beginning-NOM.M.PL god.M-NOM.PL, "lndra and other gods"
(lit., "gods beginning with lndra"). Representative coordination is
conceptually asymmetric, and is expressed with the conjunction utcl in Vedic,
as well as in the other Indo-lranian languages. In (8.30) an example from Old
Persian is given, where representative uta eo-occurs with the pattern ea ... ea.
The latter coordinates the semantically closely associated nouns of Persia and
Media, which formed the original nucleus of the Achaemenian dominion,
while uta is used for all other countries. Similarly, the other lE languages do
not resort to the inherited form *lc'!e for representative conjunction, but rather
to their monoglot narrative and asymmetric coordinand, such as Latin et
cetera or Ancient Greek kai ta alta "and so on".
dahyavii
(8.30) Piirsam-ca Miidam-ca utii aniyii
Persia-ACC.and Media-ACC.and and other-ACC.F.PL province.F-ACC.I,L

"Persia and Media, and the other provinces." (DB 1.66-67)

8. 7. Cognitive markedness of the adversative relation

The hypothesis that the low frequency of concessive hypotactic structures
in Vedic is cognitively motivated by the semantic complexity of concession is
supported by the absence, in the coordination domain, of a conjunction for the
adversative relation "but". The adversative and the concessive relations share
the semantics of representing a state of affairs contrasting with the speaker's
expectations. "Contrast in language almost always reflects rather complicated
thinking. This is especially true for the adversative and concessive relations,
the two manifestations of the connection of contrast." (Rudolph 1996: 8)
Because of their common semantics, the adversative and the concessive relations share the same structures in some languages. In Old Irish, for example,
Thurneysen (1946: 907-908) mentions the form acht, eo-radical of the An207

cient Greek adverb ektos "outside", under the rubric "adversative and con
sive conjunctions". Exclusion, separation, and bereavement are common l:e~
cat sources for adversative conjunctions, as can be seen in English but u~~
mately derived from O.E. be utan "at (the) outside" (cf. Traugott 1986),' or.'
Latin sed "but", which means "without" in the XII Tables (sed fraude "wit~~
out fraud"), and which was later replaced for this function by sine.
In particular, concession corresponds to "but" expressing denial of ex.pec.
tation rather than to "but" expressing semantic opposition (8.6.3.3). Lakoff
(1971: 141 -42) observes that an adversative sentence of denial of expectation
such as "John is a vegetarian, but he ate chicken at the party" is roughly
equivalent to the concessive sentence "Although John is a vegetarian, he ate
chicken at the party". Quite differently, the adversative sentence of semantic
opposition "John is poor but Bill is rich" better corresponds to the sentence
"While John is poor, Bill is rich" than to the sentence "Although John is poor,
Bill is rich". If the latter is considered acceptable, it assumes the interpretation
of denial of expectation, where the first conjunct is presupposed, like in concessive clauses and unlike in clauses of semantic opposition.
When ea and other focus particles acquire a contrastive meaning, as in the
correlation ea-ea, anya-anya, eka-eka, vii-vii (8.6.3.3), they convey a relation
of semantic opposition, where the lexical meaning of the two conjuncts suffices to establish a contrast, without any presupposition implied. Adversative
sentences of denial of expectation, which are semantically more complex and
closer to concession, are represented by mere juxtaposition in Vedic. In (8.31)
the challenge and the defeat of the demon V,rtra is presented. A situation
where "X challenges Y" activates the expectation that X will also succeed,
which "is negated in the adversative clause. Consider the following translation,
where the adversative relation is made explicit: "En mauvais combattant (qu'il
etait), mechamment excite, ii avait (ose) defier le Grand-Hems, l'impetueux,
le vainqueur de tant d'ennemis; mais il ne put soutenir le choc des armes de
mort et s'ecroula le visage ecrase, vaincu par Indra." (Varenne 1982: 196;
emphasis added) In the rig-vedic passage, however, the adversative relation is
expressed by asyndetic clause linkage.
durmada
hi
(8.31) ayoddheva

non.warrior-NOM.M.SG-like bad.drunken-NOM.M.SG PRE PTC

juhve

mahaviralfl

tuvibadham

challenge-PF.MID3SG great.hero.M-ACC.SG many.slaying-ACC.M.SG

rJi~am I

n&tar'id

asya samrtilfl

impetuous-ACC.M.SG NEG.brook-IND.AOR3SG his clashing.F-ACC.SG

vadh&niil!l

sill!l ruj&naiJ

pipi~a

deadly.weapon.M-GEN.PL PRE nosc.breakcr-NOM.M.SG crash-PF.MID3SG

indrasatruiJ
having.Indra.as.an.enemy-NOM.M.SG

208

'Like a bad-drunken coward, he had challenged the many-slaying, impetus great hero, (but) he, the nose-breaker, who had lndra as an enemy, did
~~t'brook the clashing of his deadly weapons, and was completely crashed."
(tJ2.6)
The markedness of adversative coordination, for which a specialized form
does not exist in Vedic or in Old Persian, must be measured in comparison
with copulative coordination, which in the Rig-Veda has several available
strategi~s. ,Besides ea and uta, a conspicuous range of particles such as athii,
(ldha, iid, ii etc. can coordinate clauses with the meaning "and". "But" is considered a logically marked nexus as compared to "and", since the former always has an adversative function, while the latter can acquire an adversative
sense in some contexts, but is inherently vague. Dik (1972: 279) assigns the
feature [+Adversative] to "but", and the feature [-Adversative] to "and" (cf.
also Payne 1985: 6-17).
As "but" is more informative than "and", in many languages fonns of adversative coordination arise from forms of copulative coordination, via pragmatic inferencing, with various degrees of transparency. Sometimes the same
form is synchronically used for both functions, as in the case of Lithuanian o
"and, but". Sometimes the adversative tinker does not coincide with the copulative linker, but is easily relatable to a form indicating addition: Ancient
Greek allti "but" is the neuter plural fonn of the adjective alios "other", and
originally means "other things". The same source is observable in Classical
Armenian ay/ "but", derive:d from the accusative singular form of the adjective ay/ "other". Italian piuttosto "rather" contains the adverb piu "plus".
Spanish mas means both "more" and "but". Sometimes the meaning "and,
also" is found in the ancestor language: French mais and Italian ma arise from
Latin magis "more", which marginally appears in adversative contexts (cf.
Catullus' verse non est turpe, magis miserum est). A common source can be
specialized in some languages with the function of "and" and in other languages with the function of "but". Gothic afar "after", which gives Gennan
aber "but", is eo-radical of Old Indian aparam "subsequent, other, different",
which in Hindi gives aur "and". Words meaning addition are also a typical
strategy for concession, as can be seen e.g. in Latin et-si, Ancient Greek kaiper, Classical Sanskrit yady-api, where api corresponds to Ancient Greek epi
"above" and to Classical Armenian ew "and".
In Classical Sanskrit, not only ea "and" is available for adversative coordination (8.18), but also a set of adverbial particles such as api, atha, tu, param,
punah, etc., which originally mean "so, then, further, again", and which also
allow the various combinations ki111 tu, paralfl tu, and paralfl kilJ'l tu (Speyer
1886: 441 ). Among these particles denoting emphasis or addition, tu becomes the most typical marker of adversative coordination ("die Adversa209

tivpartikel KaT' Eeoxrw". Speyer 1896: 231 ). In the Rig-Veda, howev

only has an emphatic value (cf. MacDonell 1916: 234 "it is an emphas~r.'ll
particle. In the RV, where it occurs nearly fifty times, it seems to be restr~:z~ng
to this sense"), and is mostly employed to strengthen an order or exhona~ Cd
notably with second person imperatives (GR 538). Grassmann counts just ~11
Rigvedic occurrence of tu with an adversative function: 6.29.5 "Nicht wa"~
dieser deiner Kraft ein Ziel gesetzt, sondem (lli) deine Grosse stosst d~
beiden Welten auseinender." Other emphatic particles occasionally receive ~e
adversative reading in the Rig-Veda, as can be seen for id in (8.32). Cf.
nou's translation of the following passage: "Ne joue pas aux des, cultive (bien
au contraire) la terre!" (1952: 375) Like cana, the particle id causes verbal ac.
centuation if immediately following a verb, which supports the observed relation between contrast and tight linkage (8.6.3.4).
divyal]
kr~im
it lq:.~asva
(8.32) ak~air

R:

ma

dice.M-INSTR.PL NEG play-INJ.IPF2SG cultivated.soii.F-ACC.SG PTC plough-IPV2SG

"D~ not play dice, but rather plough the corn-land." (I 0.34.13a)
l11is shows the pertinence of emphatic forms to express contrast, which by
definition underscores a piece of information that is out of the ordinary. Because of their expressive value, adversative markers are prone to renewal, like
intensifiers. In Hindi, for example, there is not a single form of adversative
coordinators, and we have e.g. magar and lekin, the latter of which is an Arabic borrowing. For an emphatic - contrasting function, the interrogative
source is appropriate. Interestingly, Classical Sanskrit kilntu "but" presents the
particle tzi as reinforced with the stem of the interrogative pronoun, which also
characterizes the early use of the contrasting particles ea, cid, and cana. The
binary character of yes-no questions, which matches the possibility of positive
(even) or negative (not even) concession, is compatible with the adversative
relation, which always consists of two conjoined elements, unlike other types
of coordination. "Compare [AP rich and happy and wise] with the unacceptable *[AP rich hlll happy but wise]". (Payne 1985: 6)

210

9. Completive relations

9.1. Semantics of complementation

In Vedic, the absence or scarcity of subordinating structures may be observed not only for those adverbial relations that imply cognitively complex
operations (as negation, futurity, presupposition, etc.), but also for a number
of completive relations.
"Complements relations link two states of affairs such that one of them
(the main one) entails that another one (the dependent one) is retcmed to."
(Cristofaro 2003: 95) For example, in the sentence "John thinks that Mary
will arrive tomorrow", the main state of affairs requires that anothe1 state of
affairs, expressing the object of thought, will follow. This requirement is
pragmatically, rather than syntactically meant. Cristofaro criticizes the traditional definition of completive relations, whereby a clause functions as an argument of the main predicate (cf. Noonan 1985: 46), as it only applies to embedding. She observes that embedded clauses, which are typical of complementation in modern lE languages, are not found in many other languages,
where the dependent state of affairs of a complement relation is represented
by a juxtaposed clause. Similarly, Dixon (2006) does not take into account
only proper complement clauses, but also discusses "complementation strategies" such as juxtaposition or nominalization.
This broad view ofcomplementation includes constructions ofOid Indian
and, more generally, of the early lE languages. In the Old Persian example in
(9.1 ), the main predicate is juxtaposed to the clause expressing the object of
knowledge.
(9.1) adataiy azdii
baviitiy
Piirsa
martiya
then

known-ADV become-SB3SG Persian-NOM.M.SG man.M-NOM.SG

durayapiy hacii Piirsli

far

partaram

patiy-ajatii

from Persia-ABL battlc-ACC.SG against-fight-IPF.MID3SG

"Then it shall become known (that) a Persian man has fought a battle far
from Persia." (DNa 45-47)
211

. Alternatively, a gen~ric noun su~h as "fa~t", "deed", etc., or a de

t1ve pronoun appears w1th the function of obJect of the main clause lllo~Sbl
sumed by a relative pronoun in the dependent clause. In this case thand s re.
noun or the demonstrative pronoun is cataphoric with respect to the ce generic
the dependent clause, and the latter functions as an afterthought, as ~~tc;_nt or
shall know this fact, that a Persian man has fought a battle far from p ~ou
Correlative cases like these, which are reminiscent of oral commun ers.a".
will be discussed in 9.2. Cristofaro (2003: 97) notices that the de;~a~on,
clause is r~analyzed as an argu~ent of the main predi~ate only at a later ent
The gener1c noun or demonstrative pronoun of the mam clause is omitted &e.
the relative pronoun becomes a complementizer, so that. the originan; ~d
joined clause becomes an embedded clause. In lE languages, complem: clauses grammaticalize later than relative clauses and adverbial clauses (
Lehmann 1980; Hopper and Traugott 1993: 185-89).
c
Since it is entailed by the main predicate, a clause expressing a comple.
ment relation is semantically more integrated in the main clause with respect
to clauses expressing adverbial relations. This semantic integration, however
varies according to the type of complement taking predicate (CPT). The type~
identified in Noonan (1985: IIOff.) are the following: utterance predicates
("say", "tell", "report", "ask in order to know", etc.), propositional attitude
predicates ('"think", "believe", "doubt''. etc.), pretence predicates ("pretend",
"imagine", etc.), commentatives or factives ("regret", "be happy", etc.), predicates of knowledge and acquisition of knowledge ("know", "find out", "understand", "forget", etc.), predicates of fearing ("be afraid", "be frightened",
etc.), desiderative predicates ("want", "wish", "hope", etc.), manipulative
predicates ("force", "solicit", "persuade", "make someone do something",
"ask in order to obtain", etc.), modal predicates ("can", "must", with deontic
or epistemic modality), achievement predicates ("try", "dare", "avoid", "happen", etc.), phasal predicates or aspectuals ("start", "continue", "stop", etc.),
immediate perception predicates ("see", "feel", etc.).
Giv6n ( 1980) identifies three factors that contribute to the semantic integration between the main predicate and the complement clause: I. Coreference between arguments of the main clause and of the subordinate; 2. Control
of the main clause subject over the achievement of the state of affairs described in the subordinate clause; 3. Detenninate time reference of the subordinate clause according to the meaning of the governing predicate. For example, a sentence with a manipulative main predicate such as "I make you leave"
implies that the subject of the complement clause is also the object of the
main clause. A direct causation exists between the two states of affairs, so that
the state of affairs of the complement clause is the result of the act of manipulation. The main predicate implies that the state of affairs of the completive

:a

i,

2/2

is posterior to the state of affairs of the main clause. By contrast, in a

,111~;~ce with an utterance main predicate such as "She thinks that you leave",

geD is 110 argument coreference between main clause and dependent clause.
tb"resubject of the main clause does not exert any control on the perfonnance
~~~e situation described in the dependent clause. The dependent state of af0 iJ'S has an indeterminate time reference with respect to the main state of af~rs and may occur in the present, in the past, or in the future (She thinks that
81u
I that you will leave).
yo When the meaning of the main predicate allows recovering some pieces of
. formation about the dependent state of atTairs, such as argument reference
1 ~ time reference, this information is commonly omitted. As Noonan ( 1985:
~OO) put it, "there is a general principle in complementation that information
aends neither to be repeated nor lost." As a result, complement clauses having
11 high semantic integration wi,th their main predicate also exhibit deranked
strUctures, where the verb and the arguments arc encoded differently from the
verb and the argument of an independent clause. Verbs of deranked structures
Jack (or have few) distinctions in person, tense, aspect, or modality, as can be
seen in participles and infinitives. On the contrary, completive relations that
are loosely integrated with their main predicate commonly present balanced
structures, that is, structures where arguments and verbs are encoded in the
same way as the arguments and verbs of independent clauses. In (9.2) we report Cristofaro's (2003: 125) Complement Deranking Hierarchy. The relations in the first line are semantically integrated with the main predicate,
while the relations in the second line do not present semantic integration. The
hierarchy predicts that, if a language uses deranked structures for a given
point in the hierarchy, it will also use deranked structures for all positions at
the left side of that point.
(9.2) Modals, Phasals > Desideratives, Manipulatives >Perception>
Knowledge, Propositional attitude, Utterance
Since it commonly expresses the speaker's judgment or wish with respect
to the propositional content of the subordinate clause, complementation has a
special relationship with modality (cf. Palmer 1988; 2001). This semantic
category, whose grammaticalization gives rise to moods, properly represents
the speaker's attitude towards the content of a proposition. Modality may be
either deontic or epistemic. In the former, the speaker's attitude concerns the
possibility or the necessity that a given proposition takes place. Desiderative
predicates ("want", "wish", etc.), modal predicates ("it is necessary", it is"
appropriate", etc.), and manipulative predicates ("force", "make", "persuade",
"order", "request", etc.) often require completives with a subjunctive or infinitive verb. Epistemic modality expresses the speaker's commitment on the veracity of an utterance. In many languages, the subjunctive is typically em-

ieft

213

ployed in completive structures where the speaker's commitment is

tial. This especially occurs when the verb ofthe main clause is a pro 0111tPar.
attitude predicate such as "think" or "believe" (called "weak assertfostttonat
cates" in Hooper 1975), or an adjectival predicate like "it is possib~~. P~di.
probable", etc. ("non-assertive" in Hooper 1975). By contrast, the ind: 1 ~ is
mood is typical of completives that depend on predicates expressing thcahve
commitment of the speaker. This is the case of utterance predicates ("e~Otal
assertives" in l-looper 1975) or predicates of knowledge. The speaker iss 0118
monly meant as the subject of the main clause, which is called "oric~m..
speaker" in Palmer (1988: 134). Differently, Palmer defines "actual spe:~n~
the person who says or writes the utterance. Original and actual speakers 0 el
11 'i
coincide in the first person.
According to the modality of the governing predicate, the propositional
content of the completive clause may be presented as either factual (rea lis) 0
non-factual (irrealis). In the former case, which occurs with strong assertiv~
predicates and with commentative predicates, the speaker presupposes that the
situation of the complement clause has taken place. By contrast, nonfactuality includes the case where the occurrence of the situation of the com.
pletive clause can be neither affirmed nor excluded (with verbs such as
"think", "doubt", etc.), as well as the case of counterfactuality. In counterfactuality, it is assumed that the completive state of affairs either will never take
place or will take place in the future with respect to the state of affairs of the
main clause. This typically occurs with desiderative and manipulative complement taking predicates. Cristofaro (2003: 136) states that the use of a
deranked structure, without tense, aspect, or modality distinctions in case of
real is implies the absence of tense, aspect, and modality distinctions in case of
irrealis. This is because it is more relevant to specify the occurrence of a realized event than of an unrealized event.

9.2. Development of bypotaxis for completive relations

9. 2.1. Explicative clauses
Renou (1952: 450) includes the comp!etive among the finite subordinates
that in Vedic are introduced by a relativizer. We report the first of his examples (9.3), together with his translation: "Je chante, o Indra, cet exploit supreme de toi pour la communaute divine, a savoir que tu frappes a mort VJ1ra
grace a ta vigueur." In the main clause, a neuter abstract noun refers to an
event (consider Renou's rendition of .savas as "exploit" rather than, more literally, "strength"). This noun is anaphorically resumed by the relativizer yad
214

j)le subordinate clause, which explicates the content of the denoted event.
llbriick labels such subordinates lnhaltsiitze ( 1888: 573ff.) or
~f;kalivsiilze (1900: Ill, 324ff.). The latter definition is also adopted in HetP?'h (1988: 395-409). The event-referring noun (or pronoun) usually has the
~et ion of the object (9 .3) or of the subject (9 .4) in the main clause. The main
puse consistently precedes the subordinate clause.
J) g[l1e
lad
imba
le sdva

sing-IND.PR.MIDISG this-ACC.N.SG lndra-VOC your strcnght.N-ACC.SG

upamti111

devtitiitaye I

ydd dhcimsi

vrtrtim

supremc-ACC.N.SG divinity.F-DAT.SG that kiii-IND.PR2SG V,rtra-ACC

ojasii
force.N-INSTR.SG

"I sing this supreme strength of yours, 0 Indra, for the divinity, that you
kill VJ1ra with your force." (8.62.8a-c)
(9.4) agnl~omii
ceti
lad
Agni.Soma-VOC.DU know-INJ.AOR.PS3SG this-NOM.N.SG
vT~aq1

vii~

hcroic.deed.N-NOM.SG your

ytfd timU$1!llalll

avasam

pa1Jft!l ga}J

that steai-IND.IPF2DU food.N-ACC.SG PWJi-ACC cow.F-ACC.PL

"0 Agni and Soma, well known is this heroic deed of yours, that you two
stole PaJti's food and cows." ( 1.93.4ab)
As in the case of genuine complement clauses, the subordinator yad does
not play any syntactic function in the explicative clause. However, the presence of a nominal or pronominal antecedent for yad in the main clause makes
explicative clauses more similar to relative clauses than to proper complement
clauses. Commonly, the noun cooccurs with specifiers and modifiers, as in
(9.3) and (9.4). Cf. also 2.13.11 "0 Hero, praiseworthy is your heroic deed
(lava ... vlryam), that you find a wealth with a sole thought." 3.54.17 "Big is
this precious name o,{yours (tad vah ... c&ru n&ma), that you, 0 gods, are all
in Indra." 5.31. 7 "This is your deed (le ktiral]a), 0 powerful wise, that you
measured your strength, killing the serpent there." Occasionally, modifiers or
specifiers appear without the noun, which however is easily recoverable from
the context. In 9.97.41, the adjective mahat "big" (ACC.N.SG) implies an abstract noun such as "fact" or "deed": "Soma the steer made this big (mahtit tltt)
(deed), that he, the embryo of the water, had chosen the gods". Only two passages are found, in recent sections ofthe Rig-Veda (1.113.10; 1.132.4), where
neither a nominal nor a pronominal antecedent appears (for details, cf. 9.2.2).
Since the cross-referred abstract noun in the main clause has commonly
neuter gender and singular number, and ytid is originally the neuter singular
form of the relative pronoun, the subordinator of an explicative clause still
215

shows grammatical agreement as a relative pronoun with respect to the head

noun. In Delbrilck's (1888) sample, a complete grammatical agreement b~
tween yad and a noun phrase of the main clause occurs in all but one cas
(1.61.13 cit. p. 574), where there is gender agreement, but ~ot number agree~
ment. I.e. "Proclaim again the ancient performances (purvyiiiJi karmii11i, N.PL)
of the strong one with hymns, that he destroys the foemen in the battle, wrathful, hurling forth his weapons." According to Hettrich's analysis (1988: 400
407), lack of agreement is found only in 13 out of 56 explicative clauses in th~
whole Rig-Veda 1
The antecedent of an explicative clause is not constrained to the functions
of subject or object of the main clause2, which progressively grammaticalize
into subjective and objective embedded completive clauses. It may also play
the function of an adjunct, with different semantic roles. In 4.33.4 an atypically preposed explicative clause specifies the content of an instrumental noun
of the main clause: "That (yad) for a year the ~bhus protected the cow, that
(yad) for a year the ~bhus prepared the meat, that (yad) for a year they
brought her glory, with these efforts (t&bhih samibhih) they obtained the immortality." Other cases of an instrumental (pronominal) antecedent are attested in 4.30.3 and in 6.20.1 0. Hettrich (1988: 397-99) also identifies a locative antecedent in 1.53.6 and a dative antecedent expressing goal in 1.158.2.
Since the explicative clause does not properly complete the sense of the
main clause predicate, but rather clarifies the content of a noun phrase of the
main clause, we may find main predicates that typologically are not used to
introduce completive clauses. An example of this is the verb "damage" (mi) in
1.69.7 "Nobody damages these orders of yours, that you made complaisance
I. Among these 13 cases, 8 agree in neuter gender but not in singular number (1.53.6, 1.69.7,
4.22.5, 4.33.4, 6.7.5, 7.56.4, 8.100.6, and 10.138.6), while 5 (4 ofwhich are placed in the recent
parts of the Rig-Veda, i.e. 1.158.2, 5.85.6, 10.27.1, 10.88.6, and 10.89.14) agree in singular
number but not in neuter gender. Apparently, agreement between yad and its nominal or pronominal antecedent is better maintained for the category of gender than for the category of
number. The loss of the latter shows the incipient reanalysis of a RC into a completive clause.
2. Thirty passages are attested where the antecedent is the subject or the nominal predicate of
the main clause (in the Rig-Veda, it is often ambiguous whether a noun has the function of the
subject or of the predicate of an equative clause. cf. llettrich 1988: 406). I.e. 1.62.6. 1.69.8,
1.93.4, 1.94.14, 1.116.11 (a/s-temporal clause in Geldner ), 154), 1.117.8, 1.166.13, 2.13.11
(da-causal clause in Geldner I, 293). 2.22.4, 3.9.2, 3.9.7 (wenn-temporal clause by Geldncr I,
347), 3.32.9, 3.33.7, 3.54.17, 4.22.5, 4.36.1. 4.36.3, 5.31.7, 5.47.5 (two times), 6.35.2, 6.35.3.
7.68.6, 7.100.6ab (a/s-temporal clause in Gcldner 11, 270), 8.100.6 (c/a-causal clause in Geldner
11, 429), 10.27.1, 10.55.4, 10.89.14ab, 10.138.6, and 10.143.4. Seventeen passages are attested
where the abstract noun has the function of the main clause object: 1.69.7 (da-causal clause in
Geldner I, 90), 1.103.7, 1.116.5 (a/s-tcmporal clause in Gcldncr I, 153), 1.116.12, 1.131.4 (docausal clause in Geldner I, 184), 1.131.5, 1.164.23 (two times), 4.30.8, 5.85.6, 6.7.5 (da-causal
clause in Geldner 11, lOO), 7.56.4, 8.45.31, 8.62.8, 9.97.41, 10.10.2, 10.88.6.

216

aor these m~m." Here the yad-clause explains the meaning of the noun "orders" (vratci) rather than of the verb "damage", and is rendered as a causal
clause in Geldner ( 1951: I, 90). Similarly, when the main clause contains a
modal verb such as "dare" (dhf.~. 5.85.6; 6.7.5) or "want" (vas, 10.10.2ab),
which typologically govern completive clauses, the explicative clause depends on the object of the main clause, rather than on the main predicate. The
latter maintains its full lexical meaning. For example, Grassmann (1873: 694)
interprets the preverbed verb ci-dhf.~ as "sich heranwagen an", which either is
intransitively used or governs an accusative case, as in 5.85.6. "Nobody dares
dadhar.ya) this magic power of the wisest god, that the glazing
approach
pouring streams do not fill the unique sea with their water.", The explicative
clause specifies the sense of the noun "magic power" (mciyci-). The different
subject between main clause and dependent clause shows that the main verb
does not function as a bona fide achievement complement taking predicate
(9.9). In I 0.1 0.2 Yama, who is speaking in the third person, keeps away the
advances of his sister Vami: "Your friend does not want this friendshipl that
who has the same blood becomes like a stranger." The subordinate clause
specifies the way Yama intends the concept of friendship (sakhyam).
The evolution from relative clauses to completive clauses probably occurred when the explicative clause could be considered semantically dependent on either the verb or a noun of the main clause. Utterance predicates may
provide a favorable context for this shift ("I say this word, that" etc. = "I say
that" etc.). A context inference is also identifiable from certain adverbial relations, e.g. temporals of anteriority and causals, toward explicative relations.
Since they clarity the details of the past performances of the gods, explicative
clauses are factual clauses. 1-lettrich ( 1988: 40 I) points out that indicative and
injunctive are- in decreasing order- the most frequent moods for explicatives. While the indicative is the mood of real is par excellence, the injunctive
is used for universally true situations. The temporal sentence "I proclaim lndra's deed, when he killed the dragon", and a causal sentence "I proclaim lndra's deed, because he killed the dragon", are compatible with the explicative
reading "I proclaim lndra's deed, that he killed the dragon". Accordingly, Renou ( 1952) and Hettrich ( 1988) occasionally consider explicative certain
clauses that are assigned a temporal or a causal function in Geldner ( 1951 )3 .

(a

3. Geldncr translates yad as an adverbial subordinator, rather than as an explicative complemcntizer. especially in case of incomplete grammatical agreement with the antecedent noun.
Among the examples with lacking agreement reported in Hettrich (1988: 407), Geldner interprets the passages 1.53.6 and 4.33.4 as Clls-temporal clauses, and the passages 1.69.7, 6.7.5, and
8.100.6 as do-causal clauses. The examples with lacking agreement quoted in Renou ( 1.84.6
and 3.32.14) are translated as wenn-temporal clauses in Geldner ( 1951: I, 107; 372).
217

That the same clause may be interpreted both as an adverbial and

completive clause shows the scarce grammaticalization of finite comptc~s a
tation in Vedic as compared to other early lE languages such as Latin or ~l1cient Greek. These languages have a vast range of strategies, including the l1cusative. plus infinitive and finite sub_ordi~ation introduced by dif~e~ent
plement1zers, such as Lat. quod, ut, ne, qum, num, an etc., A.Gr. hott, ho.~, m:.
etc. In Vedic, the interpretation of explicative clauses relies upon the contex.~
particularly on the lexical meaning of the main predicate and of the antecedent
noun, rather than on certain morpho-syntactic features of the subordinate.

eo:

9. 2. 2. From adjoined to embedded completive clause

In the Rig-Veda, explicative clauses are adjoined clauses. The patterns "I
say this fact, that X did Y" in (9.3) and "Well known is this fact, that X did
Y" in (9.4) instantiate the pragmatic communicative mode defined in Giv6n
( 1979: 223). In oral communication, there is a tendency for each intonation
unit to contain one piece of information (Du Bois 1985; Chafe 1987: 39). In
this perspective, the performative act of saying and the reported state of affairs are represented as two separate pieces of information. Differently, in
Classical Sanskrit, explicative clauses show a higher degree of syntacticization: the antecedent noun is canceled, and the subordinate clause is embedded
as the main clause object ("I say that X did Y") (9.5) or as the main clause
subject ("lt is well known that X did Y").
(9.5) sarvo
jcmo
vadi~yali
yat prabhuta/qatriyair
aii-NOM.M.SG peoplc.M-NOM.SG say-IND.FUT3SG that many.warrior.M-INSTR.PL

militva vi1sudevo

garuqasca

nipatital}

meet-GER Vasudcva-NOM Gam4a-NOM.and killed-PP.NOM.M.SG

"All people will say that Vasudeva and Garu<Ja have been killed after having clashed with many warriors." (Paiicatantra)
An intermediate stage between adjoined and embedded complementation
occurs when the antecedent of the complementizer is a pronoun, rather than a
full-fledged noun phrase. The linkage between the main clause and the subordinate clause is less semantically and more syntactically determined with an
antecedent pronoun than with an antecedent noun phrase. However, the correlative structure and the grammatical agreement in neuter gender and singular number between yad and the demonstrative pronoun tad (or, more rarely,
between yad and the interrogative pronoun kim) maintain these clauses anchored to the pragmatic communicative mode. In (9.6) a series of preposed
explicative clauses is grafted on a relative clause. The pattern "that A is B,
that C is D, that E is F, who knows this, he etc." reflects the information flow
218

.oral communication. A further preposed explicative clause with a pronomi. resumptive is attested in 8.45.31.
6) yad giiyalre
adhi giiyatram
iihilam
that giiyatri.song.N-LOC.SG on gayatri.foot.N-NOM.SG placc-PP.NOM.N.SG
trai~fubhiid

vii trai~fubh01fl

niratak~ata

tri!itubh.song.N-ARL.SG or tri!itubh.loot.N-NOM.SG build-IND.IPF.MID3SG

ydd viijagaj

jagaty

iihitam

padil111

that or jagat.F-NOM.SG jagat.F-LOC.SG place-PP.NOM.N.SG foot.N-NOM.SG

ya

it

tdd

vidus

te amrtatvam

RP-NOM.M.PL PTC this-ACC.N.SG know-PF3PL they immortality.N-ACC.SG

iil1asuh
reach-PF3PL

'That the giiyahi'-foot is placed on the giiyatri'-song, that the tri$/Ubh-foot

is built out of the tri.~tubh-song, or that the jagat-foot is placed on the jagat/song, those who know that reach immortality." (I . I 64.23)
A path of increasing grammaticalization such as lexical antecedent >
grammatical antecedent > zero antecedent can be reconstructed, taking into
account the frequency of these three types of clause linkage in the Rig-Veda.
The overwhelming amount of explicative clauses (45 out of 56 cases, 80%)
exhibits an antecedent noun, as in (9.3) and in (9.4). A substantially minor
amount of explicative clauses has an antecedent pronoun (9 cases, 16%) as in
(9.6t. No antecedent appears only in 2 passages (1.113.10 and 1.132.4, 4%),
both of which occur in recent sections and in marked contexts. In particular,
in 1.113.10 there is a very short main clause ("aufein Minimum reduziert",
Hettrich p. 405), limited to the interrogative expression kiyiiti "how long
ago, since what time?" I.e. "How long is that (the present Dawn) is in the
middle (of those Dawns) that have shone and (those Dawns) that will shine
hereafter?" Cf. also (9.7).
(9. 7) 110 itth& te
purvathii ea prav&cyalfl

now thus you-DAT.SG as. formerly and praiseworthy-NOM.N.SG

ydd angirobhyo 'VJ'IJOI'

apa vrajam

fndra

that Angiras-DAT.PL cover-IND.II,F2SG away enclosure.M-ACC.SG lndra-VOC

"Thus now as formerly it is praiseworthy for you that you uncovered the
enclosure for the Angiras, 0 Indra." ( 1.132.4ab)
4. The 45 explicative clauses with a nominal antecedent (including the rare cases with a substantivil".ed adjective) are: 1.53.6, 1.62.6, 1.69.7, 1.69.8, 1.93.4, 1.94.14, 1.103.7, 1.116.11,
1.116.12, 1.117.8. 1.131.4, 1.131.5, 1.158.2, 1.166.13, 2.13.11, 2.22.4, 3.9.2, 3.9.7, 3.32.9,
3.33.7, 3.54.17, 4.22.5, 4.30.8, 4.33.4 (three occurrences), 4.36.1, 4.36.3, 5.31.7, 5.47.5 (two
occurrences), 5.85.6, 6.7.5, 7.56.4, 7.68.6, 8.62.8, 8.100.6, 9.97.41, 10.10.2, 10.27.1, 10.55.4,
I 0.88.6, I 0.89.14ab, I 0.138.6, and I0.143.4. The 9 explicative clauses with a pronominal antecedent arc: 1.116.5, 1.164.23 (two occurrences), 4.30.3, 6.20.10, 6.35.2, 6.35.3, 7.100.6ab, and
8.45.31.

219

In (9.7) the main predicate is a nominal fonn (prav&cyam, gerundive ofth

preverbed root pra-viic "proclaim aloud"), which is neuter in gender and si e
gular in number, and therefore similar to other contexts where a gerundive h~
a singular neuter subject noun. E.g. 2.22.4 "That heroic deed ~f yours (tav
tyan narya'!l ... cipas), 0 dancer lndra, must be praised (praviicyam) as th:
first fact in the sky, that you released the vital spirit, by means of the god's
strength, while releasing the waters." (Cf. also 1.117.8, 3.37.3, 4.22.5, and
8.1 00.6). Accordingly, the Jack of an antecedent for the relativizer in the two
passages 1.113 .I 0 and 1.132.4 is not due to a grammaticalized embedded
complementation, but rather to a condensed style where participants as well as
predicates (cf. 10.88.6) are often omitted and must be recovered from the context.
This syntactic change from a non-embedded completive clause as in (9.3),
(9.4), and (9.6) to an embedded completive clause as in (9.5) and (9.7) presumably starts from indirect interrogative clauses (9.8), which are the only
subordinates with a completivc function that commonly present an embedded
structure in the Rig-Veda.
ycid
ivedcim
asmi
(9.8) nci vi jiiniimi
NEG PRE know-IND.PR I SG RP-NOM.N.SG like.this-NOM.N.SG be-IN D. PR I SG

"I do not understand what is like this, and what I am." (1.164.37a)
The embedded structure of indirect interrogative clauses is probably due to
their relationship with conditional clauses, which are regularly embedded
since the Rig-Veda, like other adverbial subordinates (cf. 9.2.3). Indirect interrogative clauses and explicative clauses are fom1ally similar (for example,
both of them maintain the structure of a relative clause), and often occur in the
same context. Predicates of utterance, knowledge, and propositional attitude
may take both factual explicative clauses ("I know this fact, that X did Y")
and non-factual interrogative clauses, in case of cooccurrence with an interrogative marker ("Who knows whether X did Y?") or with a negative polarity
item ("He does not know whether X did Y"). Main predicates of utterance,
knowledge, and propositional attitude are relatively frequent with explicative
clauses, as we will see in 9.3, 9.4, and 9.5 5

9. 2. 3. Distribution of complementizers
The range of complementizers extends from Vedic to Classical Sanskrit.
While only yad introduces explicative clauses in the Rig-Veda, the correspon5. Other main predicates occurring with explicative clauses that arc semantically equivalent to
objective completive clauses are: make (k~, 1.103.7, 4.30.8, 8.45.31, 9.97.41), dare (dhc.s.
5.85.6, 6.7.5), and wa111 (vas, 10.10.2). In 10.88.6, an accusative complement implies a transitive main predicate: Geldner ( 1951: 281) considers this a case of ellipsis of the verb "see".

220

dent embedded clauses in Classical Sanskrit are also frequently marked by

yathii and yadi (for some marginal uses of these two subordinators as markers
of indirect interrogative clauses in the Rig-Veda, cf. Hettrich 1988: 230ff.).
fhis does not imply that such complementizers have the same function. From
the examples gathered in grammars and dictionaries, it appears that they differ
in distribution. While yad and yathii generally occur with all predicates of utterance, knowledge, and propositional attitude, yadi is only selected by predicates of doubting or investigating. Bohtlingk and Roth (VI, 57) assign to yadi
the meaning ..da6 nach nicht glauben, nicht flir moglich halten, nicht dulden".
Yadi is the only case in Classical Sanskrit where a complementizer provides
information on the factuality (in this case, non-factuality) of the subordinate
clause and on the commitment (in this case, non-commitment) of the speaker.
(Non-)factuality and (non-)commitment are commonly signalled in languages with the lexical meaning of the main predicate. English say entails a
factual completive clause and a complete commitment of the speaker, while
for doubt the opposite holds true. This also occurs in Old Indian, where factuality and commitment are implied in vad "say", while non-factuality and noncommitment are necessarily related to tark "conjecture". The root tark, related
to Latin torqueo, expresses the difficulty of a speculation. Moreover, when
languages have a functional opposition between indicative and non-indicative
moods, main predicates like say select the indicative and main predicates like
doubt select the subjunctive. This process, however, does not occur in Old Indian, as can be seen in the indicative used with the main predicate "I don't
think" in (9.9).
(9.9) niisaf[lse
NEG.think-IND.PRI SG

yadifivanti

sarve

te

sarvar'im

tmam

that livc-IND.PR3PL ali-NOM.M.PL they night.F-ACC.SG this-ACC.F.SG

"I don't think that all of them may outlive this night." (R. 2.51.14)
A complementizer indicating (non-)factuality and (non-)commitment is
cross-linguistically rare. Palmer (1988: 148-49) mentions the cases of Japanese, Kinya Rwanda, and Jacaltengo. Like Vedic, Japanese lacks a functional
mood opposition in complementation. Its complementizers no, koto, and tu
are selected according to the meaning of the governing predicate and to the
veracity ofthe completive clause from the speaker's point of view. The complementizer koto appears in a sentence such as "John did not believe that
Mary was dead" if the actual speaker, i.e. the person who writes or says the
sentence (cf. Palmer 1988: 134), presupposes that Mary is dead, despite
John's doubts. By contrast, the complementizer to is used in the same sentence in case the actual speaker does not know whether Mary is dead or not.
Accordingly, the subordinator to is incompatible with factive predicates such

221

as "regret" or "forget", which by definition presuppose the veracity of the de..

pendent clause.
In Japanese, Kinya Rwanda and Jacaltengo, the selection of a complemen.
tizer is a matter of evidentiality (cf. Pal mer 200 I). The very same complex
sentence exhibits different complementizers according to whether the proposj.
tional content of the complement clause is considered a reliable or umeliable
source of information by the actual speaker. By contrast. in Vedic different
main predicates are preferably related to different subordinators. When a pro.
positional attitude main predicate such as "think, believe" is under the scope
of a negation, as na + iisa7flse "I don't think" in (9.9), the conjunction ycid;
appears. The same occurs when the main clause has an intc,;:rrogative illocu.
tionary force. Vice versa, when the speaker thinks or knows that something is
true, yad is used. Compare the following examples.
(9.1 0) kim atra citra1fl
what here wonder.N-NOM.SG

yadi visiikhe

sasiinkalekhiim

anuvartete

that Visii.kha-NOM.DU crescent.moon.F-ACC.SG join- IND.PR.MID3DU

"What wonder is this, that the two stars of the asterism Visakha join the
crescent moon?" (Sakuntala)
(9 .11) ida1fl
vapur
mvacana1f1
janiisas I
this-NOM.N.SG miracle.N-NOM.SG proverbial.word.N-NOM.SG people.M-VOC.PL

caranti

ytin nadyas

tasthur

&pa}J

move-lND.PR3PL that river.F-NOM.PL stay-PF3PL water.F-NOM.PL

"This is a miracle, a proverbial word, folks, that the rivers move (but) the
waters stay." (5.47.Sab)
In (9.1 0), the interrogative clause indicates that the speaker does not believe the literal content of the subordinate clause. The speaker does not really
describe the union of the moon with the two stars of the constellation Visakha.
Rather, he compares Sakuntalii and her two friends Anasiiyii and Priyal)1vadii
to a charming astronomic phenomenon. The lack of commitment is signalled
by the conjunction yadi. By contrast, in the explicative clause in (9.11 ), the
speaker relies upon the veracity of the miracle described, i.e. of the fact that
the streams flow but the river remains full of water. The speaker's total commitment, implied in the declarative illocutionary force, requires the subordinator yad.
The competition between yadi and yad in Vedic matches the relationship
between the subordinators hOs and hoti in Ancient Greek, identified in Cristofaro (1996: 70ff.). Cristofaro observes that in Ancient Greek non-factual completive clauses are typically associated with the subordinator hOs, while factual completive clauses may be introduced by hos or hOti. Both in Ancient
Greek and in Vedic the domain of factuality has a larger set of strategies than
the domain of non-factuality.
222

Non-factuality also emerges from other uses of yadi as a marker of habitual temporal clauses (4.6), conditional clauses (5.2), and indirect interrogative clauses. From these typical non-factual clauses, signalled by yadi since
the Rig-Veda, a contextual inference probably promoted the association with
the lack of commitment in complementation, for which yadi is recruited only
at a later stage. This change starts from those cases where the same main
predicate allows a conditional subordinate in some contexts, and an indirect
interrogative subordinate in other contexts. With main predicates of asking or
inquiring, for example, an inference from "if' to "whether" is likely, so that in
01 any languages, such as Italian, the same form exists for both these functions.
It must be emphasized that in Vedic the directionality is from conditional to
indirect interrogative clause, rather than the other way round. Interrogative
clauses are regularly marked with the interrogative pronoun, which in Vedic is
formally different from the relative pronoun, like in Iranian and in Ancient
Greek, and unlike in Latin and Hittite.
Predicates of asking or inquiring are not the only predicates capable of
governing both a conditional and a completive relation. Predicates of swearing also have this possibility. The root sap means "to curse one's self' when it
is "followed by yadi if, i.e. to promise with an oath, vow or swear that one
will not" (MW 1899: 1052, s.v. sap). The same root means "to swear that"
when used with the conjunction yad (cf. BR VII, 203-204). In (9.12) the
deverbal noun sapatha, meaning both "curse, imprecation" and "oath, vow",
cooccurs with the optative of the verb "to be", which shows an imperative illocutionary force. Another optative main predicate occurring in the context of
an imprecation is attested in RV 7.104.15, reported in (5.9): "May I die
(murfya) today if (yadi) I am a sorcerer, or if (yadi) I burned the life of a
man."
(9 .12) mama deva-guru-/q'tal}
sapathal}
syiid
my

god.teacher.done-NOM.M.SG curse.M-NOM.SG be-OPJSG

yadi tad
if

iisviidayiimi

that-ACC.N .SG taste-IND.PR I SG

"May I be cursed by gods and teachers, if I taste that." (Paficatantra)

The lack of commitment favored the use of the subordinator yadi as an adverb meaning "hardly" or "perhaps", optionally after du.ykaram "difficult" or
kathaf!l cid "somehow, with some difficulty" (cf. MW 1899: 845). In R.
3.54.3, while kidnapped, Sita casts off her jewels to some monkeys, thinking:
"Perhaps (yadi) they will show them to Rama." This adverbial function also
appears in formulas of presentation. A clause where someone introduces himself(e.g. R. 6.41.77 "I am Vali's son, Angada by name) or someone else (e.g.
R. 3.17.21 "My brother is Raval')a by name") is typically followed by a clause
marked by yadi (9.13).
223

(9.13) yadi

te

srotram

iigatal;z

perhaps you-DAT ear.N-NOM.SG come-PP.NOM.M.SG

"Perhaps you will have heard of him." (lit., "Perhaps he came to your e ,
Speyer (1886: 482) considers these structures elliptic subordinate cla:r )
dependent on an implied verb of saying, thinking, or knowing. Since Classis~
Sanskrit does not signal verbal accentuation, which in Vedic is the only c~
tain manifestation of subordination, it cannot "be assessed whether the:,
clauses are subordinate or not. However, implied complement taking predj~
cates are not compatible with all contexts where yadi appears as a marker of
uncertainty. Alternatively, we can interpret cases like (9.13) as independent
clauses, where yadi has the function of an adverb rather than of a conjunction.
In this perspective, the value of "perhaps" ascribed to yadi in grammars and
dictionaries derives from the conventionalization of an implicature, related to
the numerous contexts where yadi introduces conditional clauses, indirect interrogative clauses, and completive clauses dependent on predicates of doubting. Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca ( 1994: 224) report a similar case in Modem
Greek, where the particle na, which may appear in a main clause with a potential value, derives from the conjunction ina, marking purposive clauses in Ancient Greek. Although modal forms in subordinate clauses commonly derive
from certain uses of modality in main clauses, the case of Modem Greek na
exemplifies the opposite diachronic path. Similarly, Classical Sanskrit yadi
might represent a rare counterexample to the unidirectionality of grammaticalization.

9.3. Utterance predicates

Old Indian belongs to the languages that lack a peculiar strategy for indirect report, which is expressed with the strategy of direct report. According to
Cristofaro (2003: 46-4 7}, when in a language direct report covers the whole
conceptual space that in other languages is divided between direct and indirect
report, direct report can be included in a broad definition of subordination. Cf.
1.6.
In Vedic, different strategies of direct report are attested, going back to different epochs. The simplest and most ancient device is juxtaposition ("apposition" in Dixon 2006: 38) between the clause containing an utterance predicate
(ah, brii, vac, vad, etc.) and the clause that expresses direct report. as in the
passage in (9.14), which belongs to one ofthe oldest hymns of the Rig-Veda.

224

9.14) kim

it

te

vi~f!O

paricak~yam

what-NOM.N.SG PTC you-DAT VillQu-VOC blameworthy-NOM.N.SG

bhut
pra yad vavak~e
sipivi~to
asmi
be-INJ.AOR3SG PRE when announce-PF2SG Sipivi~la-NOM be-IND.PR I SG

"0

Vi~qu,

what was blameworthy for you, when you announced: I am

Sipivi~fa 6?" (7.1 00.6ab)

In (9.14) the direct quotation is evident from the absence of any Verschiebzmg between the second person, with which the poet addresses the god, and
the first person, with which the god himself speaks. Whether pra yad vavak~e
is an explicative clause, as in Hettrich (1988: 401 ff. ), or rather a temporal
clause, as in Geldner ( 1951: 11, 270), is not relevant to this issue.
A reported speech can also extend through several verses. In this case, it is
occasionally preceded, concluded, or interspersed with short clauses such as
"so he said", by means of proximal demonstrative pronouns or adverbs such
as uid "this" or evil "thus". Cf. 4.51.11 ..This I ask (tad upa bruve), 0 Dawns,
daughters of the sky, who shine and have the sacrifice as a banner: may we
be glorious among the people". 1.24.11-12 "This I ask (tad ... yiimi) praising
you with a prayer, this the worshipper wishes with his oblations: Highly
praised Varul)a, do not be angry, do not steal our life from us. This they say
(tad ... iihuh) to me night and day, the thought of my own heart announces this
(tad ... vi ca~te): The king Varul)a, whom Sunal}sepa addressed while he was
fettered, may release all of us."
Alternatively, direct report is marked with the particle iti, literally "thus",
which in Vedic and especially in Classical Sanskrit is the most typical quotation marker. In (9.15), the clause introduced by iti has no person switch.
(9.] 5) htiniimainiin
iti
tva${ii
yad abravlt
kill-SB.PRIPL.them-ACC QUOT Tva~lr-NOM when say-IND.IPF3SG

"When Tva~tr said: "We want to kill them" (1.161.5a)

fti is placed after the reported speech and before the utterance predicate.
The postposed order is a hallmark of emphatic particles, among which iti is
also included7 (DelbrUck 1888: 261 ). Particularly, iti derives from the stem
6. Geldner ( 1951: 11, 270) considers the name Sipivi!)ta a synonym of the superlative k~odi~tha
"the smallest one". This hints at Vi~qu's Zwerggestalt, where the god becomes as small as a
dwarf to escape the assault ofthe Asuras.
7. Although postposition with respect to the reported speech is largely prevailing for iti, Vedic
word order freedom also allows a different placement. Cf. 8. 77.1: "Once he was born, he who
possesses a hundred of spiritual powers. asked to his mother (vi pr,chad iti miitaram): Who are
the strong ones. who got the fame?" Examples where iti is preposed to the direct speech also
appear in Classical Sanskrit (cf. Speijer 1886: 495). By contrast, grammars do not report alternative positions for the eomplementizers yad, yiithii, and yildi. When they depend on an utterance predicate, these conjunctions arc always preposcd to the complement clause (Speijcr 1886:
464; 472; 481 ). The occasional preposed order of the particle iti shows the steady demise oF

225

of the proximal demonstrative pronoun i, on which several emphatic panic I

are built (2.3.3.1). Some marginal uses of iti still show the original adverbie~
meaning "t~us", which is maintained i1~ the eo-radical Latin adverb ita. 1t ma~
be anaphoncally used at the end (e.g. m 5.7.10, 10.95.18, 10.115.9) or in the
middle (e.g. 5.4l.l7 and 10.120.4) of a hymn. In Classical Sanskrit, it oFten
appears at the end of a dramatic piece, and is particularly frequent in folk-tales
'
where it emphatically underscores the description of gestures.
As a quotation marker, iti is an Indian innovation: no traces of this panicle
are found in Iranian or in other lE languages (Latin ita has not the function of
a complementizer). At the stage of the Rig-Veda, iti is still at the beginning of
its development: only a minority (26 out of 78 occurrences = 33%, cf. OR
203-204; 1755) are placed in the traditionally old sections (books ll-VJI)fl.
Even in this case, some passages hint at a rather recent composition. This particle typically occurs in the niislikas (a technical term for atheism, from 1w
a.~ti "there is not"). In 2.12.5 the poet confutes some criticism addressed to
lndra, and indirectly attests to Vedic-intemal skepticism in regard to this deity.
"He of whom they ask Where is he? (prcchanti kuha sett}, the terrible one,
and they say of him He does not exist! (im iihur nai$6 astlti), he sweeps
away the foe's possessions like (the gambler sweeps away) the bad dice: have
faith in him, for he, omen, is Indra." Doubts on the myth of Indra slaying the
demon V(l:ra open the way to other myths, less iconographic and more speculative, where deities have transparent names such as Prajapati "lord of the
creatures", Brahmaqaspati "lord of the prayer", Visvakarman "all-maker'',
Tapas "religious ardour", etc. "Some of these deal with or proceed from or
deny theological or theistic items appearing in the myth, rectifying features of
it which later theologues seem to have considered nai"ve or untenable."

clause linkage by particles on behalf of clause linkage by conjunctions derived from the stem of
the relative pronoun. The postposcd order of ili is, however, obligatory when the main predicate
is omitted (9.5). In this case. a fixed position of the particle is more efficient to recover the lost
information and to signal unambiguously the clause as a quotation.
8. We report all records or ili-clauses together with their main predicates: ii-di.~ (6.56.1 ); ah
(1.162.12, 1.164.15, 2.12.5, 4.25.4, 4.33.5 three times, 5.37.1, 5.53.3, 7.41.2, 7.104.15,
7.104.16 two time.<;, 8.100.3, 9.114.1, 10.95.18); bni (1.161.5, 1.161.8, 1.161.9 two times.
4.35.3, 5.61.8, 6.54.1, 6.54.2, 8.92.2, 9.39.1, 9.63.9, 9.101.5, 10.24.5, 10.27.3, 10.61.12.
10.97.4); prach (2.12.5, 8.77.1, 10.34.6); man (8.93.5, 10.146.4); vac ( t.l22.12, 2.30.7, 5.2.12,
5.27.4, 5.61.18, 8.32.15, 10.109.3, 10.115.9); vac/(10.73.10); hve (1.117.18). Moreover. 5 iticlause.c; depend on a nominal constituent (stoma- "praise". 1.109.3; slrttci- "praised", 8.30.2;
ghfl~a- "cry", 10.33.1; vAc- "speech". 10.115.8; monas- "thought", 10.119.1). Alternatively, ili
signals that an utterance predicate is to be implied ( 1.138.3, 1.19 t.l two times, 4.1.1, 5. 7. to,
5.4 1.17, 5.52.11, 6.62.7, 9.6.2, 10.61.26. 10.119 thirteen times, 10.120.4. 10.130.1 ). In 25 additional cases, iti has not the function of a quotative particle, but rather of an adverb meaning
"thus. so".

226

(Brown 1965: 24) To exemplifY the disbelief towards the archaic myth of Indra, Brown mentions the passage 8.1 00.3, where the god himself is speaking
to dispel any doubt. In this niistika (9.16), the particle iti appears.
astfti
nema
u tva iiha
(9.16) m!ndro
NEG.Indra-NOM exist-IND.PR3SG.QUOT someone-NOM.M.SG PTC PTC say-PF3SG
kQ
lf!l dadarsa kam
abhi $/aviima
who-NOM.M.SG him see-PF3SG who-ACC.M.SG PRE praise-SB.PRIPL

lndra does not exist, someone says. Who saw him? Whom are we supposed to praise? (8.1 00.3cd)
The iti-structures compete with finite subordinates marked by a relativizer,
in the form of explicative clauses, which we have described in 9.2. In the
Rig-Veda, explicative clauses depend on utterance predicates such as "sing"
(gr, 8.62.8), "commemorate" (lq, 1.131.5), and "make evident, manifest, announce" (avis lq:, 1.116.12). Finite subordination, especially in the embedded
fonn of Classical Sanskrit (9.5), represents a more grammaticalized type of
clause linkage with respect to the particle iti. Like iti-clauses, however, finite
completive clauses cannot express indirect report (Speyer 1886: 494), as
they do not present substitution of deictic elements (9.17).
sakhl
tat sakiisaf!l gatvii
(9.17) sii
this-NOM.F.SG friend.F-NOM.SG that in.a.hurry go-GER

slghram abravlt

yad aham candravatyii

tava

quickly

say-IND.IPF3SG that I-NOM Candravali-INSTR you-GEN

antikaf!l pre$itii
bha1}ilaf!l
ea tvlilfl prati
in.front.ofsent-NOM.F.SG said-NOM.N.SG and you-ACC towards

tayii yan mama tvad

by. her that my

pascimiivasthii

darsanii

manobhavena

you-ABL sight.F-NOM.SG Love-INSTR

lqtii

verging.on.death-NOM.F.SG done-NOM.F.SG

"The friend went over there in a hurry and quickly said: I have been sent
in front of you by Candravati, and it has been said to you by her: "The sight
coming from you to me, by means of the god of love, made me almost dead".
(Paficatantra)
The substitution of deictic elements does not even occur in the Neo-Jndian
languages, where Persian conjunctions are often borrowed (Bioch I 934: 317).
This reveals that the function of reporting a speech only secondarily extends
to finite subordinates marked by the complementizer yad, yathii, and yadi,
when subordination preempts a higher number of functions. Oratio directa
with subordinators is a relic of the strategy of reporting a speech originally
conveyed only by paratactic structures, such as juxtaposition and iti-clauses.
Juxtaposition, parataxis marked by the particle iti, and finite subordination
marked by a relativizer present a loose clause linkage with respect to the utterance predicate. Their subject is marked as the subject of an independent
227

clause, i.e. with the nominative case. Their verb is inflected in a finite mood
with tense markers similar to those used in independent clauses. This is eo :
sistent with Cristofaro (2003), who posits utterance predicates at the rightmont
pole of the Deranking Hierarchy. Givon (1980) also predicts that compl:.
ments used in direct quotation are those presenting minimum syntactic devia.
tion with respect to an independent clause, and minimum semantic depend.
ence on the main clause. Semantically, utterance predicates do not entail
shared arguments with the completive clause. As a result, they do not exhibit
phenomena of equi-deletion or raising, which in languages represent the abo.
lit ion of the borders between two separate clauses. Complements of utterance
predicates have indeterminate time reference, i.e. they may denote past, present, or future events independently of the moment in which the main clause
is located ("I say that you leave I left I will leave"). Moreover, these clauses
do not imply any control of the subject ofthe main clause on the achievement
of the dependent state of affairs.
However, completive clauses are semantically more integrated than adverbial clauses with their main predicate. Thus, utterance predicates may also resort to syntactically tighter forms of clause linkage, such as nominalizations.
Different nominal structures are available. The most frequently used is the one
where both the subject and the predicate of the dependent clause are inflected
in the accusative. This is the expected grammatical case for a completive depending on an uttemnce predicate, which functions as the object of the main
clause. The predicate of the dependent state of affairs may be a deverbal noun
or a deverbal adjective. E.g. 3.58.3 "Why did the poets say (iihul}) that you
two are the prompter to come (gtimi~(hii) in case of disgrace?" Here the superlative gtimi~lha- is built on the root gam "come". 4.23.3 "How did they say
(iihu/7) that he refills (bwm ... papurim) the singer with gifts?" The adjective
papuri- "filler" is a transparent derivate of the root pf "fill". 4.31. 7 "And they
say (iihuf!) that you donate" lit., "they say you as a donor" (datiiram). In these
cases, the synchronic relation with a verb supports the interpretation of the
nominal structures as functionally equivalent to a completive clause. Nominal
or clausal structures are selected depending on whether the completive relation involves a lower or higher number of participants.
Independently of the light or heavy constituent structure, nominalizations
arc obligatory with the main predicate "promise" (prati-jfiii), which occupies
a singular position among utterance predicates. This concerns Classical Sanskrit rather than Vedic, since in the Rig-Veda prati-jfiii still means "admit,
own, acknowledge" (MW 1899: 665; "als den Seinen anerkennen", GR 500).
In Classical Sanskrit, "promise" selects a deverbal accusative noun. For example, in MBh. 5.178.18 "he promised to act that way" is rendered as "he
promised the action" (kiiryam ... pratijajfie). In (9.18) the completive relation
228

is expressed by a compound: the last member of prabodha-candra-udaya

raising of the moon of knowledge" is a nominalization containing the preverbed root ud-i "go up". The dative inflection of the compound indicates that
the event will take place in the future.
(9.18) pratijiiiita
siimiityena
vivekena
promise-PP.NOM.M.SG accompanicd.by.ministers-INSTR.M.SG Viveka-INSTR

prabodhacandrodayiiya
knowledge.moon.mising-DAT

"Viveka with his ministers promised to raise the moon of knowledge."

(Prabodhacandrodaya)
The formal reduction of promise is motivated by the semantic properties of
this predicate. Unlike other verbs of saying, it governs completive clauses
with a determinate time reference (Noonan 1985: 89; I 0 I). In the sentence "I
promise to leave", the event of the departure is necessarily subsequent to the
event of the promise. Moreover, most cases show the same subject for main
clause and subordinate clause, since it is more natural that the speaker guarantees the accomplishment of something which depends on him or her, rather
than on someone else. Even if the two clauses present different subjects ("I
promise that my cat will not hurt you"), the subject of the main clause has
control over the subject of the completive clause.

9.4. Predicates of knowledge

Predicates of knowledge are semantically similar to predicates of utterance.
Both of them denote a mental or verbal activity whose object is represented
by the dependent state of affairs. This similarity is particularly evident in the
Rig-Veda, where speech and wisdom are often identified, and the deified
word (Vac in Vedic, Sarasvati in Classical Sanskrit) is meant as a form of
knowledge. As a result, the same structures of utterance predicates are also
exhibited by predicates of knowledge or acquisition of knowledge, such as vid
"find out" orjiiii "know".
In the relation "I know that X is Y", if X and Y are light constituents, X
and Y are both inflected in the accusative, and Y is often a participle. In
1.43.9 Soma is addressed: "Bear in mind (vedalt, SB.PR2SG) that they worship you (iihhu~antill, P.PR.ACC.F.PL of the preverbed root ii-hhii.v "honour,
serve"). Geldner ( 1951: 53) renders this expression with a completive clause:
"Sollst du [ ... ] wissen, daB sic bereit sind." The accusative with participle (cf.
Speyer 1886: 374) commonly refers to a state of affairs which is simultaneous with the main predicate or is always true. However, it may also refer to a
state of affairs which precedes that of the main predicate. This is the usual
229

case when the main predicate is "remember", as in (9 .19). Here ilc/ha- "mar.
ried", past participle of the root vah "carry, take to wife, marry", is modified
by the adjective pilrva- "previous".
(9 .19) angulfyaka-darsaniid ilc/ha-pilrviim
tad-duhitaram
ring.sight.N-ABL.SG

married.previous-ACC.F.SG his.daughter.F-ACC.SG

avagato

'ham

remember-PP.NOM.M.SG I-NOM

"After having seen the ring, I remembered that I had previously married
his daughter." (Lit., "I remembered his previously married daughter", Sakuntalii)
Predicates of knowledge govern various types of accusative nou~ phrases.
We may have an adjective compound. The independent clause vidmii tvii dhanam}ayam (3.42.6), literally "we know (vidmfi) you (tvii, ACC) as a winner of
treasures (dhanam-}ayam, ACC)", is tantamount to a completivc clause depending on a predicate of knowledge, such as "we know that you win a treasure". This emerges not only from the verbal base of the second member of the
compound (-jaya "winner" from the rootji "win"), but also from the accusative ending of the first member (dhanam, ACC of dhana- "treasure, wealth").
Whereas non-final members of a compound regularly show the bare stem
form, here the accusative ending manifests the object function in the compound: the morphology of the word maintains traces of its syntactic origin as
a verbal phrase. We may have an adjective derived from a verbal root, as in
(9.20).
(9 .20) asravaf!l
hi bhilriddvattarii
Viif!l
hear-IND.AOR I SG PTC much.donor-COMP.NOM.M.DU you-ACC.DU

vijiimiitur

uta vii ghii syiildt

son.in.law.M-ABL.SG and or PTC brother.in.law.M-ABL.SG

"I heard that you grant more than a son in law or than a brother in law."
(1.1 09.2ab)
The main predicate "hear" (sru) is included among predicates of knowledge "when used in a sense other than that of immediate perception" (Noonan
1985: 118), i.e. when it means "be informed, find out, realize". The adjective
bhiiriddvat-, in the comparative fonn in (9.20), contains the verbal root dii
"give". Geldner translates this passage with a completive subordinate: "lch
habe ja von euch gehort, daB ihr mehr gebt als ein unechter Tochtermann oder
ein Schwager". ( 1951: I, 141)
Examples of predicates ofknowledge that govern an infinitive complement
are sporadic. The passage reported in (9 .21) represents the only case where
the root vid means "wissen zu [lnf.]", according to GR 1274-77.

(9 .21 ) sa

veda

devd

iinamam devdn

he-NOM.M.SG know-PF3SG god.M-NOM.SG bring.near-IF god.M-ACC.PL

"He, the god, knows how to bring near the gods." (4.8.3ab)
230

However, the infinitive status of the accusative complement is often controversial. For example, Grassmann (1873: 500-501) ascribes the meaning
"wissen zu [Inf.]" to the rootjnii in two almost identical passages (6.9.2 and
6.9.3). Cf. (9.22).
(9.22) Sa
it tan/Uf!l
sa
Vi jiiniity
he-NOM.M.SG PTC thread.M-ACC.SG he-NOM.M.SG PRE know-IND.PR3SG

otuf!l [... ]

ya

if!!

ciketad

woof.M-ACC.SG RP-NOM.M.SG he-ACC.M.SG knows-SB.PF3SG

'
amrtasya

gopii'

immortality.N-GEN.SG protector.M-NOM.SG

"He knows the thread and the woof. Who knows this as the protector of
immortality ..." (6.9.3a/c)
In (9.22) the two accusative forms tantum and otum may be interpreted either as infinitives or as action nouns derived from the roots tan "extend" and
ve "weave". In the same passage, the root cit "understand, know" also appears,
with a pronominal object im that anaphorically refers to tantum or otum. This
suggests that tantum and otum retain their nominal status, since infinitives in
the Rig-Veda are never resumed by means of anaphoras. Geldner uses nouns
to translate this passage: "Nur dieser versteht den Faden, er den Einschlag9 ."
(1951: II, 101)
Alternatively, predicates of knowledge may be juxtaposed to the clause
representing the object of knowledge. In the Rig-Veda, juxtaposition is the
most frequent strategy to express such completive relations, as can be seen in
(9.23), with the main predicate vid"find out, know".
(9.23) amf
ye
sapta rasmityas tatrii me niibhir
that-NOM.M.PL RP-NOM.M.PL seven ray.M-NOM.PL there my origin.F-NOM.SG

iitatii I

tritas

tdd

vediiptya}J

extended-PP.NOM.F.SG Trita-NOM this-ACC.N.SG know-PF3SG.Aptya-NOM

sa

jiimitvlzya

rebhati

he-NOM.M.SG kinship.N-DAT.SG declare-IND.PR3SG

"Those seven rays, there my origin extended, Trita Aptya knows this, and
declares it in the name ofkinship." (1.105.9)
The coordination between a predicate of knowledge (veda) and a predicate
of utterance (rebhati, from the root ribh "speak aloud, declare") indicates the
semantic relationship between these classes of predicates. Moreover, the presence of a nominativus pendens ("those seven rays") manifests a type of clause
linkage that is more pragmatically than syntactically determined. Instead of
9. In three further cases (1.131.6, 5.36.1, and 10.38.3), Grassmann interprets the root cil as "zu
thun [IF] verstehen" (p. 447-451). However, in two of these cases (1.131.6 and 10.38.3) Geldner considers the main verb a desiderative predicate (beabsichtigen), for which an infinitive
complement is more frequent (Cf. 9.12). A desiderative meaning is also expressed by the root
man which in 7.2.7 governs an infinitive (gedenken in Geldner II, 182).

231

the sentence "Trita Aptya knows that my origin extended from those seve
rays''. we have the introduction of a topic ("those seven rays") that does 110~
play any argumental ftmction in the sentence. The same topic is resumed by a
demonstrative adverb ("there my origin extended") and by a demonstrativ
pronoun (Trita Aptya knows that"). This reflects the discoursive strategy 0~
one chunk of information at a time (Du Bois 1985) of the oral communicative
mode. The frequency ofthese constructions brings about the use of juxtaposed
complement taking predicates such asjiine "I know" as stock words in Classical Sanskrit (cf. Speyer 1886: 500).
Finite subordinate clauses dependent on a predicate of knowledge are very
rare in the Rig-Veda. The main predicate of an explicative clause is vid in
1.131.4 and 1.164.23 (9.6), and cit in 1.93.4 (9.4) and in 7.56.4 (kenne 11 in
Geldner 11, 231 ). E.g. "The Puru know ( vidzl/1) this heroic deed of yours, that
(yad) you, 0 lndra, destroyed the autumnal fortresses." ( 1.131.4) In (9.24) the
subordinate clause, which explicates the content of the main clause subject,
depends on the predicate "forget".
(9 .24) na tat
te agne
pramf~e nivartanaf!l
NEG this-NOM.N.SG your Agni-VOC forget-IF turning.back.N-NOM.SG

yad diire sann

that far

ihabhaval)

be-P.PR.NOM.M.SG here.be-IND.IPF2SG

"0 Agni, this turning back of yours must not be forgotten, that you were
here, albeit being far." (3.9.2cd)
Predicates of knowledge with the particle iti are not yet attested in the RigVeda. This testifies the recent development of iti-clauses, which at this stage
are limited to utterance predicates and, more rarely, to propositional attitude
predicates. In Classical Sanskrit, however, iti is also commonly used to express the object of knowing (Speyer 1886: 493). In (9.25) the main predicate
is upa-labh, literally "seize, get possession of, acquire", and metaphorically
"understand, learn, know, ascertain" (MW 1899: 205).
(9.25) ange~u
ka.~cid
asti
Anga-LOC.PL someone-NOM.M.SG be-IND.PR3SG
tapal}-prabhiivotpanna-divya-cak~ur

mar1c1r

niima

dcvotion-power.produced-divine-cyed-NOM.M.SG Marici-NOM name.N-ACC.SG

mahar.~ir
iti kuta.kit
Salfllapato
great.sage.M-NOM.SG thus from.any.quarter chatter-P.PR.ABL.M.SCI

jana-samiijiid

11palabl1ya

peoplc.gathering.M-ABL.SG know-GER

''Having known from some chattering people, gathered from any quarter,
that in the country of Anga there is a great sage, MarTci by name, having a divine eye, in which devotion and power are produced" (Dasakumaracarita)
As in the case of utterance predicates, in predicates of knowledge the low
syntactic integration of juxtaposition, parataxis marked by the particle iti, and
232

finite subordination introduced by a relativizer mirrors the low semantic integration between the main and the dependent state of affairs. Predicates of
knowledge entail no argument sharing, no control, and no determinate time
reference of their dependent state of affairs ("John knows that Mary went I
goes I will go to the cinema"). As in the case of utterance predicates, however,
the semantic relationship that exists between predicates of knowledge and
their complement state of affairs is tighter than the semantic relationship established in adverbial subordination. This also licenses syntactically more integrated nominal structures, which represent a completive situation inside the
borders of a single clause.

9.5. Propositional attitude predicates

In the Rig-Veda, propositional attitude predicates are semantically close to
predicates of knowledge. The roots of "thinking" (man, cit, dhi,. etc.) do not
indicate the condition of having an opinion (which presupposes a partial
commitment of the speaker and the non-factuality of the completive clause),
but rather the condition of exerting the intellectual capabilities to achieve the
divine tmth. The root cit means both ''think" and "know". The names of
"thought" (mana.'<;-, dhl-) are deified in Vedic, and are the sources of the
names of some authors of the hymns, both as appellatives (manl$in- "poet",
from mani.~ii- "consideration, intelligence, wisdom") and as anthroponyms. In
the Rig-Veda, thinking is a form of knowledge. Accordingly, predicates of
propositional attitude have similar structures to predicates of knowledge and
utterance.
The Rig-Veda abundantly records passages where the object of thought is
expressed by a nominal structure, such as an accusative noun plus an accusative participle. Noonan (1985: I 09) states that participles typically represent a
situation that is simultaneous with the situation of the main clause. Accordingly, they are cross-linguistically common with main predicates of immediate perception such as "see" or "hear", while they are incompatible with most
other predicates. In English, the sentence **"I believe Brinck breaking his
leg" is ungrammatical because verbs of thinking do not presuppose the
simultaneity between the states of affairs of the complement clause and of the
main clause. In these cases, a subordinating conjunction is preferably
employed, as in "I believe that Brinck is breaking his leg". However, the
participle has a wider distribution in Old Indian than in English, and in the
Rig-Veda it may be selected by verbs of thinking. This does not only occur
when the main clause and the completive clause describe simultaneous states
of affairs, as in (9 .26), but also when the dependent state of affairs precedes
233

(9.26), but also when the dependent state of affairs precedes the main state of
affairs, as in (9.27).
marrzsate
santam
indrarrz
(9 .26) k6
who-NOM.M.SG think-SB.AOR3SG be-P.PR.ACC.M.SG lndra-ACC

"Who shall think that Indra exists?" (1.84.17b)

(9.27) 6jaso
jiitam
uta manya

enam

strength.N-ABL.SG bom-PP.ACC.M.SG and think-IND.PRISG him-ACC.SG

"And I think that he was born out of strength." (10.73.10b)

In (9.27) the dependent predicate is a past passive participle, which is inflected in the accusative like the pronoun enam. Geldner translates this
passage with a completive subordinate: "So meine ich daf3 er aus der Kraft
geboren ist." (1951: III, 254)
The accusative participle with active verbs, as well as the nominative participle with middle and passive verbs, is not the only construction that expresses completive relations depending on a propositional attitude predicate in
Old Indian. Various types of nominalizations are found, such as deverbal
compounds, agent nouns, and action nouns, which are inflected in different
morphological cases according to the different predicates of propositional attitude. For example, the predicate "believe" (srad dhii) governs the dative,
which is the case used for the role of the beneficiary, and which is appropriate
for the person who receives the confidence of someone. The verb srcid dhii is
lowly grammaticalized in Vedic. It is used with full commitment of the
speaker in the sense "consider true, rely on", according to the etymology "put
(dhii) the hearth (snid) on", which has cognates in Old Irish cretid and in
Latin credo < *kred-dho. Unlike in Old Irish and in Latin, however, in the
Rig-Veda this verb is synchronically transparent, as can be seen in the separation between the two members of the original compound. E.g. 1.1 03.5 srad
indrasya dhattana viryaya "Believe (srad ... dhattana) in the manliness
(viryaya, DAT) oflndra. Cf. (9.28).
(9.28) adhii cana srad dadhati
tvi$fmata
indriiya
thus

vajram

PTC heart put-IND.PR3PL vehement-DAT.M.SG lndra-DAT

ni-ghanighnate

vadham

thunderbolt.M-ACC.SG down.strike-P.PR.INT.DAT.M.SG deadly. weapon.M-ACC.SG

"Thus, they believe in the vehement lndra, who strikes down the thunderbolt, the deadly weapon." (1.55.5cd)
In (9.28) srM dhii has two dative complements, i.e. the adjective tvisimate
and the participle nighimighnate. The latter derives from the intensive stem of
the root hem '"hit, strike", and governs the two accusative objects vajram and
vadham. Rather than a conjunctional clause ("they believe that Indra strikes
his weapon"), a modifier is used: "they believe- in Indra who strikes his
weapon". A deverbal adjective as a modifier is also used when the proposi234

tional attitude is indicated by a noun rather than by a verb. Noonan ( 1985:

)35-37) points out that also nouns can be used as arguments of complement
taking predicates. In (9.29) the compound dasyu-han- "Dasyu-killer" modifies
the argumental noun monas- "thought, idea". "The thought of killing the
Dasyus" is expressed as "the thought killer of the Dasyus".
(9.29) dasyughn&
manasa
yohy
astam

J>RE Dasyu.killer-INSTR.N.SG thought.N-INSTR.SG comc-IJ>V2SG home.N-ACC.SG

"Come home with the thought of killing the Dasyus." (4.16.1 Oa)
Like predicates of utterance and of knowledge, predicates of propositional
attitude exhibit the juxtaposition between main and dependent states of affairs
(9.30). Juxtaposition gives rise to the parenthetical use of verbs such as manye
"I think", sanke "l assume", a.~amse "I believe", etc., which is frequent in
Classical Sanskrit (cf. Speyer 1886: 500).
srat
te
(9.30) adha manye
so

asma

think-IND.PRISG faith.N-NOM.SG you-DAT.SG

adhiiyi

this-DAT.N.SG place-IND.AOR.PS3SG

"I think so: faith has been fixed on you for this reason." (1.104.7a)
Moreover, the Rig-Veda presents paratactic constructions where the clause
linked with a propositional attitude predicate is marked by the particle iti. This
is, however, very rare, with only 3 out of 78 iti-clauses, recorded in recent
sections (8.93.5, 10.119.1, and 10.146.4). In two of them, we have a finite
propositional attitude predicate. I.e. 8.93.5 "If you, o increased one, o mighty
lord, think: I will not die (nd marci iti mdnyase)" (cf. 5.4). I 0.146.4 "Who
dwells in the wood, in the evening. thinks: Someone cried out>> (dkruk$ad iti
manyate)". In 10.119.1 the propositional attitude is represented by the noun
manas- "thought" (9 .3 I), which quite atypically precedes the direct speech.
(9 .31) iti v& iti me mano
thus PTC thus my thought.N-NOM.SG

gam

asvam

sanuyam

iti

cow.F-ACC.SG horse.M-ACC.SG obtain-OPt SG thus

"Thus, indeed, thus, my thought is this: May I obtain cows and horses."
(10.119.1ab)
In this passage, iti has three occurrences: while the third one takes the direct speech into its scope, the first and the second ones maintain their original
adverbial function, as can be seen in Geldner's rendition: "So, ja so ist mein
Sinn: lch mochte Rind und RoB verschenken". ( 1951: Ill, 345) The usage of a
quotation marker with propositional attitude predicates, and later with predicates of knowledge, is a metaphorical extension from utterance predicates,
where iti is especially common.
Occasionally, the propositiona1 attitude predicate is omitted, and the peculiar function of the reported thought must be inferred from the context. This
235

already occurs in the Rig-Veda (cf. note 8 in 9.3), but is especially freque
in Classical Sanskrit, where the clause in the scope of iti represents the 0101~~
vation of the other clause (Speyer 1886: 497}. Sometimes, a rendition wi~
"because" is appropriate, as in (9.32), where the guests leave the house thinking that the wealth of their host is ruined. Sometimes, the reading "so that in
order to" is preferable, as in (9.33), where Bhima strikes his enemy sileJ;tly
thinking that no noise would awake his brothers. The possibility of the double
interpretation of cause and purpose manifests the semantic overlap between
these relations (6.3).
(9.32) grham
asmadfyaf!l ~iniirtham
house.M-ACC.SG our

ity atithaya/J

ruined.wealth.N-NOM.SG

parivarjayanti

thus guest.M-NOM.PL abandon-IND.PR3PL

"The guests abandon our house, because our wealth is

(Mrcchakatika)
(9.33) punar bhimo baliid
enaf!l vicakar~a
again Bhfma-NOM strength.M-ABL.SG him

mahabala/J

ruined.~'

hit-PF3SG

mii sabdaiJ

having.a.great.strength-NOM.M.SG NEG noise.M-NOM.SG

sukhasuptiiniif!l

bhriitfi'Jiif!l

me bhaved iti

happily.asleep-GEN.M.PL brother.M-GEN.PL my be-OP3SG thus

"Again, the very strong Bhima hit him with strength [but in such a way]
that no noise might awake his brothers who slept quietly". (MBh. 1.153.42)
Notice in (9.33) the lack of substitution of the possessive pronoun, which
is typical of direct report, in the clause "no noise must awake my brothers."
Although originally these structures are only compatible with animate participants that express a prepositional attitude, with time ili grammaticalizes as a
particle for inference and deduction, which is also found with inanimate ob. jects. Cf. "Neither every poem is good just because it is old (puriii'Jam iti) nor
every poem is to blame just because it is new (navam it1)". (Malavikagnimitra)
Classical Sanskrit also records finite subordinates introduced by a relativizer which depend on a predicate of propositional attitude such as "think" or
"believe". This does not yet occur in the Rig-Veda. The only cases where cit
"think, know" appears as the main predicate of an explicative clause are traditionally interpreted as predicates of knowledge, and particularly as "know"
(7.56.4) or "be known, famous" (1.93.4), rather than as "think" (cf. Geldner
1951: I, 120; Il, 231).
The coding of negative propositional attitude predicates is relatively late.
The Rig-V eda does not record predicates of doubting: all verbal or nominal
lexemes that in Old Indian have this meaning (cf. MW 1851: 205-206, s.v.
doubt, to doubt) are relatively recent (they are not reported in GR). At first
236

sight, this depends on the religious register of the Rig-Veda, which does not
provide many suitable contexts to the expression of doubts. However, the
Rigvedic niistikas (9.16) are clear traces of a disagreement with the official
religion. In these cases, "doubt" is rendered as "not think". The lack of predicates of doubting is probably due to the scarce grammaticalization that is typical of the Rig-Veda, where words maintain their full lexical meaning. For example, proper modals such as "can" or "like" do not exist, because they are
still used with the meaning of "exert strength or power" (sak, often inflected
in the imperative) and "enjoy, taste" (iu..y). There is no verb "have" that is
comparable to Ancient Greek ekho, Latin habeo, or Gothic aih I haha, and
verbs meaning "rule", "master", "overcome" are employed with this function
(Viti 2004). Similarly, lexemes of doubting require a certain level of grammaticalization of expressions that originally denote uncertainty between two
things, as can be seen in Latin dubium from duo, in German Zweifel from zwei,
or in Classical Sanskrit dvaigham from dvi- "two".
In Classical Sanskrit, lexemes of doubting are numerous and transparent,
which confirms their recent age. Except for sank, which is attested in the RigVeda only with the meaning "oscillate", we deal with roots of thinking added
with the two prefixes vi- and sam-, denoting separation and union, respectively. Both opposite meanings are motivated, since a doubt may be described
as a divergence of opinions (vi-tark, vi-cit, vi-kjp, vi-ciiray-, vi-prati-pat, etc.)
or as a confuse whole of ideas (sam-dih, sam-si). The latter strategy emerges
in the most frequent names of the doubt, i.e. sa,deha- and sa,saya- (but
viJaya- is also recorded). The name sm.ndeha- is built on the root dih "accumulate"< lE. *dhig', cf. Lat.fingo,figulus,figura, A.Gr. teichos "wall", O.P.
didii "fortress". This root provides the name of the "wall" (dehi-, also "mound,
rampart") and the name of the "body" (de ha-). The name sa1p.faya- derives
from the root si "lie, rest", and refers to the immobility preceding a decision.
The negated noun of the doubt acquires the function of an evidential: na
sa1flsayai1, na sa1fldehal1 "no doubt" 10

I 0. As negative propositional attitude predicates grammaticalizc later than positive propositional attitude predicates, negative predicates of utterance or knowledge grammaticalize later
than their positive counterparts. In the Rig-Vcda. "deny" is "not say", and "ignore" is "not
know". In many languages, the derived character or these negative predicates is still apparent.
as in the case of Latin nego and ignoro, where the negative particles ne- and in- are visible. The
belated encoding of a negative clausal relation has also been addressed in purposive clauses
(7.8).

237

9.6. Commentative predicates

Commentative predicates always govern factual complements, and there~
fore are also called factive in the literature (Kiparsky and Kiparsky 1970).
Noonan (1985: 116-18) prefers the label ofcommentative for predicates like
"regret", "be happy", "be sad", "be odd", etc., as they express a comment, a
judgment, or an emotional reaction to the dependent state of affairs. In these
cases, the speaker already knows the propositional content presented in the
completive clause, which therefore conveys presupposed information. "Com~
plements to commentative predicates have been said to be presupposed. Further, sentences with commentative CTPs typically take the form of a comment
expressed by the CTP on the complement proposition as topic (old, back~
ground information) so complements to commentative CTPs are discourse
dependent." (Noonan 1985: 117) The time reference ofthe dependent state of
affairs is not intrinsically determined by the lexical meaning of the commentative predicate ("It is odd that Floyd comes I came I will come"), and the two
states of affairs do not necessarily share the same participants.
In the Rig-Veda, this function is expressed by means of explicative subordinate clauses (9.2) that represent the notional subject of the complex sentence, as in 1.117.8: "Praiseworthy (prav&cyam) is this act of yours, 0 Bulls,
that you gave glory to the son of N.r~ad." These sentences, where an abstract
noun or a neuter pronoun with the syntactic function of subject or nominal
predicate in the main clause cataphorically resumes the content of the subordinate clause, represent the bulk of explicative clauses. (See note 2 in 9.2.1
and, particularly, the passages 1.62.6, 1.69.8, 1.94.14, 2.22.4, 3.33.7, 4.22.5,
4.36.1, 5.31.7, and 5.47.5)
In the domain of adverbial subordination, hypotactic structures introduced
by a relative conjunction are preferred for presupposed relations (such as temporals, conditionals, and causals) rather than for non-presupposed relations
(such as purposives). In the same vein, in the domain of complementation,
hypotaxis characterizes first the presupposed relations entailed by commentative predicates. This development is similar to that identified by Cuzzolin
(1994) in Latin, where explicit subordination introduced by the complementizers quod and quia starts from factive predicates and later extends to assertive predicates. In Vedic, the loose syntactic linkage ofhypotaxis is consistent
with completive relations where the truth-values of the dependent state of affairs are not affected by the lexical features of the main predicate. Independently of the positive or negative polarity of the main clause, "I am (not) sorry
that John left" c "John left". Finite subordinates are commonly used in Classical Sanskrit for predicates as "I am happy I glad I sad", "it is good", "I won238

der", etc. (Speyer 1886: 465), which in virtue of their presuppositional content are occasionally considered equivalent to causal clauses. Cf. (9.34)
'hatfl
(9.34) dhanyo
happy-NOM.M.SG I-NOM

yad bhavatiipi saha tatra kiilam

nayaml

that you-JNSTR.also with here timc.M-ACC.SG spend-IND.PRISG

"I am happy that I spend my time here with you." (Paficatantra)

However, since in the Rig-Veda hypotaxis in complementation is not yet
an established syntactic device, the use of alternative structures is expected.
For example, the neuter adjective bhadram "good, auspicious, excellent" is
the commentative predicate not only of an explicative sentence such as
1.94.14 (''This is good of you, that you, to whom Soma is offered. kindled in
your own house, crackle most benign"), but also of an infinitive. Cf. 8.47.12
"lt is good for the malicious neither to go down (avayai) nor to go up
(upayai)". This is the sole example in the Rig-Veda where an infinitive (here a
dative infinitive from the root i "go" added to the preverbs ava- "down" and
upa- "up") has the function of sentential subject (Diesterheft 1980: 85).

9. 7. Predicates of fearing
The root bhz "fear" (third class present bibheti) is the only predicate of
fearing that is found in the Rig-Veda. The other roots that in Classical Sanskrit have this meaning (tras, udvij, vyath, .~ank, cf. MW 1851: 263, s.v. to
fear) originally mean "tremble, waver", which is still transparent in Vedic.
Moreover, at the stage of the Rig-Veda, even the verb bibheti is scarcely
grammaticalized. Grassmann's dictionary (1873: 937-38) reveals that it is
mostly used intransitively, as "to be frightened". When it takes a complement,
it requires the ablative case, which expresses detachment from an undesirable
situation.
Vedic bhz differs in distribution from English predicates of fearing, which
take a finite complement clause with an indeterminate time reference (''I am
afraid that John left I is leaving I will leave"). Obviously, if the feared event is
located in the present or in the past, the speaker must not be aware of its occurrence: "I am afraid that John left" is grammatical only in case the speaker
does not know whether the departure occurred or not. In the Rig-Veda, the
complement of bhz can only refer to an event that is simultaneous with the
main predicate of fearing. For example, the passage in (9.35) does not mean
that Earth and Sky fe.ared that Tva~l! could be born in the future, but rather
that they feared Tva~l! while he was born or during his birth. The birth of the

239

god is represented as an event occurring under the eyes of Earth and Sky, who
are scared and move away.
(9.35) ubhe
tva~tur bibhyatur j{jyamiiniit
both-NOM.N.DU

Tv~~r-ABL

fear-PF3PL born-P.PR.ABL.M.SG

"Both of them (se. Earth and Sky) were frightened by Tva~tr while he was
born'." (1.95.5c)
The form tva.yful7 can be grammatically either genitive or ablative, but in
this case an ablative reading is more likely because of the agreement with the
present participle j{jyamiiniit, from the rootjan "generate, be born", for which
ablative is the oniy interpretation (the genitive isj&yamiinasya). Since at this
stage bhi governs nouns rather than clauses, and prototypical. nouns have a
time-stable reference, the unmarked interpretation of these passages is that the
event is described without temporal implications, by default at the same time
in which the situation of the main clause is located. In the Rig-Veda, the distribution of verbs of fearing is similar to that of .immediate perception predicates like "hear" or "see" (except for the grammatical case of the complement). These predicates share the semantic component ofnon-agentivity.
No established strategy expresses the function of fearing something that
might happen in the future 11 In a limited number of cases, we find an action
noun denoting the dependent state of affairs that is governed by a preposition
meaning "before" such as li ( 1.41.9) and purli (8.1.12).
valti
indra
vrajo
(9.36) aliilfi'JO
unbrcakablc-NOM.M.SG Vala-NOM lndra-VOC enclosurc.M-NOM.SG

go}]

pur& hantor

bhayamiino

vy

'ra

cow.F-GEN.SG before hitting-ABL tbar-P.PR.NOM.M.SG PRE open-PF3SG

"0 lndra, the unbreakable Vala, the enclosure of the cow, opened, fearing
that you might hit him" (3.30.1 Oab)
I I. In Old Indian, a scarce ditTusion is observable for independent clauses introduced by a negation, which led to the use of Latin ne and of Ancient Greek mi as compli:mcntizers via context inference ("I fear, NEG it may happen"> "I fear that it may happen"). The conjunction mcj,
which etymologically corresponds to Ancient Greek mi and to Classical Armenian mi, is used
with an injunctive verb in the expression of the prohibitive. However, in the four cases where
cooccurs with bhl ( 1.11.2, 8.4. 7, 8.66.15. and 8. 79.8), there is no linkage between a predicate of fearing, with positive polarity, and another predicutc referred to an unpleasant situation.
Rather, bhf itself denotes an unpleasant sit~alion, and is optionally coordinated with another
negated predicate. E.g. 8.4. 7 mii bhema mii srami$ma "may we not fear, may we not be exhausted". lbc marker ned < na id, which determines verbal accentuation and therefore can be
considered a subordinator (it is included among the Ergiitrzlmgs.viitze in Hettrich 1988: 169-71 ).
introduces negative purpose clauses, and has a diiTcrent syntux with respect to its Latin cognate
ne. The purposive function emerges from the only passage, in a recent section of the Rig-Veda,
where ned is related to the root bhi, in 10.51.4. "0 Varul}a, I left fearing (bibhyad) the priestservice, so that the gods may not yoke me here." The other passages where ned appears are in
5.79.9, 8.5.39, and 10.16.7. Even after lhe Rig-Veda, ned does not have a widespread diffusion.

ma

240

A sentence as "I fear before your hit" (9.36) is semantically equivalent to

the sentence "I fear that you may hit me". The action noun hantu- "hitting" is
ambiguous between the category of the infinitive (Renou 1937: 25-26; Sgall
1958: 235) and the category of the substantive (Diesterheft 1980: 126-28).
However, it has the same ablative ending that the preposition purii requires
when the complement is a genuine noun, and is rendered with a substantive in
Geldner: "noch vor deinem Schlage furchtsam" ( 1951: I, 364 ). The scarce
grammaticalization of future feared events is also related to the lack of productive strategies for the relation of temporal posteriority (''before that"),
which cognitively is one the most complex temporal relations (cf. 4.2.2).
After the Rig-Veda and the other Mantras, complements of predicates of
fearing exhibit a competition between the strategy of nominalization, with
participles (9.35) or action nouns (9.36), and the strategy of parataxis marked
by the particle iti, which is less integrated with the main predicate (9.37). This
particle is never used with predicates of fearing in Vedic poetry. It only appears since the Brahmaqas (cf. DelbrUck 1888: 532), in constructions similar
to those of direct speech depending on utterance predicates.
(9 .3 7)
hibhyali
trasati

sa

she-NOM fcar-P.PR.NOM.F.SG tremblc-IND.PR3SG

tvGC01fl
ma
diisyala
fti
skin.F-ACC.SG my PRE take.awny-IND.PR3SG QUOT

"She trembles, fearing: He will take away my skim>." (SB. 1.5.4.6)

The alternative presence of structures with a low syntactic integration is
motivated by the semantics of predicates of fearing, which have a limited influence on the situation represented in the completive clause (Givon 1980:
335). The main predicate does not control, and does not necessarily share arguments with, the state of affairs of the completive clause. In Classical Sanskrit, the iti-structure is the only option when the state of affairs of the complement clause temporally precedes that of the main clause.

9.8. Pretence predicates

Pretence predicates entail by definition that the dependent state of affairs is
false. Main clause and dependent clause may have different subjects. Moreover, the main predicate does not predetermine the time reference of its complement clause, which may be located in the present, in the past, or in the future with respect to the main event ("John pretends that Mary comes I came I
will come"). In Vedic, these predicates do not exist yet. The root mii, from
which the noun miiyii- "deception, fraud, trick, illusion" is derived, means
"make, fashion, form, build" (MW 1899: 804). OriginaiJy, the noun may!i- it241

self has the generic meaning of "extraordinary power, supernatural wisdom"

which can be exerted both by gods and by demons, and does not have an in~
trinsically negative connotation (Gonda 1959). The root druh. which is related
to the German verb triigen to deceive" and to the Avestan name of the personified Evil or Lie Druj, means "to harm, be hostile" in the Rig-Veda (cf
MW 1899: 502; GR 648). As in the case of negative propositional attitud~
predicates such as "doubt", pretence predicates lexicalize relatively late.
In Classical Sanskrit, the verb apa-disati means "deceive, simulate
pretend" (fiilschlich angeben, vorgeben, vorschiitzen, BR Ill: 629). It consis~
of the root di.~ "indicate, point out" and of the preverb apa "away". The dependent state of affairs may be represented either by a compound (9.38) or by
a finite clause marked with the quotative particle ili (9.39). The former is preferred when few constituents are involved. Since the second member of the
compound is deverbal, these structures may be considered semantically
equivalent to clauses.
(9.38) mitra-lqtyam
apadis-ya
friendship-making.N-ACC.SG pretend-GER

"Pretending to establish a friendship" (RaghuvallJsa)

(9.39) amunaitad
asmabhyatfl dattam
ity

apadis-ya

that-JNSTR.M.SG.this-NOM.N.SG us-DAT.PL givcn-NOM.N.SG QUOT prctend-GER

"Pretending that he gave us this one" (Dasakumaracarita)

9.9. Achievement predicates

Noonan (1985: 129) distinguishes between positive achievement predicates ("manage", "dare", "get to", etc.) and negative achievement predicates
(''try", "avoid", "fail", etc.), depending on whether the dependent state of affairs is achieved or not. These predicates entail a high semantic integration
with their complements. In sentences like "John managed I avoided driving
the truck", the subject of the main clause is also the subject of the dependent
clause, and the main predicate predetermines the time reference of the complement. The achievement or non-achievement of the dependent state of affairs (in this case, "driving the truck") has the same time reference as the main
state of affairs of"managing" or "avoiding". Predictably, these predicates display highly integrated constructions, such as participles in English and action
nouns in Vedic.
In Vedic, action nouns appear in different grammatical cases, according to
the lexical meaning of the main predicate, which is scarcely grammaticali:zed.
foor example, the predicate "decide" is expressed with the root dhii, which literally means "establish, fix, place". Rather than the sentence "you decided to
242

cross the waters", we have the clause "your water-crossing is established"

(yuvor aptz1ryat!l hilam, 3.12.8). The notional complement (aptfiryam "watercrossing", from ap- "water" plus If "cross") is encoded as the nominative subject of the passive achievement predicate (hitam "estab1ished"Y 2
The action noun has the function of a direct object when depending on the
predicate "dare" (dhffi), which has the fifth class present dhrsnoti. In the RigVeda, this verb still has the intransitive meaning "to be bold, courageous".
Only in one case (9.40) it is used as the main predicate of a completive relation. Here the perfect dadhar~it governs the action noun vyathis- "deceit", derived from the root vyath "waver, fall, be deceived". The sentence literally
means ''Nobody can have boldness over your being deceived". A completive
subordinate is used in Geldner's translation of this passage: "Keiner soli es
wagen, dich irrezuflihren". (1951: I, 422) The use of dhr~ in the Rig-Veda is
preferably associated with negative polarity items as "nobody" or "nothing"
(cf. also 5.85.6 and 6.7.5).
(9.40) eigne m&ki~
fe vyathir
dadhar$fl

Agni-VOC nobody-NOM your being.dcccived.N-ACC.SG PRE be.bold-INJ.PF3SG

"0 Agni, nobody dare deceive you." (4.4.3d)

The denominal verb arthayati, derived from the noun artha- "goal, aim,
purpose", is used in the Rig-Veda with the meaning "strive", and only in one
case (5.44.11) it governs a dative infinitive: "they strive to go (arthayanty
etave) together with each other." The predicate yat "strive, try" (first class
present yatate) still exhibits the non-grammaticalized value of "tend towards",
"join someone", with friendly or unfriendly intention. The object noun is inflected in the accusative or in the dative, i.e. in those grammatical cases that
are regularly used for the goal of a movement. Moreover, the object has a
concrete referent: the relation expressed by yat is "strive toward X" rather
than "strive to do X". In (9 .41) the object of the verb yalate is the border of
Heaven and Earth, and the notion of "striving to do something'' is expressed
with the participle "pushing". Consider Griffith's (I 889: 61) translation of this
passage: "Awful, he strives grasping the world's two borders."
(9.41) ubhe
sicau
yatate
bhfma
both-ACC.F.DU rim.F-ACC.DU tcnd-1ND.PR3SG tcrrible-NOM.M.SG

(iijim
push-P .PR.NOM.M.SG

12. The suggested meaning of aptiiryam is drawn from Geldncr ("Vordringen ilber die
Gewiisser", 1951: I, 349). Alternatively, aptiiryam may be interpreted as "zeal, activity", from
ap "work" plus tvar "to be active, to hurry" (MW 1899: 57; "Geschiiftigkeit, Emsigkeit" in GR
78).

243

"The terrible one strives to reach the two rims (i.e. heaven and earth),
(1.95.7b)
.
In Classical Sanskrit, the root yat "strive" commonly admits nouns referred
to events as complements. E.g. Malav. tad-anv-e~aniiya yali$ye "I will try t
seek after her", lit. "I will try for the seeking (e$aniiya, OAT) after (anu) h 0
(lad)". MBh. 2.18.18 kiiryasiddhaye yatiima/7 "We strive to accomplish 0 ~r
work", lit. "We strive for the work-accomplishment (kiirya-siddhaye, DAI)"r
That the action noun is a compound indicates the low sententiality of thes~
structures. Other verbs meaning "try", such as Classical Sanskrit ce$(, ~V-ava
so, and ud-yam, govern the infinitive, e.g. ja/alfl piitum vyavasyati, water.NACC drink-IF try-IND.PRJSG, "he tries to drink water". S.uch structures
'
however, are not recorded in the Rig-Veda.
In Classical Sanskrit, the root vfi typically means "avoid" when inflected
in the causative form varjayati (and optionally derived with the preverbs parior vi-). In the Rig-Veda, however, this root still means "avert something from
its natural place or direction", i.e. "bend, remove, exclude", etc., as can be
seen from some derivates such as vrjina- "bent, crooked" and vrjana- "enclosure, fence". In the rare cases it is derived with the preverb pari-, it acquires
the more abstract meaning of "avoiding" (vermeiden, cf. GR 1327-28), although the accusative complement still has a concrete (animate or inanimate)
referent. E.g. 6.51.16 "We entered the unobstructed road that leads to bliss,
with which everybody avoids enemies (pari dvi$0 V[flakti) and finds wealth."
(Cf. also 2.27 .5d and 8.45.1 0) That this verb is not meant as "avoiding doing
something" is revealed by the passages where the subject is an inanimate entity. 7.46.3 "May your thunderbolt avoid us (pari ... V[TJOktu nail)". Further
lexical sources that mean both "avoid" and "impede" will be discussed m
9 .14 among manipulative predicates.

9.10. Immediate perception predicates

A main predicate of immediate perception such as "hear" or "see" selects
an accusative participle agreeing with an accusative noun (9.42).
pa.~yiit
s~ryam uccarantam
(9.42) jyt'Jk
for.a.long.time sce-SB.PR3SG sun.M-ACC rise-P.PR.ACC.M.SG

"May he see the sun rising for a long time." (4.25.4b)

The use of the participle, which represents a tight linkage with the main
clause, is largely attested with immediate perception predicates both in other
lE languages and cross-linguistically (cf. Noonan 1985: 108-109). Participles
may express simultaneity with another event, and may share arguments with
244

(he main clause. Both conditions are fulfilled by immediate perception predicates. In the sentence "I see the sun rising", the act of seeing obviously takes
place at the sam~ time ~s the ~unrise. The subject of th~ pa~iciple is also the
object of the mam pred1cate, smce not only the whole sJtuatJon of the sunrise,
but also the individual entity of the sun is the object of sight. Accordingly, the
subject of the participle is raised in the main clause. This manifests a high semantic integration between the two states of affairs.

9.11. Modal predicates

9.11.1. Scarce grammaticalization ofVedic mood and modality
The modal value of"can" and "must" is represented in Vedic by the inflection of the verb in non-indicative moods, particularly in the subjunctive and in
the optative. This strong formal integration is determined by the semantic
relevance of modality with respect to the predicate: in sentences such as "John
must I can remember poems by heart", the modal predicate and the dependent
predicate denote the same event and share the same participants. As a result,
"modal predicates are excellent candidates for clause or lexical union."
(Noonan 1985: 128)
In Vedic, however, modal predicates are non-grammaticalized as compared to modern lE languages, which often resort to modal auxiliaries, and to
Latin and Ancient Greek. Ancient Greek generically uses the optative in subordinate clauses dependent on a past tense. Among Latin finite moods, the
subjunctive is generalized for subordination. In complementation, it is not
limited to non-factual complement taking predicates. In adverbial clauses, it is
also used for consecutives (possibly by analogy with purposive clauses),
which introduce factual states of affairs and therefore are in principle more
compatible with the indicative. The generalization of the subjunctive is also
found in Classical Armenian. Differently, Vedic subordinates have a higher
number of strategies, and may present an indicative, injunctive, subjunctive,
or optative mood, which have the same distribution in a subordinate as in an
independent clause. We do not have yet a stage where a given mood becomes
an obligatory marker of subordination, which is only selected by syntactic
contexts and does not semantically contribute to the propositional content.
"Subjunctives from different sources all have in common the fact that the
subordinating uses show up very late on the grammaticization paths. In fact,
after the generalization of subordinating uses, the only further development
for such grams is their gradual loss from the language." (Bybee, Perkins, and
Pagliuca 1994: 213-14)
245

Vedic retains the functional opposition between the subjunctive and th

optative, which tend to preempt values of necessity, volition, and potentialityc
Delbrilck (1888: 172) defines the subjunctive as the mood of volition ( Wi!J )
used when the speaker has the capability to achieve his I her goal, and the 0 e '
tative as the mood of wish (Wiinsch), when the achievement of the speake;,
intention is not guaranteed. Subjtmctive and optative are selected by ditTeren~
predicates or, if the same predicate is used, by different subjects. The root sah
"conquer" is inflected in the optative when referred to me~ who hope to over.
come their enemies. 1.8.4 "May we overcome (siisahyiima) our foes With
bowmen heroes and with you as a companion, 0 lndra." The same root is in.
flected in the subjunctive when the subject is a deity. In 10.145.5 lndra's wife
addresses a magical herb: "I am the conqueror, and you are victorious; both of
us, full of strength, can overcome (sahiivahai) the other wife rival of mine."
Moreover, the two moods preferably select different grammatical persons (puru~a). The second person is preferably found with the subjunctive, which can
express a strong order. Although in Classical Sanskrit the subjunctive disappears and is replaced by the optative 13 , some residual forms of the subjunctive
(i.e. the forms of the first person, both active and middle) survive into the
paradigm of the imperative, which is the prototypical mood for expressing orders.
The fact that "mood contrast is meaningbearing" (Bybee, Perkins, and
Pagliuca 1994: 213) is not the only piece of evidence of the lack of mood
grammaticalization in Vedic. In the Rig-Veda, moods only express a deontic
modality: according to the context, they refer to the intention, desire, necessity,
duty, or ability of the subject to accomplish an action. The epistemic function
of the speaker's commitment to the utterance truth-values never appears. lt is
well known that epistemic modality develops later than deontic modality (cf.
Hopper and Traugott 1993: 79-80). Scholars who discuss modality indicate
the same diachronic path, albeit with different terminologies. Bybee, Perkins,
and Pagliuca (1994: 177ff.) label deontic modality "agent-oriented", because
it implies the existence of internal and external conditions on the agent to acl.l The spread of one non-indicative mood at the expense of another non-indicative mood has
parallels in other lE languages, and particularly in lndo-lranian. Tite languages of the Avesta
and of the Achaemenian inscriptions record both the subjunctive and the optative. while Pahlavi of the Sassanid age only has the subjunctive. This does not mean that the loss of a given
mood is a unidirectional proce..s. While in the Rig-Veda, as well as in the other sc111lhitiis, the
subjunctive is the most frequcntnon-indicative mood, Classical Sanskrit generalizes the optative. This change occurs in the Vedic prose of the Brahmi'inas (MacDonell 1916: 118). The opposite change is observable in Greek. In Classical Greek. the optative begins spreading in subordinates dependent on an indicative past tense. Progressively, however, the use oflhc optative
diminishes, and becomes rare in New Testament Greek. In Modern Clreek, only the subjunctive
remains (et: Meillet 1963: 347-54).

246

co.nplish the denoted action. Different degrees of obligation, necessity, ability,

and desire bring about the type of derived epistemic modality: we have certainty from a source of strong obligation (must), probability from a source of
weak obligation (should), and possibility from a source of ability (may). Foley
and Van Valin (1984: 213fT.) consider deonticity as proper modality, whereas
epistemicity is called "status''. The fonner is an internal clausal operator,
which has a higher relevance to the meaning of the predicate. The origin of
epistemicity is due to the fact that "the basic tendency in diachronic developments for clause operators is for more-inner operators to be re-analyzed as operators over outer layers". (1984: 216) In second language acquisition, the development of deontic modality in epistemic modality starts from metaphorical
and metonymic processes in discourse, and the epistemic function is expressed by means of increasingly routinized constructions, particularly from
implicit to explicit structures and from lexical to grammatical structures (Giacalone Ramat 1995). In the following section, we take the predicate .ak "can"
as an example of the change from the deontic meaning of "being able" to the
epistemic meaning of"being possible".

9.11.2. The root sak "can" from deontic to epistemic modality

The root sak (fifth class present saknoti) occasionally preempts the modal
value "can" in Classical Sanskrit, and becomes an auxiliary in the form salmii
in Hindi. In the Rig-Veda, however, .ak maintains its lexical meaning "be
strong or powerful". 5.61.2 katha~n seka "How have you been so powerful?"
Occasionally, it has the value of "help" or "grant something", with a semantic
shift that is explained in GR 1368: "stark sein, vennogem>, daher mit dem
Dat. fiir jemand stark sein d. h. ihm forderlich seim>, fiir jemand [D.] einer
Sache [A., G.] machtig sein d. h. es ihm schenken, gewahren''. Only 7 out of
100 instances (1.73.10, 1.94.3, 2.5.1, 3.27.3, 9.73.3, 10.2.3, 10.44.6) have the
modal function of vermogen zu, konnen. All of them have a deontic function.
Cf. (9.43).
tvii
samidham
(9.43) sakema
be.able-OPIPL you-ACC.SG kindle-IF

"May we kindle you." ( 1.94.3a)

Since the early mantras, some tendencies exist toward analysis, which
bring about the various periphrastic structures of Classical Sanskrit. Five out
of the seven passages mentioned above are placed in recent sections of the
Rig-Veda. These sporadic structures are lowly grammaticalized: the infinitive
governed by sak always selects an accusative ending, which expresses the
functions of motion towards, typical of deontic future, and affectedness of the
247

patient. We have already pointed out (7.2) that the Vedic infinitive has ad'
tribution more similar to a noun than to a verb (e.g. it lacks tense and vo!smarking). The lexical meaning of the predicate sak is evident in Rcno~~e
translation of the passage in (9.43): "Puissions-nous etre de force a t'allumer!
(EVP XII, p. 24)
.
The epistemic value of sak appears in Classical Sanskrit 14 The passiv
.sakyate expresses possibility or probability when it is impersonally used
an infinitive (9.44).
(9.44) tal
karlUifl sakyate

wit:

this-ACC.N.SG do-IF

can-IND.PR.PS3SG

"It is possible", "it may be." (lit., "It is possible to do that")

The same value is found with an infinitive plus a gerundive that is built on
the root sak. E.g. sii .~alcyii dra~tum, she-NOM can-GV .NOM.F.SG see-IF
"She can be seen" or "one can see her." (Cf. MW 1899: I044; Speyer 1886;
387)

9.11.3. Alternative sources ofpotential modality

The roots Is "rule" and arh "deserve" occasionally subsume the modal
meaning "can". For 'i.~. this occurs in both the ancient and the recent sections
ofthe Rig-Veda (cf. 1.129.2, 7.1.16, 7.1.17, 10.86.16, and 10.86.17, etc.). An
infinitive complement, however, only appears in four passages (2.28.6,
6.18.11, 7 .4.6, and 8.25 .20). Since IS governs a genitive noun, the genitive
case is also used when the complement is an infinitive. 2.28.6 nahi twid are
nimi.)as canese "Far from you, I have power ('i.~e) not even over winking
(nimi.~as cana)." The form nimi~as can be either the infinitive or the genitive
of an action noun from the root ni-mi!f "wink, shut the eyes". Geldner translates nimi$as as an action noun (Augenblick, I, 312). In the Brahmat}as, a genitive infinitive is also governed by the adjective 'i.vvara- "capable", derived
from the root Is (cf. Speyer 1896: 217).
The root arh "deserve, merit, be worthy of' expresses capability in only
two passages. In 5. 79.10 it indicates a physical ability of the agent: "So much,
14. In Vcdic, an epistemic interpretation requires the addition of some adverbs (like .mtycim or
satyena "really") or emphatic particles (angci, addha. aha, icl, ittha, etc.) that arc occasionally
used as evidentials. However, emphatic particles in the Rig-Vcda only express certainty, and
therefore entail the speaker's commitment. A doubt is rendered by a question, a negation, or a
disjunction among different options. In Classical Sanskrit, in parallel with an in-creasing grammaticalization of evidcntiality, particles of probability arc also employed, such asjiitu or syiit.
The latter means "perhaps", and is the rigidification of the third person singular optative fonn
of the root as "be", originally meaning "it may be". The value of"perhaps" also appears in epics withyadi (cf. 9.2.3).

248

o Dawn, or even more, you can give (datum arhasi). In 4.55. 7 permission is
ex.pressed: "We are not allowed to transgress (nahi ... arhiimasi pramiyam)
the dwelling place of Mitra and Varuqa on the altar of the fire." Geldner
( J951: I, 486) translates "nicht di.irl(m wir ... schmalern". Permission implies
that the enabling condition for an agent to accomplish an action depends at
teast partially on the external world (Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca 1994: 192).
This is more expected for the root arh than for the root sak, since the original
meaning "deserve" of the former suggests a social acknowledgment for an action. Differently, the original meaning "be powerful" of sak only refers to intemal abilities.
Lexemes denoting physical activity, like the Old Indian roots .~ak and "i.v, or
like Latin posse (cf. potens), are crosslinguistically the most common sources
for potential modality. The same holds true for lexemes denoting mental ability, such as Baluchi zcm lit., "know how", which is related to Old Indian jfiii
"know". Moreover, forms of potential modality go back to lexical sources expressing telicity. Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca ( 1994: 187ff.) explain this use
with the semantic change from the idea of having successfully accomplished
an action to the idea of being able to perform that action. Lexemes of telicity
are recruited for potential modality in Classical Sanskrit, where verbs like
p01y-iip "reach, obtain, perform" are used in the sense of"being able", generally in the past participle (9.45). Similarly, Hindi employs the auxiliary panii
lit., "to arrive, reach", beside sak11ii.
(9.45) na ciipi
mama pary-iiptii
:whitii
NEG moreover mc-GEN obtaincd-PP.NOM.M.PL unitcd-NOM.M.PL

sarva-piirthiviih kruddhasya

pra-mukhe sthlitum

all.princc.M-NOM.PL angry-GEN.M.SG beforc.facc stand-IF

"Moreover, all princes united cannot stand before me when I am angry."

(MBh. 5.91.21)
Classical Sanskrit may also express potential modality with adjectives such
as sam-artha-, parii-kriinta-, yukta-, k~ama-. nyiiya-, sadt.fa-, etc. meaning
"apt, appropriate, suitable" (9.46).
'si
mahil!l
jetum
(9.46) samartho
capablc-NOM.M.SG be-JND.PR2SG earth.F-ACC.SG conquer-IF

"You can conquer the earth." (MBh. 2.1 1.1 0)

A further strategy is the adverb a/am, which means "a match for" with a
dative complement or with an infinitive (9.47), and "enough" with an instrumental complement (9.13).
mahlpiiliin
ala111 viirayilll'll baliit
(9.47) aham eko
I-NOM one-NOM.M.SG king.M-ACC.PL match. for keep.back-IF forcibly

"I can keep back the kings forcibly single-handed." (R. 2.23.29)

249

9.11.4. 114odality and passive voice

The semantic shift from deontic to epistemic modality might have started
from those cases where the agent was omitted. This typically occurs with im.
personals and with passives. Foley and Van Valin ( 1984: 213-24) observe that
a difference in scope exists between deontic and epistemic modality. Deontic
modality comprehends only the verbal phrase, which is located at the core of
the clause layered structure. Epistemic modality applies to the entire proposj.
tion and is therefore a peripheral operator. The two scopes overlap when the
clause only consists of an impersonal predicate or of a passive predicate. The
grammatical subject of the passive has the semantic role of the patient, and
hence may be considered a constituent of the verbal phrase.
Moreover, passive is cross-linguistically a typical source for modality of
obligation. "Because obligation is externally imposed, some of the source
constructions for obligation are passive-like in structure; that is, the one who
is obliged is treated like the object or patient of the clause." (By bee, Perk ins,
and Pagliuca 1994: 185) Bybee reports the example of Baluchi, a language
genetically related to Old Indian (8.48).
langar joR kanagi
ynt
(9.48) mana ai
3.s.ACC 3.s.POSS plow: NOM build do: INF: POSS be: 3.s.

"I have to fix his plow." (Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca 1994: 185)
Similar constructions can be recognized in the gerundive, called future
passive participle or participium necessitatis by Western scholars, and labeled
lqtya lit., "to be done" by Indian grammarians. Both in Vedic and in Classical
Sanskrit, the gerundive has several suffixes (-ya-, -tavya-, -aniya- with their
allomorphs) and is very productive. The nominative noun that agrees with the
gerundive denotes the object that undergoes the action, while the instrumental
encodes the role of the agent (9.49). In Vedic, however, the agent is commonly omitted (MacDonelll916: 331).
meyo
'sti
(9.49) mayii asya liingalo
1-INSTR his

plow.M-NOM.SG built-GV.NOM.M.SG be-JND.PR3SG

"I have to build his plow."

The special relation between passive forms and modal meanings of obligation emerges in negative clauses, which are more presuppositional and more
conservative than their positive counterparts. G iv6n (I 979: 121 ff.) shows that
"elaborative" linguistic change, i.e. the tendency to elaborate more complex
and subtle nuances of meaning, takes place in clause-types that carry the bulk
of new information, i.e. in main declarative active clauses with a positive modality. In Old Indian, purposive infinitives can have either an active or a passive voice when their clause does not contain negatiye polarity items. In the

250

prohibitive use, however, they obligatorily have passive voice (7.2), as in

(9.50).
(9.50) Vi$aVan

naitad

attave

poisoned-NOM.N.SG NEG.this-NOM.N.SG eating-IF

"This is poisoned and not be eaten." (10.85.34b)

Passive forms of necessity or obligation such as gerundives probably contributed to the spreading of passive voice in Classical Sanskrit. Unlike Vedic
and other lE languages, Classical Sanskrit is characterized by an extremely
widespread use of the passive, which even supersedes the active voice. This
manifests the steady change toward the ergative system that surfaces in NeoIndian languages. As Speyer (1896: 245) put it, "Die Haufigkeit der Passiva
ist daher ein characteristischer Zug der Sanskritstils."
The third person of a passive indicative is commonly used with an impersonal function: purastiid avagamyata eva lit., "from there on, it is understood"
(avagamyate, IND.PR.PS3SG), i.e. "I can imagine the rest". That impersonals
select passive voice is predictable, since the passive describes an event without taking into account the agent, or alternatively presenting the agent as nontopical with respect to the patient. In Classical Sanskrit, the passive is more
frequent with the imperative mood, especially in the third person, than with
the indicative mood. This is because the imperative mood shares the
semantics of obligation or necessity of passive. A practical handbook suggests:
"Probably the most frequent Sanskrit for "listen!" is sriiyatiim ["let it be
heard"]. Similarly, iisyatiim or upavisyatiim be seated." (Coulson 1976: 170)
Even when the passive is in the imperative mood, the impersonal use is the
most frequently found.
The use of the passive in the imperative mood may have been favored by
two main factors. The first reflects a general tendency in languages: the imperative does not make the subject explicit, like the passive and the impersonal (even though for obvious different reasons: in the imperative, the subject is the hearer, whose mention is superfluous in the speech act). The second
factor is related to the specific situation of Old Indian: a passive form makes
an order less direct, which matches the proverbial politeness of Old Indian
speech. To address someone, a third person singular verb is used together
with a honorific noun such as bhagavat- "blessed" (whose contraction bhavatis the most frequent polite form of address), iirya- "noble", iiyu$mat- "longlived", mahiibhiiga- "greatly fortunate", etc. In comedy, even slaves are addressed with the vocative bhadra Iit.,"O excellent one".

251

9.12. Desiderative predicates

Desiderative predicates have a remarkable semantic and syntactic bindin
with their completive dependent. In sentences such as "I want to go to Rome~
or "I want Mary to go to Rome", the event described in the completive has a
detenninate time reference located in the future with respect to the event of
the main clause, and therefore is necessarily non-factual. The integration is
higher when the main clause and the subordinate clauses have the same subject, as in purposive relations (7.6). In this case, Old Indian resorts to the desiderative derivate conjugation, built by adding the suffixes -sa- or-i~a- to the
reduplicated root (9.51 ).
(9.51) didrk:ianta
u~aso
yamann
aktor
see-DES.IPF3PL dawn.F-GEN.SG coming.N-LOC.SG night.M-ABL.SG

vivasvatya

mahi

citram

anikam

diffusing.light-GEN.F.SG big-ACC.N.SG bright-ACC.N.SG appearance.N-ACC.SG

"At the coming of the Dawn out of the night, they want to see the big and
bright appearance of the one diffusing light." (3.30.13ab)
The desiderative -sa- I -i~a- structure is morphologically marked with respect to the future, which is similarly fonned with a sibilant suffix. From the
root gam "go", we have ji-gam-isa-mi "I want to go" (DES) and gam-isd-mi
''I will go" (FUT). This is an instance of diagrammatic iconicity, whereby the
similarity in form reflects the similarity in meaning. The lexical source of the
desiderative and of the future morphemes is probably the verb i~ "desire, wish,
long for" (sixth class present iccluiti). Typologically, "want" often develops in
a future tense marker (Giv6n 1979: 222). Moreover, the verb i!! "desire" is
etymologically related to i.~ "to cause to move quickly, send out or off, impel,
incite, animate, promote", which fonns the fourth class present i~yati and the
ninth class present i~f!ati. "Die urspriingliche Bedeutung ist sich nach etwas
in Bewegung setzen; daher .vuchen [ ... ], hegehren, zu er/angen suchen,
haben wol/en." (GR 223, s.v. ;~ 2)
Vedic also expresses desiderative relations by means of infinitive
complements, with either same subject (9.52) or different subject (9.53)
between main and dependent predicate.
vatf! v&stiiny
usmasi
gamadhyai
(9.52)

ta

this-ACC.N.PL your house.N-ACC.PL want-IND.PRIPL go-IF

"We want to go to your houses." ( 1.154.6a)

i~taye
(9.53) indram usmasi
lndra-ACC want-IND.PRJPL hasten-IF

"We wish that lndra would hasten." ( 1.129.4a)

In case of different subject, argument coreference is establi~hed between
the object of the main desiderative predicate and the subject of the dependent
252

predicate, which in English determines object raising, as in the sentence "I

want you to go" (cf. Noonan 1985: 121-25). In Vedic, however, this situation
is not grammaticalized (the subject of the completive clause may be encoded
by the accusative, the dative, or the locative case) and is extremely rare.
Diesterheft (1980: 76ff.) counts only 7 instances ofthis in the entire Rig-Veda.
particularly, the subject of the infinitive is inflected in the accusative in
1.129.4 and I 0. 74.6, in the dative in 1.30.12 and 6.4 7.I 0, and in the locative
in 6.11.3. In two further cases (1.91.6; 5.74.3), an enclitic pronoun can be
grammatically either an accusative or a dative. ln these passages, the main desiderative predicate retains its lexical meaning. "Die Bedeutung des
regierenden Verbums noch ziemlich konkret ist, wo man nicht von modalen
Verben im eigentlichen Sinn sprechen kann." (Sgall 1958: 196) Moreover, the
infinitive, which mainly has a dative ending, still behaves as an action noun
with the function of purpose and futurity 15 In Classical Sanskrit, the use of
the infinitive with different subjects between main and dependent predicate
decays, as we have seen in 7.3. lt is, however, significant that in Vedic complementation desiderative predicates represent the main functional domain of
the infinitive, which is originally used to encode purposive relations. An evident semantic link exists between purposive relations in adverbial ization and
desiderative predicates in complementation.
One might compare the accusative coding of the subject of the infinitive,
as in (9.53), with the accusative plus infinitive structure occurrent in Latin and
in Ancient Greek. However, constructions consisting of an accusative object
and an infinitive do not cover the same functional domains in these languages.
In Vedic, the accusative plus infinitive is only found in dependence on verba
voluntatis like is and va.V (cf. Diesterheft 1980: 76ff.), while in Latin and Ancient Greek it also appears with verba dicendi and sentiendi. As we already
mentioned, even with desiderative main predicates, only two cases are recorded in the entire Rig-Veda where the subject of the completive clause is
unambiguously inflected in the accusative case. We have one accusative noun
in 1.129.4, reported in (9.53), and one accusative pronoun in I0. 74.6. Because
15. On the intermediate status ofthe formjfvatum (1.91.6 and 6.47.10) between the categories
ofnoun and of infinitive, cf. Renou (1937: 18). The fonn i$(aye (1.30.12, 1.129.4, and 5.74.3)
is an action noun "off im Sinne des lnfinitivs" in Grassmann (1873: 228). Moreover, i$/dye can
be considered the dative of i$f[- "impulse, hurry, invitation", if it is related to the root i$ "send",
or the dative of i#i- "seeking, wish, request", if it is associated to the root i$ "desire". The former interpretation appears in Diesterheft's translation "hasten, come quickly". The latter is endorsed in Sgall ( 1958: 176), where i$(aye is translated as "zu suchen". While Diesterheft and
Sgall consider i#aye an infinitive, this form is not included among the infinitives of the roots i$
"send" and i$ "desire" in MacDonell (1916: 372) and in Whitney (1885: 9; 11). In the same
vein, neither MacDonell (1916: 384) nor Whitney (1885: 54) mentionsjivdtum among the infinitives ofthe rootjfv "live" (i.e.jfvase, jivitavai, jfvdtave. jfvitum).

253

of these strong co.nstraints. bot~ .in ~requency and in dis~ribution, a proper

strategy of accusative plus mfimttve Is not acknowledged m Indo-Iranian (cf

Hettrich 1992: 223).

The infinitive manifests a lower syntactic integration with its main predj.
cate as compared to the strategy of morphological derivation. This reflects a
semantic property of desideratives, which do not entail control over the
achievement of the completive state of affairs, unlike implicative manipulat.
ive predicates such as "make" or "force". In Giv6n 's binding scale ( 1980:
369), desideratives are placed in a lower position with respect to manipula.
tives. This is because ''the more successful an agent is in manipulating another
agent toward action, the less emotion does he I she have tq exert, since co111
pliance is obviously guaranteed." (p. 337) In Giv6n's scale, not all desiderative predicates are on the same level: "hope", in particular, expresses a weak
emotional involvement of the experiencer, and is placed below the predicate
"want". This distinction, also accepted in Noonan (1985: 121-22), is due to
the fact that the completive of "hope" has an indeterminate time reference (''I
hope that John is going I went I will go to the city"), and therefore presents its
own markers of tense, aspect, and modality. In Old Indian, ii-salfiS "hope'' is
the sole desiderative predicate that licenses a dependent clause introduced by
a conjunction. In addition to the conjunction yadi, which is associated with
irrealis (9.2.3), it presents the particle iti, which characterizes predicates of
utterance, knowledge, and propositional attitude.
yadi miim ramal) punal) sabdiipayed iti
(9.54) iisayii
hope.F-INSTR.SG that me-ACC Rama-NOM again

call-OP3SG

QUOT

"In the hope that Rama may call me again" (R. 2.59.3)
Sentential structures such as (9.54) differ from the strong morpho-syntactic
binding that is typical of desideratives. Apparently, "hope" in Classical Sanskrit exhibits the opposite situation with respect to "promise", which differs
from its proper class of verba dicendi in presenting more nominalized and
more integrated complements (9.3).
The relation "to hope that someone may do something" is not attested in
the Rig-Veda, where ii-SaTfi.S means "praise, announce, wish" (MW 1899:
I 044; BR VII: 4-5; GR 1365-67) and governs substantives such as "cows,
horses" ( 1.29.1) and "goods" ( 10.44.5). However, a prelude to complementation may be seen in the recent passage 10.44.5, where the main clause expresses a wish (gamann asme vasiini "may goods come on us"), and the adjacent subordinate clause, with accented verb, expresses the hope that such a
wish comes true (a hi stif!'lsi~am "for I hope in this"). (1951: III, 199) The particle hi "for" manifests the semantic connection between the two situations,
and represents the overlap between reason and purpose.-

254

9.13. Phasal predicates

Noonan (1985: 129) calls phasals those predicates that denote the phase of
. h", " stop" , et c. These pred"1cates, genan event , l.k
1 e " start", " cont.mue" , "fim1s
erically called "modality verbs" in Giv6n ( 1980: 342), occupy the top position
of his binding scale, together with implicative manipulatives like "make" and
"force". They also occupy the leftmost position in Cristofaro's (2003: 125)
Complement Deranking Hierarchy, together with proper modal predicates like
"can" and "must". In the sentence "Mary finished washing the dishes", the
main predicate and the completive predicate denote the same event, and therefore share the same participants and the same time reference. As a result,
phasal predicates are commonly expressed in languages by means of deranked,
non-sentence-like structures, such as participles in English.
Predictably, Old Indian represents the phase of an event by means of reduced forms, i.e. preverbation in Early Vedic and nominalization in Classical
Sanskrit. In Early Vedic, various preverbs refer to the momentary phase of the
beginning or of the end of an action, while the unprefixed present stem denotes a durative process. This situation independently appears in many lE languages. In Latin, for example, the beginning of an event is indicated by the
preverbs in, ad, and oh (adve~1Jera1 "it becomes evening"). while the end of
an event is indicated by the preverbs ex, de, and ab (dehello "fight a battle out,
fight to the finish"). In addition to the unprcfixed present stem, the preverbs
per, trans, and pro denote a durative (;vent (perduco "lead through"). Cf.
Haverling (2000: 13ff.; 453ff.). Of course, the contribution of preverbs to the
verbal meaning must be considered with caution. Some grammars of the early
lE languages have been written when the concepts of tense, aspect, and actionality were not yet clearly distinguished, and identify imperfective or perfective aspect in features that properly pertain to a telic or atelic actionality.
Moreover, not all lE languages grammaticalize the contrast between prefixed
and unprefixed verbs to the same extent. While the Slavic languages generalize the perfective function of preverbs~ Indo-Iranian, Ancient Greek, and
Classical Armenian more faithfully represent the original stage where preverbs have a spatial or directional meaning (cf. Meillet 1937: 352). When,
however, a preverb specifies the perfective or imperfective value of the predicate, it partakes in the semantics of phasal predicates, which have been treated
as aspectuals in the literature (cf. Newmeyer 1969). In a recent study,
Benedetti (2005) interprets the Ancient Greek verb /ego "cease" as an aspectual auxiliary.

255

9.13.1. Inceptive predicates

In Old Indian, the relation "begin doing something" is mainly expressed by
the preverbs ii and upa, which indicate approach, and by the preverb pra "be.
fore, forward". These preverbs added to a given verb may suffice to express
inception. In 4.41.11 the preverb pra affixed to the root krit/ "play" means
"start playing": "when the hurling weapons in the battles begin to play
(prakrit/iin)". In Classical Sanskrit, these preverbs are commonly added to
various roots denoting contact (yuj "yoke", rabh "take", etc.) or movement (i
"go", kram "walk", gam "go", car "move", dis "direct", ruh "climb", vrt
"turn", etc.), which represent the phasal main predicate, and which govern a
nominalization denoting the dependent state of affairs. Dictionaries report the
meaning of "beginning, undertaking" for the verbs ii-kram (BR 11, 483), ii-car
(MW 131 ), ii-dis (MW 137), ii-rabh (BR VI, 267-68), ii-ruh (BR VI, 412),
upa-i (BR I, 768), upa-kram (BR 11, 486), upa-gam (BR 11, 680), upa-car (BR
11, 960), upa-yuj (MW 204), pra-kram (BR 11, 488), pra-vrt (BR VI, 771 ).
The low grammaticalization of this phasal predicate is indicated not only the
numerous lexical sources, but also by the semantic overlap between the derived meaning "begin" and the original concrete meaning, which is never lost.
For example, the primary sense of pra-vrt is "to be set in motion, set out'', often applied to a carriage. The inceptive value emerges when pra-vrt governs
an infinitive (9.55).
pravavrte
'tra dhiiriisiire11a
var$ilum
(9.55) meghah
cloud.M-NOM.SG bcgin-PF.MID3SG then rain.shower.M-INSTR.SG rain-IF

"Then the cloud began raining with a rain-shower." (Kathasaritsagara)

Some of the lexical sources, such as the basic verb "hold, take" of ii-rabh,
independently appear in other languages, as English undertake, Gemtan
untemehmen, Italian intraprendere, etc. This manifests a common diachronic
path for inceptive predicates. In Sanskrit, an infinitive complement triggers
the inceptive reading of ii-rabh. Pafic. !)"arve mantrayitum iirabdhiill "Everybody began (iirabdhiiii,PP.NOM.M.PL) to deliberate (manlrayitum, IF)".

9.13. 2. Continuative predicates

Continuative phasals may be expressed by the category of intensive, i.e. by
adding the verbal root to a strengthened reduplication and to the suffix -ya-.
E.g. from pac "cook", we have pii-pac-yti-te "he continues to cook" (for the
different formations of intensive reduplication, cf. Whitney 1879: I 0021003). The intensive represents the repetition of an event or, as indicated by

256

its label, a particularly intense performance. The iteration of a given form with
the function of continuation is cross-linguistically attested, e.g. in Tairora (cf.
Noonan 1985: 129). In lE languages, various iterative forms restore the durative function that was originally expressed by the mere present stem. "An important function ofthe form of the present is durativity (imperfectivity, simultaneity with the moment of speaking), implying a developing or progressive
action." (Kurylowicz 1964: 98) Moreover, the preverbs pra, denoting motion
forward, and the preverb anu "after, along, lengthwise" convey the function of
"continuing doing something". The preverb anu may be affixed to the root tan
"extend, spread" (cf. A.Gr. teino, Lat. tendo), which already in the Rig-Veda
presents the metaphorical meaning of"enduring", and which in Classical Sanskrit means "continue" (fortfiihren,fortsetzen BR Ill, 216) when governing an
accusative abstract noun. MBh. 3.12681 dharmam eva anutanvati "Thus continuing the duty." This phasal meaning also appears in pra-vrt, which we have
seen above as one of the structures expressing the beginning of an event.
When denoting continuation, it governs a present participle complement.
(9.56) bhalcyayantah
pravartante
eat-P .PR.NOM.M.PL continue-IND.PR3PL

"They continue eating." (Harivarnsa)

9. 13. 3. Terminative predicates

To convey the relation ''to finish doing something", the preverbs sam
"with, together" and nis "out, forth, away" are commonly used. Sam denotes a
completed action, and is semantically equivalent to the perfective preverbs of
other lE languages such as Latin cum, Lithuanian pa, Gothic ga, Old Irish ro,
etc. For example, given the root pac "cook", the derived sam-pac means
"cook thoroughly, finish cooking" 16 Nis "out" represents the dismissal of an
accomplished action. It is often added to the root vrt "turn" with the resulting
meaning "to be completed, be finished". The past participle nis-vrtta means
"finished". The causative nir-vartayati means "he finishes" and governs an
accusative action noun (BR VI, 767).
Unlike "finishing", the relation of "stopping, ceasing" belongs to the negative implicative phasal predicates, and is commonly encoded by the preverbs
16. The name of the Sanskrit language (saf!l-s-krta), literally "perfect, embellished", from sam
plus the past participle of the root la: "make", is opposed to the name of the subsequent Prakrit
languages (pra-lu:ta), literally "natural, imperfect", from the same participle lu:td preverbed
with pra, which we have seen as a marker of inception and continuance. The past participle
pra-fa;ta also means "begun, commenced".

257

vi, denoting separation, and ni, which expresses the action of putting something down. These preverbs may be affixed to the root vrt "turn" (9.57). The
complement is an ablative abstract noun denoting the action that has been interrupted or given up.
mrdutviic
ea nivartate
(9.57) anukro~iin
compassion.M-ABL tenderness.N-ABL and desist-IND.PR3SG

"And he desists from compassion and tenderness." (R. 3.69.2)

The ablative noun may also depend on the root ram "calm, set at rest"
Katj. Sr. vriitya-bhiiviid vi-rameyuh "May they cease (vi-rameyuh, OP3PL of
vi-ram) being mendicants (vriitya-bhiiviid, ABL of the compound vriityabhiiva- "condition of the mendicant"). Kumar. yogiid upa-rariima "He has
stopped practicing". The root sam "rest, be quiet" means "stop" when accompanied by various preverbs such as anu, abhi, upa,pra, etc. (cf. BR VII, 73).
These structures may represent the notion of stopping in non-declarative
clauses. MBh. 2.53.12 devaniid vi-ni-vartasva "Desist from playing" lit., "turn
away (vi-ni-vartasva, IPV2SG) from playing" (devaniid, ABL of the neuter
abstract noun devana- "play"). In prohibitive sentences, however, the meaning
"stop doing something" is mainly expressed by the invariable forms alam or
/q'tam plus an instrumental action noun denoting the interrupted event. Krtam
is the rigidified past passive participle of the root /q' (NOM. I ACC.N.SG).
Alam is the classical variant of aram "properly, enough", from the root!' "go,
move (according to the rule)", from which the noun rtd- "cosmic order" is derived. In the Rig-Veda, dram governs a dative case and means "apt, capable".
2.17.6 sasmii dram biihUbhyiim "she (se. the Earth) is apt for his arms". The
form a/am appears in the Brahmal}as (cf. MacDonell 1916: 215-16), but only
in Classical Sanskrit its component of telicity is used in modal and phasal
contexts. E.g. alam sokena "stop grieving" lit., "enough of grief', from soka"grief, sorrow"; /q'tam kutuhalena "stop making curious questions" lit., "done
with curiosity".
Beside the different preverbs that indicate the position or the direction of
the subject in performing an action, the root vrt is a privileged structure for
the function of phasal predicates. We have seen that vrt, added to various preverbs, is the sole form that is capable ofrepresenting all relations of beginning
(9.55), continuing (9.56), finishing, and stopping (9.57). The root vrt (first
class middle present vartate) is etymologically related to Lat. verto, Goth.
wairthan, Germ. werden, and Engl. -ward. Originally, this-root denotes a rolling movement, which is applied to chariots, wheels, rocks, dice, etc. in the
Rig-Veda (cf. GR 1330). In Classical Sanskrit, it denotes the passing of time.
The question "what time is it?" corresponds to the Sanskrit clause kii velii var258

tate? lit., "what time is turning?" We have already observed (4.5.3) that time
is conceived as a cycle of continuously revolving stages in the Indian culture.
This makes V[l a pertinent source for the metaphorical conduit from space to
time, on which the various phasal relations are based.

9.14. Manipulative predicates

9.14.1. Implicative manipulatives: "make"

Manipulative predicates express the function "to make someone do something", and are mainly represented in languages by causative constructions. A
causative construction is considered a subordinating completive relation in
Noonan (1985: 125-27) and in Cristofaro (2003: I 04- I05) as far as it results
from the fusion of a matrix predicate and of an embedded predicate. The matrix predication consists of the causer and of the predicate CAUSE, while the
embedded predication consists of the causee and of a verbal phrase (cf. Kulikov 200 I: 889). In the sentence "John made Mary sing", the matrix predication is "John CAUSED", and the :mbedded predication is "Mary sang". In
this case, John is the causer, and Mary is the causee. A causative relation entails coreference between the object of the manipulative predicate and the subject of the dependent state of affairs. The manipulative predicate determines a
future time reference for the completive state of affairs. Manipulatives are
placed at the very top ofGiv6n's scale of semantic binding (1980: 334ff.), especially when they are implicative ("make", "force", "oblige"), i.e. when they
presuppose the success of manipulation and the veracity of the situation described in the completive: "John made Mary run"::::::> "Mary ran".
Such properties favor a formal integration between the causative predicate
and the dependent predicate. This is particularly evident in Old Indian, where
causatives are obtained with a morphological strategy, by adding the suffixaya- to the "strengthened" verbal root 17 Whereas in Latin and in Ancient

17. The radical strengthening produces a long syllable. Accordingly, the full apophonic grade
(gw.ta) appears with roots ending in a consonant: from d~.~ "sec", we have clarsuyati "he shows".
Ry contrast, when a root ends in a short vowel or contains a medial a, the gm1u grade would
give rise to a short syllable. In this case, the lengthened grade (w;ddlti) is used. We have
ltarayali "he makes somebody take" from lt~ "take, bring", and piicayati "he makes somebody
cook" from pac "cook". In some verbs such as hiirayati, the v~ddhi grade is phonetically motivated by Bmgmann's law, whereby PIE *obecomes a in Jndo-lranian when placed in an open
syllable before a liquid or a nasal consonant. Other verbs such as piicayati have an analogical
lengthening.

259

Greek the lE causative fonn, characterized by the radical vowel *-o-, only
remains in sporadic lexicalizations (Lat. moneo vs. memini, A.Gr. phoreo vs.
phero), in Old Indian the causative is grammaticalized. It may be built frorn
any verbal root, and has its own position in the verbal paradigm with thecategorial name of prerafjiirthaka lit., "having the meaning (arlhaka) of setting in
motion (prerafja, from the root pra-ir)" 18 Old Indian causatives are implicative. To express the various nuances of manipulation, manner adverbs may be
recruited (e.g. a causative accompanied by baliit or balena "with strength"
renders the notion of forcing).
Syntactically, the causee is demoted to the position of the direct object,
which may be already filled if the verbal root is transitive. In this case, the eooccurrence of two accusative nouns in principle obscures their different semantic roles. Accordingly, that the causee occupies the direct object position
is typologically rare (Comrie 1981: 8). In practice, however, ambiguity
rarely occurs. V edic causatives mainly derive from intransitive verbs, such as
rocayati "enlighten" from rocate "shine" (Jamison 1983: 160fT.). As a result,
the causative construction contains only the causee as a direct object. This
situation is cross-linguistically common: if a causative formation is constrained in a language, it is limited to intransitive verbs, and particularly to inactive intransitive verbs (inaccusative), whose participant is patient-like. This
is because the agent slot is open in the argument structure of inactive intransitive verbs, and the new agent introduced by causativization requires minor
formal adjustments (Shibatani 200 I). If the basic verb is transitive and the patient is expressed, languages often leave the causee implicit. This, for example,
occurs in Hittite. Luraghi (1992) observes that the Hittite causative suffix -nueither is added to intransitive roots or, in case the basic verb is transitive, does
not express the secondary agent, which is always meant as generic. In the
clause "I make (somebody) build a statue", the identity of the person who
builds the statue is not important. In this way, no ambiguity arises. In Vedic,
even in the rare case the causative derives from a transitive verb and the
causee presents the same grammatical case as another object (cf. Gaedicke
1880: 272-73), the lexical meaning of the two nouns allows the disambiguation of their semantic roles, since only the causee has an animate referent.
Moreover, the causee is commonly placed before the other accusative noun,
according to the typologically widespread tendency to front topicalized constituents (cf. Giv6n 2001: 11, 16). In (9.58) the causee deva: "god" is empha18. Vedic also presents some nasal presents with a causative meaning (Kulikov 1995), which
however are marginally employed with this function as compared to the --Qya- formation. For
the functional competition between causatives in --dya- and causative with nasal infix, see
Lazzeroni (2002b; 2004). For the various causative constructions in the modem languages of
India, cf. Masica (1976: 40-107).

260

sized by the redundant use of the participle mat- "willing" that is also used for
the causer. By contrast, the other accusative noun havis- "libation" does not
present any modifi~r or specifier, and is relegated in post-verbal position.
u.~atcil}
piiyayii
haviiJ
(9.58) usim deviin
c:ager-VOC.M.SG god.M-ACC.PL cagcr-ACC.M.PL drink-CS.IPV2SG libation.N-ACC.SG

..0 Eager one, make the eager gods drink the libation." (2.37.6d)
Beside the unmarked morphological strategy, the Rig-Veda exhibits thirtyodd instances of syntactic causatives, consisting of a verbal form built on the
roots kr "make" or dhii "place" plus a dative infinitive (9.59).
(9.59) tvcim
indra
srcivitava apirs
kaiJ
you-VOC.SG Indra-VOC flow-IF

watcr.F-ACC.PL make-INJ.AOR2SG

"You, 0 Indra, made the water flow." (7.21.3a)

This infinitive is commonly built on an intransitive root (Diesterheft 1980:
80), which is consistent with the derivation of morphological causatives from
intransitive verbs. According to Diesterheft (p. 78), the morphological and the
syntactic causatives are functionally equivalent in Vedic. However, the analysis of the contexts in which these two strategies occur reveals that they do not
have the same implications. The syntactic strategy does not entail that causation is simultaneous with the dependent state of affairs, while in the morphological strategy the two predications always denote the very same event. This
is particularly evident when causatives structures are passivized (9.60).
nv asvma
huve [... ]
grbhe lq;tfi
(9.60) tya
that-ACC.M.DU now Asvin-ACC.DU invoke-IND.PR I SG seize-IF made-PP.ACC.M.DU

"Now I call those Asvins, made to be seized." (8.10.3ab)

The reading of the sentence in (9 .60) is that the Asvins have been made in
the past in order to be seized in future times. We have seen in 7 that the infinitive represents a future and volitional event. Cf. Geldner's translation of
the passage: "Jene [ ... ] Asvins rufe ich, die zum Festhalten geschaffen sind."
(1951: 11, 306) By contrast, if a passive causative participle such as
ghrbhayitci is used, the interpretation is that someone made the Asvins be
seized, with a unitary action 19 That a spatio-temporal interval in the causation
event is disallowed with the morphological causative (9.58) and allowed with
the syntactic causative (9.60) suggests the association between morphological
causative and direct causation on the one hand, and between syntactic causa19. The Rig-Veda only records the active causative participle gr;bhayat (1.148.3), while the
passive participle ghr;bhayita, and the category of passive causative participle in general, is
more recent. This is because the passive implies a basic transitive verb, which is quite uncommon for causatives. However, the semantic value of a morphological causative is regular: given
a verbal stem X, the meaning of the passive causative participle is consistently "that has been
made X", so that the value of gr;bhayita can be easily reconstructed even though it is not found
in our corpus.

261

tive and indirect causation on the other (for details on direct and indirect
ld'~usation, cf. Shibatani 2001: llff.). We argue that the Vedic structure kr

rtQ +
infinitive cannot be considered in the same way as bona fide syntactic cat
tives such as English make+ infinitive or German /assen + infinitive, wl~:a
the causative verb has the function of an auxiliary and cannot have a direr~
object on its own. In Vedic, the direct object depends on the main causati:
verb "make" or "place", which can maintain its full lexical meaning, while th:
infinitive m~st be considered originally an adjunct with a purposive function.
Consider Grassmann's (1873: 333) rendition of the periphrasis with /o
'jemanden [A.] einem Zustande u.s.w. [D.] prei.Ygeben, auch im guten Sinn~;
ihm [A.] dazu [D.] verhelfen." In this perspective. the Vedic structure lq! dha
+ IF belongs to those constructions that refer to causative states of affairs but
do not represent a conceptual unit, such as English cause+ infinitive or German zwingen + infinitive. The latter are regarded as biclausal constructions
and are not comprehended in causatives stricto sensu, in opposition to syntactic causatives such as make + infinitive, which are tantamount to a single
clause and are semantically equivalent to morphological causatives (Dixon
2000: 34-37; Kulikov 2001: 886ff.).

9.14.2. Non-implicative manipulatives: "order"

Non-implicative manipulatives such as "order" or "suggest" semantically
present a lower binding. In Old Indiat11, these predicates are not built with the
morphological causative, but rather with the looser syntactic construction of a
verb plus an action noun. The verb ii-jiiiipayati, which originally is the causative of ii-jiiii "recognize", in Classical Sanskrit means "order" and governs a
locative abstract noun. R. 6.41.9 iijiiiipayad riimo viinariin dvisatiif!l vadhe
"Rama ordered the monkeys to kill the enemies" lit., "Rama ordered the monkeys (viinariin, ACC) the killing (vadhe, LOC) of the enemies (dvi.yatiim,
GEN)". The verbal phrase headed by ii-jiiiipayati represents the causee as an
accusative noun, like the morphological causative ghiit-aya-ti "let kill".
Unlike morphological causative, however, the direct object of the embedded
predicate "kill" is inflected in the genitive case, which is usual in nominalizations. The nominal coding of the dependent state of affairs is particularly evident when a compound is used. Jn (9.61) the verbal noun is derived from the
prefixed root pra-luhh "allure, seduce". Like many verba qffectum, this verb
is associated with the locative case (4.6.3).

262

(9.6 I) iijniipayad

so

'psarasas

order-IND.IPF3SG he-NOM Apsaras-ACC.PL

tva~tr-putra-pralobhane
Tv~tpon.seduction.N-LOC.SG

"He ordered the Apsaras to seduce Tva~tr'son." (MBh. 5.9.9)

9.14.3. Negative implicative manipulatives: "impede"

Nominalizations are also used for negative implicative predicates such as
"impede" or "prevent", which entail the non-occurrence of the dependent state
of affairs: "John prevented Mary from working" ::::> "Mary didn't work". In
Givon 's ( 1980) binding scale, negative implicatives occupy the position of
highest semantic integration, together with positive implicatives such as
"make", "force" or "oblige". This is because both classes of predicates presuppose the control of the agent of the main situation over the dependent
situation, unlike non-implicative manipulatives such as "order", "ask", "suggest", "forbid", etc. Nevertheless, in Old Indian the compact morphological
strategy of derivation is limited to the unmarked case of positive implicative
predicates. The negative implication of "prevent" or "impede" is represented
by the root prati-sidh (consisting of sidh "succeed" and of the preverb prati
"against") with an ablative action noun. The passage in (9.62) displays the
customary use of passive pro active. The literal translation is "By the maternal
grandfather he was prevented from seizing (her)."
(9.62) miitiimahena
pratisidhyamiinah
svayalfl grahiit
maternal.grandl'ilthcr.M-INSTR.SG prevent-P.PR.PS.NOM.M.SG himselfseizing.M-ABL

"The maternal grandfather prevented him from seizing her". (Mahav. 1.1 0)
In the Rig-Veda, the subordinating relation "impeding someone from doing something" is not yet attested. The root sidh (first class present .w!dhati)
retains its lexical meaning "keep at a distance, cast away". Its object refers to
a concrete undesirable entity such as enemies (dasyiin 5.31.7, dvi$a}f 8.79.9,
.Muun 6.47.29, sridha}f 8.18.10, 8.79.9, 9.71.8, 10.25.7), malignant entities
(rak~asvina}f 8.60.20), dark creatures (lq~tldh ... ja}f 6.4 7.21 ), sorcerers
(yiitudhaniin 1.35.10), wolf (vikam 1.105.11), hostility (dvesa}f 1.34.11,
1.157.4), harm (ralcyiin.1si 1.79.12, 7.15.10, 8.23.13, 9.110.12, 10.36.4,
10.98,12), evil thought (durmatim 8.018.1 0, 10.175.2), sickness (amivii/7
8.35.16-17, 8.18.10, 10.98.12, 10.100.8), indigence (amatim 10.76.4), nonliberality (ari'iti}f 6.44.9), hunger (lcyudham 8.60.20), impervious places (durgahiif}i 9.11 0.12), obstacles (duritli 9.82.2), lightning and thunder (vidyzit ...
tanyatu}f 1.32.13). The sentence "they impede that the wolf crosses the street"
is expressed in 1.105.11 as "they cast away (sedhanti) the wolf (vt:kam, ACC)

263

while crossing the street (pathO tarantam, where tarantam is the accusativ
e
present participle of the root tf "cross over").
A similar usage exists for the root yu "separate, drive away, ward off'
(third class present yuyoti), which governs an ablative complement expressing
detachment. In (9.63) the imperative yuyota governs the abla~ive infinitive
gantoJ,, from t~e root gam "go", which in turn governs the abstract accusative
noun anapatyiini "childlessness".
(9.63) yuyota
no
anapatyani
gantoh
keep.away-IPV2PL us-ACC childlessness.N-ACC.PL go-IF

"Impede that we may proceed without children." (3 .54. 18)

The selection of the ablative for the infinitive, among the various available
endings, indicates that this category has the distribution of a noun and is
transparent to syntactic relations in the Rig-Veda. Scholars do not agree in
assigning the infinitive function to the suffix -to}f. According to Diesterheft,
the passage quoted in (9.63) does not have an equi-deleted subject with
respect to the main clause. This is typical for nouns rather than for infinitives.
The sentence that Geldner translated with "bewahret uns davor, in
Kinderlosigkeit zu geraten" (1951: I, 399), is literally "separate us from going
toward childlessness".
In Classical Sanskrit, other verbal roots mean "impede", such as rudh or vr
(preferably in the causative stem varayalt). In the Rig-Veda, these roots
maintain their lexical meaning "obstmct, check, arrest, stop, restrain, prevent,
keep back, withhold, ward off, hinder" (MW 1899: 884 s.v. rudli; 1007, s.v.
vr; cf. also GR 1175-76; 1319-23).
(9.64) nahi .ymii te satcilfl cana radho
varanta
NEG PTC your hundred PTC generosity.N-ACC.SG impede-IND.PR3PL

iimurah

na cyautnani

kafi~yatah

enemy.M-NOM.PL NEG dccd.N-ACC.PL makc-P.PR.GEN.M.SG

"Not even a hundred enemies impede your generosity, (they) do not

(impede) that you may accomplish your deeds." (4.31.9)
In (9.64) the present varante ''they impede", modified by a negation,
governs the two complements rddhas- "gift" and cyautn&ni kari~yataft. The
latter phrase consists of a noun and of the genitive of a future participle from
the root kf "make". The completive relation literally means "not even a
hundred enemies keep away the deeds ofyours, who will make (them)".

9.15. Morpho-syntactic binding of complementation in Old Indian

In Old Indian, complement relations grammaticalize later than relative and
adverbial relations. Some complement taking predicates (pretence, negative
264

propositional attitude such as "doubt", negative achievement such as "avoid",

and negative implicative manipulative such as "impede") do not have a proper
structure in Early Vedic. Other complement taking predicates (utterance,
knowledge, and positive propositional attitude such as "think") have a varied
range of structures in the Rig-Veda, with different degrees of syntactic integration between the main predicate and the dependent predicate, and with different degrees of similarity with respect to main, affirmative, positive, and declarative clauses.
Asyndetic coordination, i.e. juxtaposition, is the less deranked structure
that is used for complementation. This is a discourse pragmatic strategy, in
which the type of relation established between the structures denoting the
main and the dependent states of affairs is implicit and must be inferred from
the context. Juxtaposition is used for predicates of utterance (9.14), knowledge (9.23), and positive propositional attitude (9.30).
A slightly higher integration appears in syndetic coordination marked by
the particle iti. Both asyndetic and syndetic coordination represent balanced
structures, where the verbs referring to the main and to the dependent state of
affairs maintain the same markers of tense and mood, and the same coding of
participants. However, in syndetic coordination a particle is specialized for
clause linkage, and therefore manifests a higher level of syntacticization. The
particle iti, which is originally a deictic adverb, gradually subsumes the function of a quotative marker. Its functional domain in the Rig-Veda covers primarily utterance predicates (9.15)-(9.16), and secondarily propositional attitude predicates (9.31 ). Later, it extends to predicates of knowledge (9.25), fear
(9.37), and pretence (9.39).
Hypotaxis, i.e. finite subordination marked by a complementizer, presents
a higher clause linkage between main and dependent predicate as compared to
coordination. In Vedic, coordinate clauses do not exhibit verbal accentuation,
which implies that they represent independent intonational units. By contrast,
the obligatory verbal accentuation of a subordinate clause, which usually precedes its main clauses, indicates that the sentence is incomplete, and that main
clause and subordinate clause are included under the same intonational contour. In the domain of complementation, finite subordination is mainly used
for commentative predicates such as "be strange" or "be happy", earlier in adjoined (9.11) and later in embedded constructions (9.34). It is also used for
predicate of utterance (9.3) and of knowledge (9.4)-(9.6)-(9.24). After the
Rig-Veda, hypotaxis extends to predicates of propositional attitude. These
subordinates are postposed to their main clause. This does not impinge upon
the association between verbal accentuation and preposed order, but rather
hints at the relatively recent spread of hypotaxis in completive relations. Verbal accentuation was originally motivated by the preposed position of a sub265

ordinate, and in particular by the preposed position of relative, temporal, conditional, and causal clauses, which in the Rig-Veda are the most typical hypo.
tactic constructions. With time, verbal accentuation analogically extends t
other subordinate relations characterized by a different word order, such ~
explicative clauses in complementation. Similarly, in the adverbial domain
purposive clauses are iconically postposed to their main clause. This is be:
cause they preempt hypotactic structures only at a late stage with respect to
the early use of infinitives.
While juxtaposition, syndetic coordination, and adjoined hypotaxis build
balanced structures, nominalizations (i.e. participles, action nouns, and infinitives) represent deranked constructions. Nominalizations lack markers of
tense, mood, or voice that regularly appear in a finite verb, and encode the
subject in different ways with respect to the main, affirmative, declarative
clause. The su~ject of a participle is deleted under coreference with the main
clause subject. The subject of an infinitive is deleted, when coreferent with a
main clause NP, or is inflected in the dative case, when the main clause does
not contain a controller (7.4). The object of an infinitive may be inflected in
the accusative, genitive, or dative.
Participles consistently depend on predicates of immediate perception
(9.42). Moreover, they marginally encode the complements of predicates of
knowledge (9.19), propositional attitude (9.26)-(9.27)-(9.28), and fear (9.35).
In Classical Sanskrit, they encode the complements of continuative phasals
(9.56). Apparently, the diffusion of participles starts from complement taking
predicates indicating physical and mental sensitiveness.
Action nouns are used with almost all complement taking predicates, albeit
to a different extent. They represent the main device for achievement predicates (9.40), which require complements inflected in different grammatical
cases. E.g. "I try to do" is expressed as "I strive for the action", with a dative
complement. "I dare to do" is "I am bold over the action", with an accusative
complement. "I avoid doing" is "I drive away from the action", with an ablative complement. Moreover, action nouns or infinitives are used, together
with alternative resources, for phasals such as "begin" or "stop" (9.55)-(9.57),
modals such as "can" (9.43), desideratives (9.52)-(9.53), positive nonimplicative manipulatives such as "order" (9.6 I), negative implicative manipulatives such as '"impede" (9.62)-(9.63)-(9.64). Nominalizations are also
marginally used for predicates of utterance, particularly for the predicate
"promise" (9.18), and for predicates of knowledge (9.21) and propositional
attitude (9.29). Thus, nominalization is the unmarked strategy for completive
relations in Old Indian, since it occurs in the highest amount of contexts. This
is because most completive relations imply just one event structure, where
main and dependent states of affairs share the same time reference and the
266

same participants. This situation is easily expressed by means of mono-clausal

structures.
Both inflectional and derivational processes build highly deranked structures, where the inflectional or derivational morphemes represent the main
state of affairs, and the bare verbal stem represents the dependent state of affairs. These structures are used for those predicates that have a higher semantic integration with their complements, in terms of argument coreference and
time predetermination. The verbal stem is closer to derivational morphemes
than to inflectional morphemes, and therefore the former are more integrated
than the latter (cf. Bybee 1985: 24). Derivation is regularly used for positive
implicative manipulatives such as "make" or "force" (9.58). We have seen
that periphrastic constructions with the verb "make" (kr) or "place" (dhii) do
not represent bona fide causative relations, but rather express indirect causation (9.59)-(9.60). Derivation is also used for desideratives with equi-subject
(9.51 ), although these predicates may also show infinitive complements.
While for positive implicative manipulatives and for equi-subject desideratives suffixation is regular and productive, for phasal predicates such as "begin" or "finish" prefixation is lexicalized, and in Classical Sanskrit it often eooccurs with an aspectual predicate that expresses inception, continuation, and
completion and that governs a nominalization. Thus, phasals are morphosyntactically more complex than manipulatives and desideratives, and manifest a lower syntactic integration between main and dependent predicate. Inflection is the main device for modal relations of potentiality and obligation,
which in Vedic are commonly expressed with the subjunctive or the optative
mood.
A given structure is used for different completive relations, and conversely
a given completive relation is expressed by means of different constructions.
Thus, it is difficult to order the different relations in terms of morphosyntactic integration with respect to each other, and to assign them a fixed position on a hierarchy that measures the degree of deranking with respect to the
main declarative affirmative clause. The positions of Old Indian completive
relations in the hierarchy in (9.65) reflect the type of strategy that they more
frequently encode. For example, participles are available for immediate perception predicates as well as for predicates of knowledge. However, while
they represent the typical strategy for immediate perception, they are marginal
for predicates of knowledge, which more often resort to finite subordination
and juxtaposition. Since participles are more deranked than subordinate or
juxtaposed clauses, immediate perception predicates occupy a higher position
on the hierarchy than predicates of knowledge.

267

(9.65) Manipulatives > Desideratives > Phasals > Modals > Immediate
perception> Achievement> Fear> Pretence> Commentatives > Utterance 1
Propositions! attitude I Knowledge
The hierarchy in (9.65) is consistent with Cristofaro's (2003: 125ff.) Complement Deranking Hierarchy, which has been introduced in (9.2). According
to Cristofaro, modals, phasals, desideratives, manipulatives, and immediate
perception predicates involve syntactic integration with the complement
clause, while knowledge, propositional attitude, and utterance predicates are
not syntactically integrated. Moreover, Cristofaro predicts the uniform behavior of predicates of utterance, knowledge, and propositional attitude with respect to distinction in tense, aspect, modality of their verbal complement. and
with respect to distinctions in case, number, and person of the complement
subject. In Old Indian too, predicates of utterance, knowledge, and propositions! attitude show the same distribution.
The hierarchy in (9.65) differs from Cristofaro's hierarchy in (9.2) in the
number of relations analyzed. Cristofaro (2003) does not take into account
predicates of fear, pretence, comment, and achievement, which are included
among the complement taking predicates in Noonan ( 1985). These predicates
are neglected in most reference grammars, and therefore cannot be profitably
compared in a typological study that is based on a large language sample, as
in the case of Cristofaro's inquiry. These predicates may only be examined in
a study that discusses the data of a limited number of languages, as Noonan
( 1985), or in a research devoted to a single language, as the present one.
Moreover, the hierarchy in (9.65) differs from the Complement Deranking
Hierarchy in (9.2) in the relative position of some integrated relations. The
Complement Deranking Hierarchy assesses that modals and phasals occupy
the leftmost position, and are more integrated and more deranked complements than desideratives and manipulatives. On the contrary, in Old Indian
manipulative predicates and desidcrative predicates are more integrated than
modal predicates, since the fonner use derivation, and particularly suffixation,
and the latter use inflection: inflectional endings are external with respect to
suffixes. Manipulatives rank higher than desideratives, which may resort to
nominalization even in case of same subject between the main and the dependent predicate. Derivation may also be used for phasals. However, since
derivation for these predicates is not as grammaticalized as for manipulatives
and desideratives, and is often reinforced by aspectual auxiliaries, phasals are
lower on the hierarchy in (9.65) than manipulatives and desideratives. They
are higher than modals, which resort to inflection and optionally to nominalizations.
The relative position of the integrated completive relations on the hierarchy in (9.65) matches the relevance of morphological categories with respect
268

to the verb stem, as stated in Bybee (1985). Accordingly, a given morphological category is more or less relevant to the verb according to whether it more
or less affects the predicative content. The more a given category is relevant
to the verb, the closer it appears with respect to the verb stem. Valence and
aspect affect the meaning of the verb, rather than the meaning of the participants or of the clause as a whole. As a result, both categories are encoded by
means of derivational processes. In particular, valence exerts a dramatic influence on the verbal meaning, since it changes the number and the semantic role
of the participants. The causative is a typical valence-changing category. Aspect operates a less significant semantic change, which only concerns the
view of the event as either bound (perfective) or unbound (imperfective). The
function of aspect in verbal morphology corresponds to the function of phasal
predicates in subordination. Mood, which expresses the attitude of the speaker
over the propositional content, does not affect the verbal meaning, and takes
the whole clause in its scope. Accordingly, mood is less relevant to the verb
than valence and aspect, and is inflectionally encoded in languages such as
Vedic. In the same vein, in Foley and Van Valin (1984: 208ff.), aspect is a
nuclear operator, i.e. it has only the verb in its scope without regard to its participants, while (deontic) modality is a core operator, which characterizes the
relationship between the event and the participants. Epistemic modality,
which is called "status" in Foley and Van Valin, is a peripheral operator. Thus,
the relative ranking of manipulatives, phasals, and modals is consistent with
the layered structures of the clause and with the relevance that different morphological categories have with respect to the verb.
Despite their structural variety, juxtaposition, coordination marked by a
particle, finite subordination, nominalization, inflection, and derivation represent a coherent path of grammaticalization from discourse to syntax, and from
syntax to morphology, as illustrated in Giv6n (1979: 209). With time, complementation dispenses with juxtaposition on behalf of explicit strategies of
clause linkage. This progressive change from covert to overt nexus is predicted in Bossong (1979). Moreover, in Old Indian, nominalizations increase
in frequency and generality of meaning. Originally, an action noun expressing
a completive relation may be inflected in different grammatical cases according to the lexical meaning of the main predicate. For example, verbs of fearing govern an ablative complement, as the ablative denotes a situation that the
subject wants to keep at a distance. "Aren't you afraid to commit a sin?" is
ki111 na bibhe~i piipiil (MBh. 2.7.3) lit., "aren't you afraid from the sin?" (piipiit, ABL) "They do not fear to die" is na mrtyor udvijanti (R. 6.27.13) lit.,
"they do not fear from death". In the latter example, however, the form
mrtyoli may be grammatically either an ablative or a genitive. Similar cases of
syncretism may have brought about the generalization of the genitive, which
269

is semantically unmotivated with predicates of tearing, over the ablative. Th

genitive steadily encroaches on the domain of most completive relations. Thi~
is probably because the genitive in Old Indian is the unmarked case as to the
number of functions it may convey in simple clauses, as we have seen in 3.3.
Predictably, the oblique case of Middle-lndian languages relies on an ancient
genitive (cf. Bloch 1934: 172).
The syntactic strategies of subordination in Old Indian allow to observe the
competition between the opposed motivations of economy and of iconicity.
Originally, subordinating conjunctions have different functions, still apparent
from their etymology, to the extent that they are built on different cases of the
relative pronoun. Subsequently, the original meaning of clause linkers becomes opaque, and a reduced pool of conjunctions appears appropriate in a
large number of contexts. Classical Sanskrit shows few cases of functional
opposition (one is the choice of the complementizers yad and yadi according
to the speaker's commitment, 9.2.3). Conjunctions derived from the relative
stem acquire a generic distribution, and may introduce all adverbial clauses
and a number of completive relations. The spread of the subordinator yad
manifests the economic tendency to eliminate phenomena of redundancy.
Nevertheless, in complementation, hypotaxis only involves those relations
that are less integrated with the main predicate, which is a clear manifestation
of diagrammatic iconicity. Thus, Old Indian syntax supports the principle according to which "the strongest the semantic bond is between the two events,
the more intimately is the syntactic integration of the two propositions into a
single clause" (Giv6n 1990: 516). This principle also appears in Old Indian
grammatical studies, where syntactic structures are arranged according to
saf!lnidhi lit., "closeness" (from the prefixed root sa'fl-ni-dhii "put down together"), also called iisatti lit., "proximity" (from a-sad "sit near") .. These
terms indicate the condition of words or clauses that are close in meaning and
therefore must be proportionally close in fonn.

270

10. Conclusions

10.1. Prospect
In the present study we analyzed the strategies of subordination in the RigVeda, the earliest Vedic text. This topic has traditionally been discussed tiom
a structural perspective, starting from a form (e.g. the subordinator ycid) and
describing the possible functions ofthis form (e.g. temporal, conditional, etc.).
Differently, we followed an approach from function to form, whereby a given
semantic relation was identified and a number of structures expressing it were
illustrated. The analyzed structures are not limited to hypotaxis stricto sensu,
but also comprehend nominalizations, as well as clause linkage marked by
bound particles, free particles, and prosodic means.
We discussed three main topics:

the structural and functional properties of the relative clause, which

bring about a larger automorphism of subordinators with adverbial relations
than with completive relations (10.2.1);

the syncretism of adverbial subordinators, to assess whether the

polysemy of conjunctions, and particularly of the universal subordinator yad,
follows a cognitive path that is documented in texts( 10.2.2);

the defectiveness of subordination, i.e. the use of alternative strategies

for relations that both typologically and in the lE domain are represented by
completive clauses (10.2.3).
Our findings suggest that subordination cannot be defined by means of
formal criteria. Constructions traditionally considered subordinates in the
Vedic grammatical tradition exhibit syntactic properties similar to coordinate
types of clause linkage. This is consistent with various analyses of subordination in the functional research tradition, where subordination is considered a
continuum of non-necessarily related morpho-syntactic phenomena( 10.3).

271

10.2. Summary of the study

10. 2.1. Structural and functional properties ofrelative clauses
The Vedic relative clause is a finite subordinate marked by verbal acce _
tuation and by the relative pronoun ya-, which is adjoined to the main clau~
in the form of the correlative diptych (2.4, 3.1 ). The structure of the relativ:
clause independently develops towards adverbial and completive clauses. The
completive relations expressed by hypotaxis (traditionally called "explicative"
clauses) represent only a minority of the completive relations that are crosslinguistically attested. By contrast, hypotactic adverbial clauses .are well represented since the earliest Vedic records. We identified the syntactic and semantic properties ofVedic relative clauses that are more compatible with adverbial than with completive clauses.
From a syntactic point of view, a loose linkage exists between the relative
clause and the main clause. The correlative diptych is a balanced structure,
since the verb of the subordinate is inflected in the same categories as the
main clause verb, and the arguments of the subordinate are encoded by the
same grammatical case as the main clause arguments. In the correlative diptych, the relative clause occupies a peripheral (mostly preposed) position with
respect to the main clause, which therefore is not discontinuous. Since the insertion in another clause is typologically allowed in subordinate clauses ("'The
tree, after the storm began, fell") and disallowed in coordinate clauses
(**"The storm, and the tree fell, began"), Vedic correlative diptych resembles
more paratactic than embedded structures. Moreover, the head noun commonly appears in the relative clause, so that its referent can also be identified
independently of the main clause. To the extent that dependency relations imply that the subordinate receives the information necessary to its interpretation
from the main clause, Vedic relative clauses are less dependent than prototypical head-external subordinate clauses. In Vedic, an anaphoric pronoun or
adverb resumes the head noun inside the main clause, which has the function
of an after-thought about the information of the relative clause (3.1 ). The basic structure ofthe adjoined relative clause shows the same explicit anaphoric
properties as independent clauses: e.g. "The flames of the Jatavedas that carry
oblations among the gods, with these may he promote our sacrifice". Explicit
anaphora is typologically associated with a high syntactic accessibility of the
relative pronoun. In Vedic, the standard of comparison is the only function
that cannot be relativized. The positions of the genitive and of the instrumental adjunct are particularly frequent, and outnumber the position of the indirect
object. This seeming exception to the Accessibility Hierarchy may be related
272

to the high polyfunctionality that the genitive and the instrumental show in
Vedic simple clauses (3.3).
The linkage between the relative pronoun and the head noun is less tight in
Vedic than in other early lE languages such as Latin or Ancient Greek. In
Vedic, the relative pronoun can be displaced from the head noun and can be
separated from the main clause by a strong pause, showing a distribution more
similar to a demonstrative than to a typical relative pronoun. The relative pronoun ya- and the demonstrative pronoun ta- often appear in the same syntactic
and metrical contexts in the Rig-Veda. In regard to this, ya- faithfully retains
the anaphoric properties of its ancestor form *jo-, which is etymologically related to the proximal demonstrative stem *ei- I i- (3.2). Moreover, the relative pronoun often does not agree in gender and number with the head noun,
and exhibits phenomena of attraction. While attractio inversa is widespread
and corresponds to the typical structure of the correlative diptych, attractio
relativi is absent. The two types of attractions manifest different phenomena.
In attractio relativi, the attributive function of the relative pronoun is extended to the grammatical case, so that main clause and dependent clause appear tightly connected with each other. On the contrary, attractio inversa
lacks an important signal of dependency, since the function of the relative
pronoun prevails over the function of the head noun (3.4.1, 3.4.2). Vedic
relative pronoun always expresses the syntactic function required in the relative clause, independently of whether this is also the function of the head noun
in the main clause or whether the head noun is present at all. Vedic headless
relative clauses differ from Ancient Greek headless relative clauses. In the latter case, the relative pronoun can represent the syntactic function that is
proper of the implied head noun, if this is lower on the Accessibility Hierarchy (and therefore is more difficult to recover) than the syntactic function
originally associated with the relative pronoun. By contrast, in Vedic the relative pronoun maintains its own grammatical case even when this is a nominative and the implied head noun is an adjunct (3.4.3). In the same vein, Vedic
nominal relative clauses differ from Avestan nominal relative clauses. In
Avestan the relative pronoun of a nominal relative clause may assimilate to
the grammatical case of the head noun, and therefore it can be interpreted as
an explicit attributive structure. By contrast, in Vedic the relative pronoun always encodes the syntactic function of the head noun in the relative clause,
even though the head nouri and the relative pronoun share the same grammatical case (3.5).
The syntactic independence of the relative clause with respect to the main
clause, and ofthe relative pronoun with respect to the head noun, is consistent
with the semantic appositive function, which characterizes most yci-clauses in
the Rig-Veda (3.7). Appositive relative clauses add a piece of information
273

about a referent that has been already established in discourse. Thus, the head
noun is less integrated with appositive relative clauses than with restrictive
relative clauses, which are necessary to identify the referent. Moreover, appositive relative clauses are asserted, and therefore are functionally more
similar to coordinate than to subordinate clauses, since both apposition and
coordination represent the conjunct members on the same level. In the RigVeda, ya-clauses with a restrictive function are marked not only for their low
frequency, but also for their constrained distribution, as tar as they arc mainly
found with headless structures or with a generic referent (3.8). The restrictive function is also expressed by lexical structures, particularly by compounds, which in the Rig-Veda may have both a referential and a nonreferential reading (3.9, 3.10). Compounds are more productive in Vedic
than in the other early lE languages, and become more frequent from Vedic to
Classical Sanskrit, where they have no restriction in the number of members
allowed (3.12). The use of compounds for the restrictive function, and of
full-tledged clauses introduced by a relative pronoun for the appositive function, is a manifestation of diagrammatic iconicity (3 .11 ).

10. 2. 2. Synchretism of adverbial subordinators

Not all adverbial relations are equally represented by hypotactic structures
in Vedic. Temporal clauses, and particularly after-clauses, are the most frequently attested adverbial relations (4.2.1 ). Semantically, the temporal clause
is considered a basic adverbial relation, since it directly derives from a relative clause. The Rig-Veda provides evidence of the change from relative to
temporal clause, when the head noun of the temporal clause has a temporal
reference. "That day that you were born" can be interpreted as "that day,
when you were born". Moreover, the temporal relation is basic in the adverbial domain because it easily gives rise to other adverbial relations via contextual inference. In the Rig-Veda, adverbial clauses are often ambiguous between a temporal and a conditional function, or between a temporal and a
causal function. A temporal clause can be paraphrased with a conditional
clause when it denotes a recurrent situation. A temporal clause can be paraphrased with a causal clause when the temporally preceding situation described in the subordinate promotes the situation described in the main clause.
The temporal sentence "When the priest calls Indra, Indra comes" is tantamount to the conditional sentence "If the priest calls Indra, Indra comes" or to
the causal sentence "Since the priest calls Indra, Indra comes". Studies on
child language demonstrate that temporal clauses are mastered earlier than
274

other adverbial clauses, wheares purposive and concessive clauses are learned
at a later stage.
The universal subordinator yad is more entrenched for semantically simpler than for semantically complex adverbial relations. It is found (in decreasing order) for temporal, conditional, causal, purposive, and concessive clauses.
Crucially, the marked or unmarked status of an adverbial clause in Vedic is
not based merely on frequency. but rather on the competition with nonhypotactic strategies. The causal relation is more often expressed by the particle hi than by the conjunction yad. Causal yad, however, is more frequent than
purposive yad. The purposive relation is more often expressed by the dative
infinitive than by the conjunctions yathii and yad (7.1). Purposive yad, however, is more frequent than concessive yad. The concessive relation is more
often expressed by the particles cid and cana than by the subordinator yac cid
hi (8.1 ). With respect to the other adverbial subordinators, which are monomorphemic or bimorphemic, the concessive conjunction yac cid dhi is morphologically marked. Its scarce fusion and transparency also hint at the recentness of the concessive hypotactic strategies.
That the paucity of purposive and concessive hypotactic structures is cognitively motivated is supported by the absence of hypotaxis for semantically
similar clausal relations. The consecutive relation, which resembles the purposive relation, is never expressed by a finite subordinate introduced by a relativizer. It is rather represented by means of juxtaposition, whereby the situation described in the first clause is anaphorically resumed by a definite noun
phrase in the subsequent clause. E.g. '"They sacrificed ... With this sacrifice ... " (7.8) In the same vein, the cognitive motivation of the rare concessive hypotactic clauses emerges if we consider the lack of an overt marker for
the adversative relation "but" in the domain of coordination, since the concessive and the adversative relations share a basic semantics of contrast. The adversative relation is expressed by juxtaposed clauses, optionally marked by
different emphatic particles (8.7).
These findings suggest that the features of futurity, contrast, and negation
characterize a clausal relation as cognitively marked. An adverbial clause describes the circumstances under which the main clause situation takes place. It
is more natural to specify a situation in terms of something that occurs or that
has already occurred than in terms of something that does not occur or that
has not occurred yet. Subordinating strategies are absent for the temporal relations of posteriority (before-clauses) and terminus ad quem (until-clauses),
which locate the main clause situation by reference to a non-occurred event
(4.2.2, 4.3.2). Hypotaxis is also not available for negative purposive clauses
(7.8) and for causal clauses that represent an effect- cause conceptual order,
as in the sentence "Yesterday it rained, because the street is wet". The Rig275

Veda only has the cognitively simpler clause type "The street is wet becau .
rained yesterday", where the subordinate represents the preceding e~e 11
(6.2.2).
ent
Significantly, the cognitive markedness of contrast is not meant as counte _
factuality, but rather as counter-expectancy. Some non-factual relations su:h
as conditionals are more frequently expressed by hypotaxis than some factual
relations such as causals and concessives (5.6). Moreover, both conditional
and causal clauses are interpreted less frequently in the content domain (i.e
when. reflectin.g obj~ctive ~ause-effect relations o~ th~ extra-linguistic world)
than m the epastemac and m the speech act domam (1.e. when expressing the
subjective inferences and conclusions of the speaker's argumentation) (5.3,
6.2.4).

10. 2. 3. Strategies ofcomp/ementation

The evolution from relative clauses to completive clauses is recorded in
contexts where an abstract noun contained in the main clause (usually with the
function of subject or direct object) is specified in the s~bsequent clause introduced by the subordinator yad. E.g. "I announce this deed, that lndra killed
V,rtra" or "Magnificent is this deed, that lndra killed VJ1ra". The agreement in
neuter gender and singular number between the subordinator yad and an abstract noun of the main clause manifests the origin of this construction from
the relative clause. However, yad does not play any syntactic function in the
main clause, unlike a relative pronoun and like a complementizer. This indicates that we have to deal with a completive clause (9.2.1 ).
The loose structure of the correlative diptych is recruited only for a limited
number of complement relations, particularly for those completives depending
on a predicate of utterance (9.3), knowledge (9.4), and comment (9.6).
These predicates represent semantically loose clausal relations, since they do
not entail argument coreference with their complement clause. Moreover, in
these cases the time reference of the dependent state of affairs is not predetermined by the main state of affairs, and the subject of the main clause
does not exert control over the successful performance of the situation described in the complement clause. Predictably, predicates of utterance, knowledge, and comment, as well as predicates of propositional attitude (9.5),
commonly resort to further balanced structures, such as juxtaposition and coordination marked by the particle iti.
By contrast, the completive relations that imply a tight semantic bond with
the main predicate, in terms of argument reference, time reference, and control, are expressed by means of morphological devices. Desiderative (9.12),
276

phasal (9.13), and manipulative (9.14) predicates are represented by derivational strategies (preverbation with phasals, suffixation with desideratives and
111anipulatives). The functions cross-linguistically associated with modal
predicates (9 .11) are inflectionally encoded. The function-to-fonn approach
allowed us to analyze also these predicates that typolog~cally are expressed by
subordinating devices, even though in Vedic they are not rendered by subordinate clauses. In the Rig-Veda, the use of more or less deranked structures
for the various completive relations can be represented as a polarly oriented
continuum. The pole of minimal semantic integration is associated with syntactic balancing, while the pole of J!laximal semantic integration is associated
with syntactic deranking. The intermediate area of the continuum pertains to
completive relations expressed by means of nominalization, particularly participles and action nouns. Participles are prototypically used for immediate perception predicates (9.10). Action nouns or infinitives (the difference between
these two categories is faded in Vedic, 7.2-7.3) are the unmarked strategies
for completive relations as a whole. They not only represent one of the main
structure for predicates of fearing (9.7), pretence (9.8), and achievement
(9.9), but are also marginally attested for the predicates that occupy the two
extreme points of the complement deranking hierarchy, i.e. utterance predicates and manipulative predicates.
A high semantic integration between the main and the dependent state of
affairs is not the only reason why hypotaxis is less favored than nominalizations in the complementation domain. A subordinating structure may also be
absent for some completive relations that denote an abstract concept and
cross-linguistically represent the target domain of a metaphorical transfer. The
Rig-Veda does not express epistemic modality, which is more abstract than
deontic modality ( 9 .11.1-9 .11.3 ). The reinterpretation of deontic modality,
which has only the verbal phrase in its scope, into epistemic modality, whose
scope extends onto the entire clause, might have occurred in those contexts
where the borders of the verbal phrase and of the clause coincided, as in passive fonns. Like the person who is obliged to do something in deontic modality, the subject of the passive corresponds to the patient of the verbal action,
and therefore semantically belongs to the verbal phrase. In Vedic, the association between deontic modality and passive voice is explicit in negative clauses,
which are more conservative than clauses with a positive polarity ( 9.11.4 ).
Vedic also lacks a specific subordinating structure for predicates of negative propositional attitude such as "doubt" (9.5), pretence (9.8), negative
achievement such as "avoid" or "fail" (9.9), and negative manipulation such
as "impede" or "prevent" (9.14.3). The forms that in Classical Sanskrit have
these functions still have a concrete meaning in the Rig-Veda, where "doubt"
is "oscillate", "pretend" is "indicate away", "avoid" is "avert something from
277

its natural place or direction", etc. These predicates entail a semantic feature
of negation. This is consistent with the marked status of negative adverbial
relations.

10.3. The relevance of Vedic for a theory of subordination

The typical form ofVedic hypotaxis (finite clause marked by verbal accent
and by a relativizer) does not conform to most syntactic definitions of subordination. The traditional criteria of dependency and embedding cannot be applied to the adjoined structure of the correlative dyptich. Similarly, the correlative dyptich cannot be adequately described by means of formal criteria
such as clause internal word order, non-iconic position, extraction, backwards
anaphora, etc., which have been more recently ascribed to subordination in
various research traditions ( 1.3).
The Randstellung of the correlative dyptich contravenes the possibility of
occurring inside the borders of the main clause, which cross-linguistically is
licensed by subordin~te clauses. In the Rig-Veda, purposive clauses are usually placed after the main clause. Conditional clau.ses are usually placed before the main clause. The fronted position also appears in most temporal
clauses, which in the Rig-Veda represent relations of anteriority (qfterclauses). This indicates that most hypotactic constructions are iconically oriented with respect to the main clause. Backwards anaphora is admitted ( l 0.1)
but is quite rare. When main clause and subordinate clause have the same subject, and the subordinate clause precedes the main clause, the subject is usually contained in the subordinate, as in (1 0.2). This is consistent with the
higher frequency of head-internal relative clauses as compared to headexternal relative clauses (cf. 3.1).
(1 0.1) ydd vatajuto
vana
vy d:rlltiid
when wind.urged-NOM.M.SG wood.N-ACC.PL PRE spread-IND.AOR3SG

agnir

ha diiti

roma

prthivyalJ

Agni-NOM PTC shear-IND.PR3SG hair.N-ACC.PL earth.F-GEN.SG

"When he spreads through the wood, urged by the wind, Agni shears the
hair of the earth." ( 1.65.8ab)
(I 0.2) subhm11
ydc chubhra
u~dsas
cdranti
splendour.N-ACC. when splendid-NOM.F.PL dawn.F-NOM.PL go-IND.PR3PL

nd vi

jiiiiyante

sad{S'fr

ajurya/J

NEG PRE know-JND.PR.PS3PL alike-NOM.F.PL not.subject.to.decay-NOM.F.PL

"When the splendid Dawns go forth for splendour, they are not discerned,
alike, non-subject to decay." (4.51.6cd)

278

Similarly, the correlative diptych is at odds with a purely semantic definition of subordination, whereby a subordinate clause is expected to express
non-asserted information. The balanced structure of the correlative diptych
conveys information similarly to an independent clause. Vedic ya-clauses do
not have tense or mood constraints. They may present evidentials which take
the entire sentence in their scope. They often have their own illocutionary
force, which is different from the illocutionary force of the main clause.
(2.4.3) The prevalent appositive interpretation of relative clauses proves that
the correlative diptych marked by the relative pronoun ya- cannot be interpreted in the light of non-assertiveness, since appositive relative clauses are
assertive clauses.
The property of non-assertiveness may apply to strategies other than the
correlative diptych, which express relations commonly associated with subordinate constructions. This concerns nominalizations such as participles, gerunds, infinitives, and compounds. Speyer considers participles and infinitives
as instances of syntetic subordination, unlike the correlative diptych, which is
defined as analitic subordination. The interpretation of participles and infinitives as subordinate constructions is perfectly natural in Western European
languages. However, the same does not hold true for Old Indian, where participles behave like authentic adjectives (4.4.1) and infinitives behave like authentic substantives (7.1-7.6). Speyer himself acknowledges this. "Exactly
speaking, it is the analytic expression alone that constitutes subordination of
sentences. The syn~etical expression of clauses does not create new sentences." (1886: 449) Accordingly, Speyer only takes into account clauses introduced by a relativizer in his discussion of subordination, and describes participles and infinitives in a different section (358ff.; 383ff.), devoted to the
syntax of the simple verb rather than of the clause. In the same vein, participles and infinitives are not discussed in Hettrich ( 1988). Thus, the semantic
definition of subordination as non-assertiveness would apply either to constructions that are considered subordinate in the Western grammatical tradition but not in the Indian grammatical tradition, or to constructions that neither tradition considers subordinates, as in the case of compounds. We have
seen that compounds may express relations that in other languages are encoded by relative clauses and by completive clauses.
This does not impinge upon the theoretical validity of the linguistic category of subordination. Rather, Vedic suggests that such a category cannot be
defined by means of a number of discrete features, and can be better comprehended in the light of a continuum approach to Clause linkage. This is consistent with Lehmann's (1988) view of subordination as a strategy that allows
different degrees of syntactic and semantic integration with the main clause,
ranging from verbal morphology to inter-clause syntax.
279

Accordingly, we took into account various morphological, syntactic, and

pragmatic strategies, which in Vedic express the combination between two
states of affairs. The correlative diptych is relatively rare in the Rig-Veda, as
compared to other strategies of clause linkage that present a situation as semantically related to another situation. Some finite clauses are marked as dependent only by verbal accentuation, which signals that the utterance is incomplete and belongs to the same intonation unit as another clause (2.2).
Some clauses reinforce verbal accentuation with the use of a bourid or a free
particle, which may also occur in emphatic contexts, with their own imperative or interrogative illocutionary force (2.3.1, 2.3.2, 6.1.1 ). These contexts clash with subordination, but are consistent with the deictic and interrogative etymology of the particles, since deixis and interrogation are often
used in emphasis (2.3.3, 8.5). As a result, we discussed the functional competition not only between different relativizers (temporal ycidi and yada 4.6,
purposive yad and yathii 7.7, completive yadi vs. yad and yathii 9.2.3), but
also between a relativizer and a nominalization (purposive ycid vs. infinitive,
7.6), between a relativizer and a particle (causal yad vs. hi, 6.1), and between two different particles (cid and cana, 8.4). Occasionally, we referred
to strategies of coordination, and identified different functional domains for
different coordinands (particularly, ea and uta, interpreted as instances of
natural vs. accidental coordination in the phrase, and symmetrical vs. asymmetrical coordination in the clause, 8.6).
.The non-subordinating use of Vedic subordinators represents the relics of a
clause linkage where verbal accentuation indicated semantic relatedness between two clauses rather than backgrounding. The association between verbal
accentuation and backgrounding presumably started with relative clauses.
Since the situation denoted by a relative clause concerns only a constituent of
the main clause, rather than the main clause as a whole, relative clauses are
easily interpreted as backgrounded. Diachronically, the use of clause linkage
by particles dramatically diminishes on behalf of relativizers, and adjoined
subordinates are flanked, albeit not replaced, by embedded subordinates
(9.2.2). Vedic clause linkage reveals that the continuum between coordination and subordination can be viewed as an increasing path of grammaticalization from implicit to explicit strategies, from discourse pragmatics to clause
morpho-syntax.

280

Index of translated passages

1.1.4, 3.4.1
1.10.9, 8.4.2
1.14.1, 8.6.3.2
1.14.12, 6.l.l.l
1.16.4, 6.2.4
1.24.9, 8.4.2
1.24.1 0, 4.4.1
1.25.17, 6.1.2
1.32.6, 8.7
1.36.2, 2.3.3.1
1.43.1-3, 7.7.3
1.46.7, 7.4
1.55.1, 8.3
1.55.5, 9.5
1.62.3, 2.2
1.63 .I, 8.4.2
1.64.4, 7.3
1.65.8, 10.3
1.71.1 0, 4.2.2.2
1.74.3, 3.10
1.74.6-7, 8.6.2
1.84.17, 9.5
1.85.7, 4.2.1
1.89.9, 4.4.2
1.93.4, 9.2.1
1.94.3, 9.11.2
1.95.5, 9.7
1.95.7, 9.9
1.1 03.7-8, 4.6.1
1.104.7, 9.5
1.105.9, 9.4

1.1 08.2, 4.4.2

1.109.1, 8.2
1.109.2, 9.4
1.120.9, 2.2
1.129.4, 9.12
1.131.7, 3.4.3
1.132.4, 9.2.2
l.l35.9, 8.4.2
l.l54.6, 9.12
1.161.5, 9.3
1.161.6, 4.4.1
1.161.8, 4.6.1
1.152.3, 2.2
1.164.20, 8.6.3 .3
1.164.23, 9.2.2
1.164.37, 9.2.2
1.173.1, 7.7.5
l.l73.2, 7.7.5
1.173.8-9, 7.7.5
l.l85.10, 8.6.3.2
1.190.5, 2.3.1
2.1.9, 7.1
2.4.8-9, 7.7.4
2.20.8, 4.2.1
2.24.7, 6.1.1
2.28.9, 3.10
2.37.6, 9.14.1
2.41.11, 5.2
3.1.9-10, 8.6.2
3.3.1, 6.1.1
3.3.3, 3.3

281

3.5.8, 4.6.1
3.9.2, 9.4
3.10.3, 3.8
3.13.3, 3.5.3
3.13.5, 8.6.3.3
3.16.4, 3.5.4
3.22.3, 3.5.3
3.29.10, 6.1.2
3.30.7, 3.8
3.30.10, 9.7
3.30.13, 9.12
3.31.3, 2.3.3.1
3 .31.13ab, 4.6.3
3.31.13cd, 3.5.4
3.33.8, 7.7.6
3.36.2, 3.5.4
3.37.5, 7.4
3.42.4, 2.3.2
3.47.3, 3.7
3.47.4, 3.2
3.48.2, 2.4.2
3.50.1, 3.5.4
3.50.2, 3.2
3.53.21, 3.8
3.53.4, 4.4.3
3.53.20, 8.6.3.3
3.54.11, 2.3.3.2
3.54.18, 9.14.3
3.55.15, 3.2
4.4.3, 9.9
4.8.3, 9.4
4.13.5, 8.1
4.15.7, 4.2.1
4.16.10, 9.5
4.17.1 0, 4.6.1
4.18.4, 3.4.3
4.18.8-9, 8.5
4.20.3, 7.2
4.20.10, 7.4
4.21.6, 4.6.2.2
4.25.4, 9.10
4.30.3, 8.4.1
4.31.2, 7.2
4.31.9, 9.14.3
4.51.6, 10.3

5 .4.5-6, 6.1.1.1
5.13.3, 3.5.1
5.20.1, 8.5
5.45.5, 7.5
5.45.6, 2.2
5.47.5, 9.2.3
6.3 .2, 8.4.1
6.9.3, 9.4
6.9.6, 2.2
6.22.4, 4.6.1
6.26.5, 7.1
6.26.6-7, 2.3.3.2
6.34.1, 8.6.3.3
6.48.15, 7.7.2
6.54.1' 7 .I
6.57.2, 7.1
6.68.4, 8.1
6.70.6, 8.6.3.2
7.15.4, 7.5
7.21.3, 9.14.1
7.32.7, 7.7.2
7.37.1, 7.2
7 .55.7, 3.4.1
7 .42.6, 3.1 0
7.57.3, 7.3
7.60.4, 3.1
7 .60.5, 6.1.1.1
7.88.4, 4.4.2
7 .88.5, 2.4.3
7.88.6, 5.2
7.100.6, 9.3
7.104.15, 5.2
8.1.3, 8.1
8.7.2, 2.4.3
8.9.4, 2.4.3
8.10.3, 9.14.1
8.12.25, 2.3.3.1
8.13.21, 5.2
8.25.9, 8.3
8.26.10, 2.3.2
8.33.17, 8.5
8.40.1, 7.7.6
8.44.23, 5.5
8.44.30, 4.2.2.2
8.45.33, 7.7.2

282

8.51.8, 4.6.1
8.62.1, 7.7.3
8.62.8, 9.2.1
8.93.28, 5.4
8.100.3, 9.3
9.1.1, 7.4
9.14.3, 4.4.3
9.48.4, 7.6
9.76.5, 7.1
9.86.6, 4.6.2.2
9.102.4, 6.1.1.1
10.11.4, 2.3.3.1
10.16.1, 4.6.2.1
10.17.7, 4.4.1
10.34.2, 6.3
10.34.13, 8.7
10.54.3, 6.2.4
10.58.1, 5.3
10.60.8, 7.3
10.61.25, 4.6.2.2

10.68.6, 4.6.2.1
10.68.1 0, 4.4.2
10.73.10b, 9.5
10.73.10d, 6.1.2
10.80.6, 3.5.3
10.85.34, 9.11.4
10.86.23, 4.5.1
10.90.7-8, 7.8
10.90.12, 3.5.5
10.95.18, 2.3.3.1
10.97.11, 4.2.2.2
10.108.1, 4.5.1
10.119.1, 9.5
10.125.6, 7.6
10.136.1, 7.6
10.144.5, 7.3
10.149.3, 2.4.3
10.182.3, 7.6
10.188.3, 3.1

283

Index of subjects

Accessibility Hierarchy 3.3, 3.4.3, 10.2.1

Accusative plus infinitive 1.3, 9.2.1, 9.12
Accent 1.4, 1.5, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 5.2, 6.1.1, 7.7.4, 8.6.3.4
Action nouns 7. I -7.4, 7.6, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.7, 9.9, 9.11.3, 9.15
Actionality 4.5, 4.6.2
Adjoined clause 3 .I, 9 .2.2
Adposition 2.3.3.1, 2.4.2, 4.2.2.2, 4.3.2, 7.2
Adverb 2.3.3.1, 2.4.1, 2.4.2, 4.2.2.2, 4.3.2, 4.4.2, 4.5.1, 4.6.1, 5.1, 5.2,
6.1.1, 7.2, 8.3, 8.7, 9.2.3, 9.3, 9.4, 9.11.3, 9.14.1, 9.15, 10.2.1
Adverbial clause 1.3, 4-8, 10.2.2
Adverbial subordinators 1.8, 2.4.1, 2.4.2, 5.2, 6.1.1.1, 6.1.2, 7.1, 10.1,
10.2.2
Adversative relation 2.2, 2.4.3, 5.6, 6.1.1.1, 8.2, 8.6.3. I, 8.6.3.3, 8.7,
10.2.2
Agreement 3.4.1, 3.4.2, 3.5.2, 3.5.3, 3.5.5, 3.10, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, 6.1.2, 7.7.3,
7.4, 9.2.1, 9.10, 9.1 1.4, 10.2.1, 10.2.3
Anaphora 1.3, 2.2, 2.3.3.1, 2.3.3.2, 2.4.2, 3. I, 3.2, 6.1.1, 6.1.1.1, 7.7.1,
7.7.3, 7.7.4, 7.7.6, 7.8, 8.6.3.4, 9.2.1, 9.3, 9.4, 10.2.1, 10.2.2, 10.3
Animacy 3.5.5, 4.6.2.1, 7.3, 7.6, 7.7.3, 9.5, 9.9, 9.14.1
Appositive relation 2.4.3, 3.5.2, 3.5.3, 3.6, 3.6.1, 3.7, 3.9, 3.11, 3.12, 7.4,
7.6, 7.7.6, 9.3, 10.2.1, 10.3
Aspect 4.5, 4.6.1, 9. 13
Assertion 1.3, 1.6, 2.4.3, 3.6, 3.9, 9.1, 9.6, 10.2.1, 10.3
Attraction 3.4, 3.5.3, 3.8, 5.5, 7 .4, I 0.2.1
Attributive relation 3.4.2, 3.5, 4.4.1, 10.2. I
Cognitive complexity 1.2, 1.8, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 5.6, 6.2, 7.8, 8.2, 8.7, 9.7,
10.1, 10.2.2
Commitment 1.3, 5.2, 5.4, 9.1, 9.2.3, 9.5, 9.11.1, 9.15
Completive clauses I .8, 9, I 0.2.3
Compounds 1.1, 3.9, 3.10, 3.1 I, 3.12, 4.2.2.2, 6.3, 7.4, 7.6, 8.4.2,
8.6.3.2, 8.6.3.4, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.8, 9.9, 9.13.3, 9.14.2, 10.2.1, 10.3
Conjunction 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 2.2, 2.3.3, 2.4, 3.2, 3.3,
3.4.1, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.3.1, 4.4.2, 4.4.3, 4.6, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1, 7.6, 7.7,
8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4.1, 8.6, 9.2.3, 9.3, 9.5, 9.6, 9.12, 9.15, I 0.2.2

285

Consecutio temporum et modorum 2.4.3, 7.8

Consecutive 2.2, 2.3.3.1, 2.4.2, 5.6, 6.1.2, 7.7.6, 7.8, 10.2.2
Contrast 1.8, 2.2, 2.3.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 3.10, 4.4.1, 5.6, 8, 10.2.2
8.4.1' 8.4.2, 8.5, 8.6.2, 8.6.3, 8.7
Control 1.3, 3.1, 4.6.2, 7.3, 7.6, 9.1, 9.3, 9.4, 9.7, 9.12, 9.14.3, 9.15
Conversational implicature 5.1, 6.1.2, 8.2, 9.2.3
Coordination 1.3, 1.6, 2.2, 2.3.3, 2.4.3, 3.1, 4.2.1, 5.2, 6.l.l, 7.7.1, 7.4,
7.7.4, 7.8, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4.1, 8.6.1, 8.6.3, 8.7, 9.4, 9.15, 10.2, 10.3
Con-elative diptych 1.3, 3.1, 3.4.1, 3.5.5, 3.7, 3.11, 3.12, 4.2.2.1, 6.1.1,
10.2.1, I 0.2.3, I 0.3
Correlative element 1.6, 2.2, 2.3.3, 2.4.3, 3.1, 3.2, 4.2.1, 5.2, 6.1.1, 7.7.1,
7.7.4, 7.8, 8.2, 8.4.1, 8.6.1, 8.6.3, 9.4, 10.2.1, 10.2.2, 10.3
Deictics 1.6, 2.3.3.1, 2.4.3, 3.2, 4.5.1, 5.2, 8.6.3.4, 9.3, 9.15, 10.3
Deletion 3.9, 7.3, 8.6.3.3, 9.15
Demonstrative 2.3.3.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4.3, 3.5.2, 3.7, 3.8, 6.1.1.1, 7.7.3, 7.8,
8.5, 8.6.3.4, 9.1, 9.2.2, 9.3, 9.4, I 0.2.1
Dependency 1.3, 2.4.3, I 0.2.1, I 0.3
Deranking 3.1, 3.4.2, 9.1, 9.3, 9.13, 9.15
Derivation 3.5.4, 3.9, 4.2.2.2, 6.3, 7.3, 8.3, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.9, 9.12, 9.13,
9.14, 9.15
Direct report 1.6, 2.3.3.1,4.5.1, 6.1.1, 7.3, 9.3, 9.5, 9.7, 9.8
Economy 8.6.3.2, 9.15
Ellipsis 3.5.1, 4.6.2.1, 9.2.3, 9.5
Embedding 1.3, 2.4.3, 3.1, 3.3, 3.4.1, 3.4.2, 9.1, 9.2.1, 9.2.2, 9.2.3, 9.3,
9.14.1, 9.14.2, 9.15, 10.2.1, 10.3
Emphasis 1.6, 2.3, 2.4.3, 6.1.1, 7.5, 8.1, 8.4.2, 8.5, 8.7, 9.3, 10.2.2,
10.3
Enclisis 2.3.3, 5.2, 8.5, 8.6.3.3, 8.6.3.4
Evidentials 2.4.3, 9.2.3, 9.5, 10.3
Formalism vs. Functionalism 1.2
Gender 3.4.2, 3.5.2, 3.10, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, 6.1.2, 9.2.1, 9.2.2, 10.2.1, 10.2.3
Gerund 1.3, 4.2.1, 4.3.2, 6.1.1.1, 8.1, 10.3
Gerundive 9.2.2, 9.11.2, 9.11.4
Government 3.4.3, 3.5.4, 4.2.2.2, 7.2, 7.4, 7.6, 9.1, 9.2.1, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5,
9.6, 9.7, 9.9, 9.11.2, 9.11.3, 9.12, 9.13, 9.14.2, 9.14.3, 9.15
Grammaticalization I. I, 1.3, 1.5, 1.8, 2.2, 2.4, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4.1, 3.5.5,
4.2.2.1' 6.1.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.8, 8.2, 8.5, 8.6.3.3,8.6.3.4, 9.1' 9.2.1'
9.2.2, 9.2.3, 9.3, 9.5, 9.7, 9.9, 9.11.1, 9.11.2, 9.12, 9.13, 9.14, 9.15
1-lypotaxis 1.3, 1.6, 1.8, 3.4.1, 3.5.4, 4.4.1, 5.6, 7.8, 8.1, 9.2, 9.6, 9.15,
10.1, 10.2, 10.3
lconicity 1.2, 1.3, 2.2, 2.4.3, 3.7, 3.11, 4.2.1, 6.2.1, 7.8, 8.3, 8.6.3.3,
9.12, 9.15, 10.2.1, 10.3
Illocutionary force 1.3, 2.2, 2.3.2, 2.4.3, 3.6, 5.1, 6.1.1.1, 6.2.4, 8.6.3.3,
9.2.3, 10.3

286

Imperative 1.5, 2.2, 2.3.2, 2.4.3, 4.6.1, 5.1, 5.4, 5.6, 6.1.1.1, 6.2.4, 7.5,
8.3, 8.6.3.3, 8.7, 9.2.3, 9.5, 9.11.1' 9.11.4, 9.14.3, 10.3
lmpersonals 3.4.3, 9.11.2, 9.11.4
lndefinites 2.3.3.2, 3.2, 3.6.1, 3.7, 7.7.6, 7.8, 8.3, 8.4.1, 8.4.2, 8.5,
8.6.3.4
Indicative 1.5, 2.3.2, 2.4.3, 4.5.1, 4.6.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 6.1.1.1;
7.7.6, 7.8, 8.1, 8.2, 8.6.3.3, 9.1, 9.2.1, 9.2.3, 9.11.1, 9.11.4
Indirect interrogatives 4.6.1, 5.2, 6.1.2, 7.5, 9.2.2, 9.2.3
Infinitive 1.6, 4.2.2.2, 7.1-7.6, 9.1, 9.4, 9.6, 9.7, 9.11.2, 9.11.3, 9.12,
9.13.1, 9.14.1, 9.14.3, 9.15, 10.2.2
Inflection 1.1, 6.1.2, 7.4, 8.3, 9.11, 9.15
Injunctive 1.5, 4.5.3, 4.6.2.2, 4.6.3, 8.6.3.3, 9.2.1, 9.7, 9.11.1
Integration 1.3, 3.1, 3.4.2, 3.5.5, 3.7, 3.11, 9.1-9.15
Intensive 9.5, 9.13.2
Interrogative markers 2.2, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3.2, 2.4.3, 3.2, 3.7, 4.6.1, 5.1,
6.2.4, 7.5, 7.7.3, 7.7.6, 8.3, 8.4.1, 8.4.2, 8.5, 8.6.2, 8.6.3.4, 9.2.2, 9.2.3,
10.3
Intonation 1.3, 2.2, 2.3.1, 2.4.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4.1, 3.6, 6.1.1.1, 7.8, 8.2,
8.6.3.2, 8.6.3.4, 9.2.2, 9.15, 10.3
lrrealis 1.5, 5.2, 5.5, 7.5, 9.1, 9.12
Juxtaposition 1.6, 1.8, 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 3.11, 6.1.1, 7.4, 7.7.3, 7.8, 8.1, 8.3,
8.6.3.4, 8.7, 9.1, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.15, 10.2.2, 10.2.3
Locative clauses 2.4.2, 3.3, 3.5.4
Manner clauses 2.2, 2.4.2, 6.1.2, 7 .7 .6, 8.2
Modality 9.1, 9.11
Mood 1.3, 1.5, 2.2, 2.3.2, 2.4.3, 3.1, 4.5.3, 4.6.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5,
6.1.1.1, 7.7.1, 7.7.6, 8.1, 8.2, 8.6.3.3, 9.1, 9.2.1, 9.2.3, 9.3, 9.11.1,
9.11.4
Negation 1.3, 2.3. 1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3.2, 4.2.2, 7.2, 7.8, 8. 1, 8.2, 8.4. 1, 8.5,
8.7, 9.2.2, 9.2.3, 9.5, 9.6, 9.8, 9.9, 9.11.4, 9. 13.3, 9.14.3, 9.15, 10.2.2,
10.2.3
Nominal clauses 3.5, 3.7, 4.6.2.2, 5.4,
Nominalization 9.3, 9.7, 9.13, 9.15
Number 3.4.2, 3.5.2, 3.10, 3.12, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, 6.1.2, 9.2.1, 9.2.2, 10.2.1,
10.2.3
Optative 1.5, 4.5.3, 5.2, 5.5, 6.1.1.1, 7.7.1, 7.7.6, 7.8, 9.2.3, 9.11.1, 9.15
Participle 1.6, 2.4.2, 4.4.1, 4.6.1, 4.6.2.1, 4.6.2.2, 7.2, 8.1, 9.1, 9.4, 9.5,
9.7, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11.3, 9.11.4, 9.13, 9.14, 9.15, 10.2.3, 10.3
Particles 1.1, 1.6, 1.8, 2.3, 2.4, 4.4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.6, 6.1.1, 7 .5, 7 .8, 8.18.7, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.7, 9.8, 9.12, 9.15, 10.1, 10.2.2, 10.2.3, 10.3
Passive 3.3, 4.6.2.2, 4.6.3, 7.2, 7.8, 9.5, 9.11.4, 9.13.3, 9.14.1,
Possessive 3.1, 3.3, 3.5.4, 3.7, 3.12, 6.3, 7.3, 9.5
Predicative function 3.3, 3.5.2, 3.5.3, 3.5.4, 3.9, 3.1 1, 7.4, 7.6, 9.15
Quantifier 8.2, 8.3
Relative clause 1.8, 2.2, 2.4, 3, 5.2, 6.1.2, 7.7.6, 9.2.2, 10.2. I

287

Relative pronoun 3.2, 3.4, 3.7, 5.2, 6.1.2, 9.2.1

Relativizer 2.4, 6.1.2, 9.2.1, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5
Resumptive 2.3.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4.I, 4.2.2.I, 4.4.2, 4.6.3, 5.2, 6.1.1, 7.8, 8.1,
8.2, 9.I, 9.2.1, 9.2.2, 9.4, 9.6, 10.2.1, 10.2.2
Semantic roles 3.3, 4.6.2.I, 4.6.3, 7.4, 9.2.I, 9.1I.4, 9.I4, 9.I5
Specifier 9.2.I
Speech act 1.3, 5.1, 5.3, 6.2
Subjunctive 1.5, 2.3.2, 2.4.3, 4.5.3, 4.6.1, 5.2-5.6, 6.1.1.1, 7.5, 7.7.I,
7.7.6, 7.8, 9.I, 9.2.3, 9.11.1, 9.15
Subordination (definition of) 1.3
Tense 1.3, 1.5, 2.4.3, 3.1, 4.4.3, 4.5, 4.6.1, 5.2, 5.4, 5.5, 7.2, 7.6, 7.8,
8.6.3.3, 9.I, 9.3, 9.11.2, 9.12, 9.13, 9.I5
Universal subordinator 2.4, 4.4.3, 5.2, 7 .I, I O.I, 10.2.2
Voice 3.3, 4.6.2.2, 4.6.3, 7.2, 7.4, 7.6, 9.11.2, 9.11.4, 9.1 5
Word order 1.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4.3, 5.2, 6.l.l.I, 6.2.3, 7.2, 7.4, 7.5, 7.7.4,
8.6.3.1' 8.6.3.3, 9.3, 9.15, 10.3

288

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1. Maria-Elisabelh Conte, Anna Giacalone Ramal, Paolo Ramal (a cura di), Dimensioni delta
linguistica
2. Giuliano Bemini, Anna Giacalone Ramat (a cura di), La temporalita nell'acquisizione di lingue seconde
3. Alessio Pelralli, L'italiano in un cantone. Le parole dell'italiano regionale ticinese in prospettiva sociolinguistica
4. Emanuele Banfi, Storia linguistica del Sud-Est europeo. Crisi della Romania balcanica tra
alto e basso medioevo
5. Federica Venier, La modalizzazione assertiva. Avverbi modali e verbi parentetici
6. Marco Mazzoleni, Maria Pavesi (a cura di), ltaliano lingua seconda. Modelli e strategie per
l'insegnamento
7. Carlo Serra Bometo (a cura di), Testi e macchine. Una ricerca sui manuali di istruzioni per
l'uso
8. Giovanna Alfonzetti, 11 discorso bilingue. ltaliano e dialetto a Catania
9. Stefano Vassere, Sintassiformale e dialettologia. I pronomi clitici nelluganese
10. Maria Pavesi, Formazione di parole. La conversione in inglese L2
11. Francesca Fici Giusti, Il passivo nelle lingue slave. Tipologia e semantica
12. Slephan Schmid, L 'italiano degli spagnoli. lnterlingue di immigrati nella Svizzera tedesca
13. Giuliano Bemini, Maria Pavesi (a cura di), Lingue straniere e universita. Aspettative e organizzazione didattica
14. Marina Chini, Genere grammaticale e acquisizione. Aspetti della morfologia nominale in italiano L2
15. Gabriele Bersani Berselli, Riferimento ed interpretazione nominate. Referenti testuali tra semantica e pragmatica
16. Pierluigi Cuzzolin (a cura di), Studi di linguistica greca
17. Silvia Luraghi, Studi su casi e preposizioni nel greco antico
18. Slefania Giannini, Percorsi metalinguistici. Giuliano di Toledo e la teoria della grammatica
19. Barbara Turchetta, Linguae diversita. Multilinguismo e lingue veicolari in Africa occidentale
20. Federico Vicario, I verbi analitici infriulano
21. Emanuele Banfi (a cura di), Studi di linguistica Greca. 11
22. Rila Franceschini, Rijlettere sull'interazione. Un'introduzione alla metacomunicazione e all'analisi conversazionale
23. Marina Crespi Giinther, Frasi complesse in tedesco L2. Percorsi di apprendimento della sintassi della subordinazione
24. Giuliana Fiorentino, Relativa debole. Sintassi, uso, storia in italiano
25. Massimo Vedovelli (a cura di), lndagini sociolinguistiche nella scuola e nella societii italiana
in evoluzione
26. Laurie Anderson, Anna Ciliberti (a cura di), Le forme della comunicazione accademica
27. Elisa Roma, Da dove viene e dove va la morfologia. Forme sintetiche eforme analitiche netla storia del verbo irlandese
28. Sonia Cristofaro, lgnazio Putzu, Languages in the mediterranean area. 11 progetto Medtyp:
studio dell'area linguistica mediterranea
29. Cecilia Andomo, Focalizzatorifra connessione e messa afuoco. ll punto di vista delle varietii
di apprendimento
30. Stefania Scaglione Attrition. Mutamenti sociolinguistici nellucchese di San Francisco
31. Massimo Vedovelli, Slefania Massara, Anna Giacalone Ramat (a cura di), Lingue e culture iil
contatto. L'italiano come L2 per gli arabofoni
32. Michele Prandi, Paolo Ramal (a cura di), Semiotica e linguistica. Per ricordare Maria Elisabeth Conte
33. Nicola G:randi, Morfologie in contatto. Le costruzioni valutative nelle lingue del Mediterraneo
34. Sandro Caruana, Mezzi di comunicazione e input linguistico. L'acquisizione dell'italiano L2 a
Malta
35. Lidia Coslamagna, Slefania Giannini (a cura di), Lafonologia dell'interlingua. Principi e metodi di analisi

36. Livio Gaeta, Quando i verbi compaiono come nomi. Un saggio di Morfologia Naturale
37. Emanuele Banfi (a cura di), ltaliano/L2 di cinesi. Percorsi acquisizionali
38. Luisa Amenta, Perifrasi aspettuali in greco e in latino. Origini e grammaticaliuazioni
39. Eva-Maria ThUne, Simona Leonardi (a cura di), Telefonare in diverse lingue. Organiuazione

sequenziale, routine e rituali in telefonate di servizio, di emergenza e fatiche

40. Andrea Sanso, Degrees of event elaboration. Passive constructions in Italian and Spanish
41. Anna Giacalone Ramat, Eddo Rigotti, Andrea Rocci (a cura di), Linguistica e nuove profe.s-

sioni
42.
43.
44.
45.

Emilia Calaresu, Testuali parole. La dimensione pragmatica e testuale del discorso riportato
Carla Bagna, La competenza quasi-bilingue/quasi-nativa. Le preposizioni in italiano L2
Chiara Celata, Acquisizione e mutamento di categorie fonologiche. Le affricate in italiano
Marina Chini (a cura di), Plurilinguismo e immigrazione in ltalia. Un 'indagine sociolinguisti-

ca a Pavia e Torino
46. Andrea Trovesi, La genesi di articoli determinativi. Modalita di espressione della definiteua

in ceco, serbo-lusaziano e sloveno

47. Francesca Santulli, Le parole del potere, il potere delle parole. Retorica e discorso politico
48. Nicola Grandi (a cura di), Morfologia e dintomi. Studi di linguistica tipologica ed acquisizio-

nale
49. Alessandro Vietti, Come gli immigrati cambiano l'italiano. L'italiano di peruviane come va-

rietaemica
50. Annalisa Baicchi, Cristiano Broccias, Andrea Sanso (edited by), Modelling thought and con-

structing meaning. Cognitive models in interaction

51. Federica Da Milano, La deissi spaziale nelle lingue d'Europa
52. Alessandro Mengozzi (a cura di), Studi afroasiatici. Xllncontro ltaliano di Linguistica Cami-

tosemitica
53. Domenica Romagno, il perfetto omerico. Diatesi azionalita e ruoli tematici
54. Maria Napoli, Aspect and Actionality in Homeric Greek. A contrastive analysis
55. Pierluigi Cuzzolin, Maria Napoli (a cura di), Fonologia e tipologia lessicale nella storia della

lingua greca
56. Anna Ciliberti (a cura di), La costruzione interazionale di identiti!. Repertori linguistici e pra-

tiche discorsive degli italiani in Australia

57. Carlotta Viti, Strategies of Subordination in Vedic