Spatial postpositions from participles

[Jan Heegård Petersen]

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Dear Vyakaran list members,

As part of my PhD project I am carrying out a study of the semantics and
morpho-syntax of postpositions in Kalasha (an Indo-Aryan language spoken in
NW Pakistan). My current interest concerns those postpositions that have
developed from verbal participles and in particular those that have become
spatial markers.

I am interested to know about specific studies of such 'departicipial',
spatial postpositions in other languages in the South Asia language area, or
of grammars of languages from that same area that make mention of this
phenomenon.

Examples from Kalasha:
The conjunctive participle (CP) "thi" of the verbs for 'to be' and 'to
become' can have an ablative interpretation when it follows the nominal
denoting the ground from which someone or something departs. The CP of the
verb for 'to give', "day", has become a vialis marker (= 'along', 'by way
of', 'across') and also an ablative marker (= 'away from here') in certain
contexts. The CP of the verb for 'to do', "kay", has a variety of functions
among which are marking of the Goal-location 'put' and motion verbs and
marking the addressee with utterance verbs.

Any references to specific studies of such developments from whatever
perspective or mention of them in particular grammars will be of help to me.
I will of course post a summary of the replies to this enquiry.


Jan Heegard
PhD student
Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics
University of Copenhagen
Denmark

E-mail: janhp at hum.ku.dk