This volume presents a state-of-the-art survey of synchronic and diachronic dimensions of Ergativity in the Indo-Aryan language family. It contains an introduction drawing on the most important recent typological and theoretical contributions to this field, plus seven papers about the origin,… read more
Non-finite forms constitute an important component of the verbal system of Indo-Aryan (IA) languages. On the one hand, some of them, such as e.g., converbs, have already received proper attention in historical linguistics and typological literature, with regard to Old Indo-Aryan (OIA), Middle… read more
This paper presents the results of a multilayered diachronic analysis of one of the most important subordinating devices in IA, i.e. converbs. This is a corpus-oriented study based on an early variety of New Indo-Aryan, namely Old Rajasthani. We discuss: (a) the morphology of the converb and the… read more
This chapter gives an overview of the current state of the art of research on ergativity in Indo-Aryan. First, it discusses a number of theoretical and terminological issues concerning synchronic and diachronic dimensions of ergative alignment and outlines a typology for exploring the relationship… read more
Contemporary IA languages are considered to be purely nominative at the level of syntax. Ergativity is restricted to the morphological domain. However the scrutiny of certain syntactic constructions such as converbal clause chaining or coordinate conjunction reduction shows that they are not… read more
