Topics in Kalasha syntax: An areal and typological perspective.

Abstract

Based on field-work in Pakistan on the Northwest Indo-Aryan (Dardic) language Kalasha, this study is intended as a contribution to South Asian areal, diachronic, and typological studies. An introductory discussion examines the concept of "linguistic area" and introduces the theoretical tense-aspect-mood model employed to characterize the verb system. The following chapters deal with: (1) structure of the verb system (in comparison with Khowar, Turkish, Persian and Urdu); (2) transitivity and causativity relations (morphological causatives); (3) compound verbs, (4) complementation structures, and (5) relative clauses. Areas of particular interest in Kalasha turn out to be: (a) the morphological coding of the inferentiality-evidentiality parameter; (b) a class of formally causative expression encoding involuntative semantics; (c) the existence of a small class of genuine compound verbs in both Kalasha and Khowar; (d) a highly developed set of functions for 'say' complementizers; (e) a pre-nominal relativization strategy employing the finite verb. The concluding chapter considers Kalasha's status with respect to the South Asian linguistic area and other convergence areas, finding that Kalasha reflects convergence phenomena at at least three levels. The largest-scale pattern in which it participates is an extensive left-branching area embracing Altaic, Tibeto-Burman, Burushaski, Dravidian, and (partially) Indo-Aryan. Seen against this larger picture, the injection of right-branching characteristics into the IA languages of the midl and s and into Khowar appears as a later, smaller-scale effect. To the next layer belong those features attributable to interaction with a Burushaski substratum, and to the most recent level belong features linking Kalasha on the one h and to the specifically South Asian linguistic area, and on the other to a small area of regional Iranian influence. As communication and cultural links shift from ties with Central Asia or Nuristan to relations with the lower Indus valley, we can expect to see an increasing approximation of Kalasha to the South Asian linguistic pattern.