Grammaticalization Paths of Predicative Possession in Sanskrit

Friday November 8, 2013, at 14:15 – 16:00 (SH: AF (Seminarrom F (212), Sydneshaugen skole))

Possession is an abstract and multifaceted domain of human conceptualization. Predicative possessive expressions found across the languages of the world are often derived from constructions, called in the literature ‘source schemas’, borrowed from other, more concrete, conceptual domains.

In Vedic Sanskrit, three different constructions are used in order to express predicative possession: a dative construction (dative possessor, nominative possessee, and a form of ‘be’), a locative construction, and a genitive construction. In later stages of the language, the three constructions reduce to one: the structure with the genitive becomes the conventional expression for possession. This phenomenon is concomitant with the dative and genitive merging.

In this presentation, I will describe and analyse the three Early Vedic constructions: their syntax, semantics (which type of possession they codify), and pragmatics (have– relation? belong– relation?). Then I will try to trace the grammaticalization path of the genitive construction, showing that the replacement of the dative is cognitively natural and motivated. Finally, I will argue that the extension of the genitive, at the expense of the dative, in the semantic space of possession is the first step, and also the trigger, for the dative/genitive syncretism.

Serena Danesi, Postdoc (NonCanCase Project), LLE, University of Bergen.