Light verb, auxiliary, grammaticalization. The case of the Vedic periphrastic perfect

21.05.2019 18:30 - 20:00

Máté ITTZÉS | Lehrstuhlleiter für Indologie am Institut für Orientalistik, Eötvös Loránd Universität Budapest

The lecture addresses the question whether light verbs may participate in the so-called grammaticalization cline (i.e. main verb → light verb → auxiliary). In contrast to the opinion that there is no evidence for the diachronic change leading from light verb to auxiliary and that light verbs are in fact diachronically “inert”, I will argue that the history of the periphrastic perfect in Vedic does indeed attest such a process, a suggestion which is in accordance with recent findings concerning some Modern Indo-Aryan compound verb constructions.

Organiser:
Wiener Sprachgesellschaft | Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde
Location:
Sensengasse 3a, Hörsaal 1 (1. OG)