Peter Edwin Hook

The compound verb in Munda: An areal and typological overview

A study of six Munda languages shows that the syntactic category cornpound verb (which alternates with simple verb) may be identified in each one of them. However, while com~und verbs in South Munda form systems which closely resemble those found in adjacent Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages, North and Central Munda feature compound verbs of a very different sort. The South Munda type seems to have arisen as the result of cross-linguistic diffusion from its neighbors while that in North and Central Munda owes its origin to independent developments.

A note on expressions of involuntary experience in the Shina of Skardu

Sixty-five years ago, in brief remarks devoted to the Shina of Dras, Bailey noted an unusual construction associated with the verb lezhonu ‘to get’:

Prenominal Participial Phrases in Marathi, the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy, and Picture Nouns

Abstract An introduction to Keenan and Comrie’s NPAH (noun phrase accessibility hierarchy) is followed by data showing to what extent Marathi’s PPP s (prenominal participial phrases) do and do not conform to it. The range of constructional variety inside a PPP is shown to be related to the tightness or looseness of the relation of the predicate inside the PPP to the nulled element. Examples are presented of the puzzling absence of Agent and Experiencer noun phrases inside PPP s. The paper ends with examples and discussion of the mismatch or transfer of PPP modifiers away from the NP denoting the ‘imagee’ or entity depicted in an image to the NP denoting the image itself.

Semantic neutrality in complex predicates: Evidence from East and South Asia

Abstract This investigation of crosslinguistic patterns in lexicon-grammar interaction looks at complex predicate data from four Asian languages (Mandarin Chinese, Hindi-Urdu, Japanese, Marathi). In these languages verbs whose basic meanings are HIT and EAT are used as operators in complex predicates: e.g., Mandarin dǎ yíge quántóu {HIT a fist} ‘give a punch’ versus chī yíge quántóu {EAT a fist} ‘take a punch’ or Hindi-Urdu raub mār- {awe HIT} ‘intimidate’ versus raub khā- {awe EAT} ‘be intimidated’. We show that in Chinese, Hindi-Urdu, and Marathi the normal antonymy of paired CPs featuring these two operators disappears if the CPs themselves alternate with the monolexical heads of intransitive clauses provided those clauses are unaccusative.