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Cross-disciplinary research is of paramount importance in a field such as the one that Bhāṣā aims to cover, the languages of South Asia, in which linguistic, philological and grammatical studies can all count on a long and rich tradition.

Word order is a central issue in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European syntax. Categorical approaches have proved to be inadequate because they postulate for the protolanguage a typological consistency which is absent in any of the attested daughter languages. Following recent research, we adopt a gradient approach to word order, which treats word order preferences as a continuous variable. We analyze four word order patterns based on data extracted from treebanks of ancient Indo-European languages. After presenting our results for AdpN/NAdp, GN/NG, AN/NA, and OV/VO, we draw a number of conclusions concerning variation within individual languages, crosslinguistic variation, and variation in diachrony that support the claim that variability should be taken as the normal state across languages, including reconstructed stages. We conclude that a non-discrete approach has the advantage of leading to a reconstruction that better conforms to the situation known from real languages, with variation as a key feature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Koptjevskaja-Tamm points out, the division of labor between the elative and the partitive case in partitive constructions largely corresponds to the distinction between partitive nominal constructions (elative) and pseudo-partitive constructions (partitive), as shown in Figure 2 (from [50]: 533). 2.2 Partitive elements Partitive constructions may also develop into "faded" partitives, a term introduced by [51] to indicate seemingly partitive constructions in which, however, there is only a vague hint to a possible part-whole relation, as discussed in De Hoop ([34]: 193-206; see also [75]). As observed in Section 1, the term "partitive", "partitives" has been used with different meanings, comprising partitive and pseudo-partitive constructions, faded partitives and indefinite or "generalized" partitives. Section 3.2.2 is devoted to so-called "generalized" partitives, i.e. partitive cases, partitive genitives, partitive articles that express notions other than partivity, such as indefiniteness or unboundedness. Partitive constructions and their developments In this section we present some basic notions related to partitivity, focusing on types of constructions connected with the notion of part/whole relation, i.e. the partitive nominal construction, or "proper partitive", and the pseudo-partitive construction (Section 2.1). [Extracted from the article]

In several ancient and modern Indo-European languages, the partitive-genitive may be used in place of the accusative to encode the second argument of two-place verbs. In Ancient Greek the two types of object encoding can alternate with change-of-state verbs, alternation being viewed as connected with degrees of patient affectedness: the partitive-genitive encodes partially affected objects. Alternation also extends to experiential verbs, which are typically characterized by a low degree of transitivity and do not imply any change of state of the object-stimulus. Rather than concentrating on the implications of case alternation on the construal of the object, I consider the effects of variation on the whole construction, and argue that genitive vs. accusative marking of the object (NomGen vs. NomAcc constructions) reflects the construal of the subject-experiencer. While the different construal of the experiencer in terms of degrees of control cross-linguistically often results in non-nominative encoding of the experiencer, in Ancient Greek it is object encoding that affects the construal of the experiencer and reflects a scale based on possible control. The distribution of constructions with experiential verbs shows that NomAcc is typical of verbs of sight, thought, intellectual knowledge and emotions connected to sight and awareness, such as wonder and fear. NomGen is connected with touch, smell, taste, memory, forgetfulness, care and desire. In the in-between area, verbs of hearing, learning and verbs of affection may feature both accusative and genitive encoding, thus constituting a fuzzy transition area. The connection between sight and other experiential verbs that feature accusative encoding reflects an embodied conceptualization of experiential situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IE languages developed different strategies for the encoding of the passive function. In some language branches, the middle voice extended to the passive function to varying extents. In addition, dedicated derivational formations arose in a number of languages, such as the Greek -ē-/-thē- aorist and the Indo-Aryan -ya-presents. Periphrastic formations involving a verbal adjective or a participle are also widely attested, and played an important role in the building of the passive paradigm in e.g. Romance and Germanic languages. As the periphrastic passive is also attested in Hittite alongside passive use of the middle, both strategies seem to be equally ancient. Some minor strategies include lexical passives and the extensive lability of verbs. A survey of possible strategies provides evidence for the rise of a disparate number of morphemes and constructions, and for their ongoing incorporation into the inflectional paradigms (paradigmaticization) of given languages, thus adding to our knowledge about cross-linguistic sources of passive morphology and grammaticalization processes involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hittite, deictic motion verbs pai- 'go' and uwa- 'come' may co-occur in a monoclausal structure with a second verb that carries the lexical meaning. As yet, their exact function remains obscure. I argue that motion verbs involved in such construction underwent transcategorization and function as New Event Markers. I show that this development is best explained as an instance of constructionalization involving both the motion verbs and the second verb in the clause, which is based on a pragmatic inference arising when motion verbs were used without a spatial complement. Either motion verb contributes a different semantics to the construction based on the different perspective regarding the deictic center identified by the ego, whereby pai- 'go' (motion originating from the deictic center) marks an event as close in time and controlled, while uwa- 'come' (motion originating outside the deictic center) indicates distance in time and possible lack of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the hypothesis of contact-induced change for the rise of the partitive case in Finnic languages and of the partitive case/determiner in Basque. On the basis of the well-established Indo-European partitive-genitive case and taking into account the lack of such a basis on the Uralic side, we argue that the partitive case in Finnic languages has arisen as a result of Balto-Slavic influence. Concerning the Basque partitive determiner, we likewise suggest a contact scenario (with Romance languages) as being responsible for the development of an entire system of determiners, including the definite and possibly the indefinite article as well as the partitive marker, which originates in an old ablative ending but crucially lacks the morphological properties characteristic of Basque inflectional markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Modern Standard Russian (MSR), the prefix/preposition pair u-/u is peculiar with respect to other similar pairs, due to the meaning mismatch between the two. While the prefix u- has an ablative meaning, as shown when it is prefixed to motion verbs, the prepositional phrase u+gen occurs in locative constructions, and other related constructions, such as predicative possession that is expressed via the cross-linguistically common Locative Schema. Etymological considerations show that the meaning preserved by the prefix is older. The only type of occurrence which, according to the literature, preserves the ablative meaning for the u+gen construction is found with verbs of requesting, removing, and buying. Notably, however, in other Slavic languages putative ablative contexts are limited to verbs of requesting. Data from MSR, Old Church Slavic, Polish and Czech lead to the conclusion that the extension of the u+gen construction to verbs of removing in MSR is based on its use for the encoding of predicative possession. Extension to verbs of buying is better explained through the locative meaning of the construction. As a result of different developments, the u+gen construction has become part of the argument structure of a group of verbs including verbs of asking and requesting, verbs of removing, and verbs of buying, which are characterized by the common feature of taking human non-recipient third arguments. We argue that the different usages of the u+gen construction in MSR constitute an instance of constructionalization based on the merger of originally different constructions. We further argue that accounting for this development in constructional terms offers better insights in the relation among the various different usages of u+gen than simply focusing on the meaning of the preposition and its polysemy pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including linguistic analysis, historical linguistics and corpora.

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The paper discusses various constructions of ancient Indo-European languages that have been described as featuring a dative of agent. The occurrence of the dative can be explained either through its beneficiary meaning, or as indicating an experiencer. In fact, a number of passages that have been taken as evidence for the reconstruction of a dative of agent do not contain agent phrases at all. Thus, while different constructions have parallels in two or more ancient languages, it is impossible to reconstruct a dative of agent as a unified category for PIE, except in the case of nominal verb forms denoting obligation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphemes that encode the semantic role of Beneficiary display complex patterns of polysemy. Such patterns have arisen through diachronic processes which are for the most part still unexplored. In the paper I discuss common assumptions about the directionality of semantic extension and about expected and unexpected polysemies. I show that, next to the often mentioned polysemy of Beneficiary, Recipient, Purpose and Direction, another frequent pattern includes Beneficiary, Purpose and Cause. Morphemes that exhibit such polysemy have original spatial meanings which include Location or Path, but not Direction. Notably, such original spatial meanings have been dropped in the course of semantic developments described in the paper. After discussing some well-attested diachronic developments, I show that, at least in the languages of Europe, markers of Beneficiary, Purpose, and Cause underwent an unpredicted semantic extension that led them to also indicate Direction. Such extension provides evidence for a rare development that has led a concrete spatial concept to be denoted by a morpheme that had an abstract meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including Bible's New Testament, Indo-European languages, and referential null objects.

Ancient Greek and Early Vedic are pro-drop languages which allow for referential null objects. In this paper we give an overview of the various conditions under which null objects are licensed and compare their use in both languages. In Greek and Vedic null objects occur frequently in conjuncts, be it clauses or sentences. They are also attested with participles embedded into finite sentences. A third type is the syntactically unrestricted discourse conditioned null object, which is typically an anaphora. In Vedic, however, it can also be used cataphorically and with extratextual reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response to a letter to the editor regarding Silvia Luraghi's review of the book "Greek Prepositions: From Antiquity to the Present," by Pietro Bortone in the Autumn 2011 issue is presented.

This paper discusses basic valency orientation in Hittite, based on the typology proposed in Nichols et al. (2004). Verb pairs usually employed to test basic valency indicate the clearly transitivizing character of this language; a closer scrutiny of intransitive verbs further reveals the existence of a three-fold distinction featuring two intransitive verbs, a basic stative one (or an adjective), and an overtly marked intransitive change-of-state, in addition to a transitive counterpart overtly marked as causative. The high productivity of causative derivation is shown by the fact that morphologically marked causatives are not only derived from stative verbs, but also from telic intransitives and from transitive verbs. In the case of telic intransitive verbs, a minor pattern is also attested, whereby valency alternation is encoded through voice alternation, with intransitive forms inflected in the middle voice and transitive forms in the active. Since neither voice can be considered to be derived with respect to the other, verbs that display this behavior are indeterminate as to basic valency orientation. In spite of the limited extent to which voice indicates valency alternation, this finding becomes more significant when set into the framework of valency alternation in the early Indo-European languages, and sheds some light (or raises more questions) on the original function of the Hittite and of the Indo-European middle voice, a typologically puzzling category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender fulfills two different functions, i.e. nominal classification and crossreference of constituents through agreement. Besides the generally acknowledged possibility of a grammaticalization process that may lead classifiers to become gender markers, gender systems may also arise as a consequence of special agreement patterns connected with differential marking of core arguments. It is argued that different origins of gender systems imply higher relevance of either function of gender in individual languages, and that this may have consequences on the values of gender within specific gender systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paradigmaticity involves obligatoriness. In the case of diathesis, if a language has an active/passive opposition, the possibility for a verb to display it depends on a semantic property of the verb, i.e. transitivity. In Ancient Greek, several verbs that do not take the accusative, but rather the genitive or the dative, also occur in personal passive constructions; the extent to which such verbs can passivize was limited in Homer, but increased in later prose, showing that they were being reanalysed as transitive. Only in the Byzantine period was accusative coding also extended to this group of verbs, through actualization of the preceding reanalysis. Thus, while acquiring the features of the transitive construction, verbs that originally took the dative or the genitive acquired its behaviour (passivization) before overt coding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including historical linguistics, linguistic changes in Russian and semantics of aspectual-modal suffixes in Persian.