This book is the first comprehensive study of the Vedic present formations with the suffix
ya (‘
ya-presents’ for short), including both present passives with the accented suffix
yá and non-passive -
ya-presents with the accent on the root (class IV in the Indian tradition). It offers a complete survey of all
ya-presents attested in the Vedic corpus. The main issue in the spotlight of this monograph is the relationship between form (accent placement, diathesis) and function (passive/non-passive) in the system of the -
ya-presents – one of the most solidly attested present classes in Sanskrit. One of the aims of the present study is to corroborate the systematic correlation between accent placement and the passive/non-passive distinction: passives bear the accent on the suffix, while non-passives have the accent on the root. The book also focuses on the position of the passive within the system of voices and valency-changing categories in Old Indo-Aryan.
Leonid Kulikov (PhD, Leiden University) is an Assistant Professor at Ghent University. He has published widely on synchronic and diachronic typology (in particular, on the diachronic typology of labile verbs and valency-changing categories), on the Vedic verb system and syntax, and on Vedic philology, and has edited numerous volumes in the fields of linguistic typology and Indology. He is an Associate Editor of the
Journal of Historical Linguistics. His current research focuses on the grammar of early Vedic, a translation of the Atharvaveda, and the diachronic typology of transitivity and voice.
Preface
Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction Vedic -
ya-formations: preliminaries
Syntactic and semantic preliminaries
Corpus of texts and evaluation of evidence
The structure of the survey of -
ya-presents
A Survey of Vedic -ya-presents Middle -
ya-presents with suffix accentuation
Middle -
ya-presents with root accentuation
Middle -
ya-presents with fluctuating accentuation
Unaccented middle -
ya-presents
Active -
ya-presents
Cyáti presents
A Systematic Analysis and Classification of -ya-presents Morphophonological classes of -
ya-stems
Semantics of -
ya-presents
Transitivity alternations and paradigmatic oppositions within the system of -
ya-presents
Remarks on paradigmatic properties of -
ya-presents
-
ya-passives and other passive formations
Diathesis fluctuations in -
ya-presents
Vedic -
ya-presents in a diachronic perspective
Appendices Post-Vedic -
ya-presents: a selection
Vedic quasi-denominatives and their passives
-
yá-passives and other formations attested in the passive usage: a synopsis
Bibliography Texts
Secondary literature
Abbreviations
Indices Index verborum
Index locorum
Index rerum