Periphrases with Motion Verbs in Vedic Sanskrit: (between) Textual Analysis and Grammaticalization Patterns

Abstract

The Sanskrit language knows the use of iterative-continuative periphrases which are so far mostly unexplored. The aim of this paper is to investigate the grammaticalization of the motion verbs i-'go' and car-'move' plus participle into auxiliary verbs, collecting data from the earliest attestations (c. 2 nd millennium BC) to Late Vedic (c. 900-600 BC). I argue that in the earliest attestations there are no clear cases of periphrasis, but the motion verbs are combined with an extremely high percentage of intensive participles (with iterative Aktionsart). On the other hand, in Late Vedic i-'go' and car-'move' function as iterative-continuative auxiliaries in composition with participial form. As I will show, this new periphrastic construction is one of the strategies to substitute the synthetic intensive category, which was slowly disappearing after the Early Vedic time. aste or cintayan tiṣṭhati 'he is reflecting' are equivalent in meaning to cintayyann abh ut 'he has been reflecting'. But in his later grammar of the Vedic language (1896), Speijer presents a slightly different classification, claiming that in Vedic the present PTC with as-and bh u-just emphasizes the meaning ('mit emphatischer Bedeutung'), as in sam avad eva yajñe kurv aṇ a asan lit. 'they were doing the same thing at the sacrifice' (GB 2.2.11b). On the contrary, the present PTC and the ABS combined with i-, car-, as-and sth a-express 'ununterbrochenen Handlung' (Speijer 1896: 62). It is, however, difficult to understand what the author wants to indicate with 'emphatischer Bedeutung' (ibid.) and why in Vedic as-and bh u-plus present PTC would express a different meaning from that of later Sanskrit.5 Abbreviations in the glosses follow the Leipzig Glossing Rules, with the following additions: AOR = aorist, GVE = gerundive, INJ = injunctive, INT = intensive, MID = middle, OPT = optative, PPP = past passive participle, PRV = preverb, PTCL = particle. 6 The translation of the Taittir ıya Saṃhit a follows Keith (1914). 7 On tense, aspect and Aktionsart in Vedic see Dahl ( 2010) for an exhaustive discussion. 8 The translation of the Ṛgveda follows Jamison & Brereton (2014).