The Sanskrit (Pseudo)Periphrastic Future

Abstract

The paradigmatic status of the Sanskrit periphrastic future is widely taken for granted. I argue that all the criteria for distinguishing the periphrastic future as a paradigmatic tense formation from a syntactic collocation of agent noun plus copula are problematic, except in one small set of Sanskrit texts. The evidence requires a nuanced diachronic approach: in early Vedic Prose we may reasonably speak of a paradigmatic ‘periphrastic future’ (though it may not be periphrastic), but outside this period the formation is merely a special use of the agent noun.

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

“…This research, based on well‐documented corpora, offers insights that may produce considerable consequences in our understanding of the Indo‐Aryan language and its aspectual system. It demonstrates that the use of motion verbs as aux is characteristic of the Vedic Prose dialect, further substantiating “the idea that Vedic Prose represents a dialect/sociolect which did not directly feed into the development of post‐Vedic Sanskrit” (Lowe 2017a: 294). Most importantly, it corroborates the view that there is a gradual shift from synthetic verbal categories to analytic ones that are functionally equivalent, and this has a parallel with other periphrastic constructions in Indo‐Aryan.…”

“…As Bubenik (1997) states, in the Late Vedic period “Sanskrit initiated […] the periphrastic constructions of Middle Indic which ultimately would replace all the remaining synthetic forms” (Bubenik 1997: 54). But if some verbal periphrases have been deeply investigated in several recent works (see Jamison 1990; Stump 2012; Condoravdi & Deo 2015; Ozono 2016, Lowe 2017a), there is one set that remains mostly unexplored. This set was described by Western grammarians of Sanskrit as being formed by a finite verb such as i‐ ‘go’, car‐ ‘move’, ās ‐ ‘sit’ and sthā‐ ‘stand’ and a participle ( ptc ) or an absolutive ( abs), expressing a continuous or habitual action (cf.…”

“…the periphrastic constructions of Middle Indic which ultimately would replace all the remaining synthetic forms" (Bubenik 1997: 54). But if some verbal periphrases have been deeply investigated in several recent works (see Jamison 1990;Stump 2012;Condoravdi & Deo 2015;Ozono 2016, Lowe 2017a), 2 there is one set that remains mostly unexplored. 3 This set was described by Western grammarians of Sanskrit as being formed by a finite verb such as i-'go', car-'move', as-'sit' and sth a-'stand' and a participle (PTC) or an absolutive (ABS), expressing a continuous 1 I am extremely grateful to Luca Alfieri, Marina Benedetti and John Lowe for discussing with me this research so many times during these years, as well as to Michele Bianconi, Victor D'Avella, Simone Gentile, Y uto Kawamura, Edoardo Nardi, the editor Lutz Marten and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and constructive suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.…”

“…3 This set was described by Western grammarians of Sanskrit as being formed by a finite verb such as i-'go', car-'move', as-'sit' and sth a-'stand' and a participle (PTC) or an absolutive (ABS), expressing a continuous 1 I am extremely grateful to Luca Alfieri, Marina Benedetti and John Lowe for discussing with me this research so many times during these years, as well as to Michele Bianconi, Victor D'Avella, Simone Gentile, Y uto Kawamura, Edoardo Nardi, the editor Lutz Marten and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and constructive suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. 2 In this respect see Lowe (2017a) for the periphrastic future, Stump (2012) and Ozono (2016) for the periphrastic perfect. Moreover, the study of the construction made up of the past participle plus a copula, asti 'be' or bh avati 'become', goes back to Jamison (1990) and it has been recently reconsidered by Condoravdi & Deo (2015).…”