Amit Chatwani Linguistics 316 Linguistic Universals

12 Pages·2005·0.11 MB·English

Amit Chatwani
Linguistics 316
Linguistic Universals
Final Paper

A Selection of the Linguistic Behaviors of Gujarati
Amit Chatwani

Introduction
Gujarati belongs to the Indo-Aryan group of languages, a subset of the Indo-
Europeans language family. It is spoken by over 46 million people worldwide. While
the majority of these people are from the western Indian state of Gujarat, over 450,000
speakers live in East Africa (Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya). There are also a large
number of Gujarati speakers in the United States and Canada [4].
The languages that show the most similarities to Gujarati are Western Punjabi and
Vraj Basha (a early form of Hindi). There are seven main dialects of Gujarati: Standard
Gujarati, Gamadia, Parsi, Katiawali, Kharwa, Kakari, and Tarimuki. Coming from a
region that was ruled for many centuries of Sultan rule, Gujarati has a large number of
words in its vocabulary taken from Persian [4]. Some dialects of Gujarati utilize Persian
and Arabic words more frequently than others [6].
The Gujarati script is an abugida1 very similar to the script used by Sanksrit and
Hindi, Devanagri [4].

1 Abugida is a term coined by Peter T. Daniels for a script whose basic signs denote consonants with an
inherent vowel and where consistent modifications of the basic sign indicate other following vowels than
the inherent one (wiki).
There has been a considerable amount of work done in linguistics on Gujarati. A
true formal grammar written in English was first completed by George Cardona after the
1960 committee at the University of Pennsylvania decided an in-depth study of Gujarati
was necessary [7]. Much of the work previous to this was done in Sanskrit.
The goal of this paper is to inspect various language universals and how they
manifest themselves in Gujarati. We will give an introduction to ergativity in Gujarati
and then discuss causativization, passivization, and other topics I have found interesting
during my research.
The data for this paper was taken from two native Gujarati speakers, Drs. Ashwin
and Ansuya Chatwani. It is of note that they grew up in Uganda and Tanzania,
respectively, and this may be the reason for slight differences from other Gujarati
dialects.

Ergativity
The general definition of ergativity as stated by Dixon is (cid:147)a grammatical pattern
in which the subject of an intransitive clause is treated in the same way as the object of a
transitive clause, and differently from transitive subject.(cid:148) Furthermore, in such a pattern,
the word (cid:147)ergative(cid:148) is used to refer to the transitive subject and (cid:147)absolutive(cid:148) to refer to
the intransitive subject and transitive object [8].
Some examples of languages that exhibit ergativity include Basque, the Caucasian
languages, and Classical Armenian. Many Indo-Aryan languages have been shown to
exhibit ergative properties. Hindi, Punjabi, Nepali, and Gujarati all show morphological
ergativity, but none show syntactic ergativity. This means that the ergativity is
manifested in morphological markings rather than being encoded in the structure [9].
The ergativity in Gujarati will be demonstrated with the following four sentences2:
(1)
Amit-e chopri vainchi.
A (erg) O (abs)
Amit book read.
Trans: Amit read the book.
(2)
Amit chopri vanche che.
A (nom) O (acc)
Amit book reading is.
Trans: Amit is reading the book.
(3)
Amit daur-o.
S (nom)
Amit ran.
Trans: Amit ran.
(4)
Hu doru chu.
S (nom)
I running am.
Trans: I am running.

Examining the morphology of these four sentences, we see that the S of sentence (3)
shows no marking just as the O of sentence (1). Secondly, the S of sentence (4) matches
the A of sentence (2). Notice that sentences (1) and (3) are in the past tense and (2) and
(4) are in the present tense. We can conclude from these sentences that Gujarati exhibits
a split-ergativity in that it shows ergative behavior in the past tense but nominative-
accusative behavior in the present tense.3 This is analogous to the split-ergativity that has
been shown to exist in Hindi [9].

2 Note that S is used for the intransitive subject, A is used for the transitive subject, and O the transitive
object)
3 As shown by Hook and Modi (fluid), this does not hold for the verb maand.
Based on sentence (1), we can claim that (cid:150)e is the ergative marker for Gujarati. It
is slightly different for the first person, however. The (cid:147)Hu(cid:148) from sentence (4) become
(cid:147)Me.(cid:148)
(5)
Me pani pidu.
A (erg) O (abs)
I water drank.
Trans: I drank water.

We claim that this transformation is a product of the vowel harmony issue ((cid:147)Hu-e(cid:148)) that
we discussed for several other languages in class (Russian). It is also interesting to note
that the first person nominative pronoun in Hindi is (cid:147)Me,(cid:148) so some borrowing may have
occurred.

Ditransitive Verbs
As we learned in class, a ditransitive verb is one that takes a subject and two
objects. These objects are normally a direct object and an indirect object. The indirect
object generally is marked by the dative case.
Ditransitive verbs in Gujarati behave exactly as we would expect them to.
Consider the examples:
(1)
Me ene paisa api.
A (erg) O (dative) O (abs)
I him (to) money gave.
Trans: I gave him money.

(2)
Nita mane chopri vanche che.
A (nom) O (dative) O (acc)
Nita me (to) book read.
Trans: Nita is reading me the book
(3)
Bapuji-e Nita-ne history sikairi.
A (erg) O (dative) O (abs)
Father Nita (to) history taught.
Trans: Father taught Nita history.

Here we see that there is one object that is showing the morphological Gujarati dative
case marking (-ne) and one that is showing no marking as is normal for direct objects. In
the diathesis, the 2 role is for the direct object and the 3 role can be for a beneficiary. In
(1) ’paise’ can be taken to be the direct object and ‘Ene’ beneficiary to give us the
following diathesis of (1):

Me Paisa Ene -
N N N V

This follows with what we have learned about ditransitive verbs and is what we would
expect.

Spray-Load Verbs
We have learned that words similar to spray/load (spread, rub, etc) are unique in
the fact that they begin with two objects in the 3 position of the diathesis with the 2
position having no theta role. One of these then moves to the 2 position and exhibits 3-
>2 movement in the diathesis. Consider the following examples:

(1) He sprayed water on the man.
(2) He sprayed the man with water.
Diathesis of (1):

He Water Man -

N N N V

Diathesis of (2):

He Man Water -

N N N V

In the first example, water is the direct object of the verb (cid:147)spray(cid:148) and (cid:147)man(cid:148) is the
location of the action. In the second example, (cid:147)man(cid:148) is the direct object of the verb, and
(cid:147)water(cid:148) is the instrument used and realized with the word (cid:147)with.(cid:148) The 3->2 movement is
evident.
Gujarati also has spray-load verbs. Let us consider two similar Gujarati sentences:
(3)
Ashwin-e manas upar pani chaatyu.
A (erg) O (abs)
Ashwin man on water sprayed.
Trans: Ashwin sprayed water on the man.

(4)
Ashwin-e manasne pani thi chaatyu.
A (erg) O (abs)
Ashwin man water with sprayed.
Trans: Ashwin sprayed the man with water.

Diathesis of (3):
Ashwin Pani Manas -

N N N V

Diathesis of (4):

Ashwin Manasne Pani -

N N N V

In the Gujarati example, we again see the 3->2 doubling-up and movement. In (3), The
location (manas) is again realized with the word (cid:147)upar(cid:148) for (cid:147)on.(cid:148) Similarly, the word
(cid:147)thi(cid:148) for (cid:147)with(cid:148) is necessary in (2). What is interesting to note, however, is that the object
of (2) is in the dative case with the marking (-ne). This is a case where the (cid:150)ne marking
may be a specifier rather than marking dative [1].

The Causative
There are 7 different ways to form the causative in Gujarati:
1. (cid:150)aav
2. -aa
3. -av
4. -aavd
5. -evd
6. -rav
7. (cid:150)aar
These different endings are selected with no predictable method. The important fact to
note, however, is that these are all suffixial forms. There is no word for (cid:147)made(cid:148) in the
causative sense in Gujarati, and there is no periphrastic causative construction.
In this sense, Gujarati causativization very similar to the Turkish causativization
we learned about in class. The Turkish causative is formed by adding (cid:150)dir to the verb
stem. This is analogous to the various different endings selected in Gujarati.
Still, just as in Turkish and all other causative constructions, we can see the 1-
>2/3/4 movement in Gujarati causatives. For example:
(1)
Amit sooi gayo.
S (nom)
Amit sleep went.
Trans: Amit went to sleep.
(2)
Me Amit-ne soovraav (cid:150)i didu.
A (erg) O (abs)
I Amit (to) made sleep (past).
Trans: I put Amit to sleep.

Let us consider the diatheses of these two examples:
Diathesis of (1):

Amit - - -

N N N V

Diathesis of (2):

Me Amit-ne - -

N N N V
Here we see the movement from the 1 position to the 2 position in this causative
construction. This behaves exactly as we assume all causatives should. Again, it is
interesting to note that the object takes on a dative market.

Psych Verbs
A psych verb is one such as (cid:147)to like,(cid:148) (cid:147)to bother,(cid:148) or (cid:147)to enrage.(cid:148) These verbs
often assign the dative case. Spanish is an example of this:
(1)
Me gusta salir por la noche.
Trans: I like to go out at night.
(2)
Me gustaba salir por la noche.
Trans: I used to like to go out at night.
(2)
Le molesta bailar.
Trans: Dancing bothers him
(3)
Le estoy enojando?
Trans: Am I making you angry?

In Spanish, (cid:147)me(cid:148) is the way the dative is expressed in the first person, and (cid:147)le(cid:148) is the
corresponding word in the third person and honorific second person. In speech, (cid:147)a mi(cid:148) or
(cid:147)a Øl(cid:148) are often added before (cid:147)me(cid:148) and (cid:147)le(cid:148) for clarification. These additions literally
translate to (cid:147)to me(cid:148) and (cid:147)to him (or (cid:145)to you(cid:146)),(cid:148) repectively [3].
Gujarati also assigns dative case for psych verbs.
(1)
Ene kai nathi gamthu.
He anything doesn(cid:146)t like.
Trans: He doesn(cid:146)t like anything.
(2)
Ene shak bau baveche.
He curry a lot likes.
Trans: He likes (taste) curry a lot.
(3)
Mane kapda joitha tha.
I clothes wanted.
Trans: I wanted clothes.

These examples show the Gujarati dative (-ne) marking being assigned by the psych
verbs. One very interesting occurrence is that the subjects of these sentences (kai, shak,
and kapda) do not change morphologically as we go into the past tense.
The assigning of the dative case in these examples also occurs in languages such
as Russian. Literally, sentences like (1) translate to (cid:147)To him nothing likes.(cid:148) These
sentences are known as impersonal and have no nominal subject.

Conclusions
In conclusion, we have shown that Gujarati does follow the linguistic patterns we
discussed in class. Gujarati exhibits split ergativity, and a diathetic analysis shows that
ditransitive, spray-load, and causative verbs follow the role movement we studied. Psych
verbs present an interesting topic as they may assign the dative case. It has been very
intriguing to see how the different rules and patterns we have learned apply to a language
we did not specifically study.

Future Work

To research this topic further, Mistry(cid:146)s paper Objecthood and Specificity in
Gujarati must be acquired. According to Babu Suthar, a Professor of Linguistics at the
University of Pennsylvania, Mistry makes many claims about the behavior of the (cid:150)ne