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A Treebank-based Investigation of IPP-triggering Verbs in Dutch

A Treebank-based Investigation of IPP-triggering Verbs in Dutch

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2 Genitive Data <strong>in</strong> H<strong>in</strong>di<br />

In H<strong>in</strong>di, case markers occur as postpositions. The default genitive case<br />

marker specifies a relation between two nouns: head and modifier as <strong>in</strong> rAm<br />

kA ghar (Ram’s house), where rAm modifies the head ghar. The genitive case<br />

marker is kA, which has allomorphic variations as kI and ke, governed by the<br />

grammatical features <strong>of</strong> the follow<strong>in</strong>g head as illustrated <strong>in</strong> Table 1:<br />

Allomorph Head Gram. feature Example<br />

kA Mascul<strong>in</strong>e, S<strong>in</strong>gular,<br />

Direct Case<br />

rAm kA ghar<br />

„Ram‟s house‟<br />

ke Mascul<strong>in</strong>e, S<strong>in</strong>gular,<br />

Oblique Case<br />

saMwAdAtA ke savAl kA javAb diyA<br />

„Answered the question <strong>of</strong> Press‟<br />

Mascul<strong>in</strong>e, Plural, Any<br />

congress kI nIiyAm<br />

„Policies <strong>of</strong> Congress‟<br />

kI Fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e, Any brahaspativAr kI rAt<br />

„Thursday‟s night‟<br />

Table 1: Allomorphic variation <strong>of</strong> the genitive marker <strong>in</strong> H<strong>in</strong>di<br />

As has been widely studied by Girju (2008), the genitive marker between<br />

two nouns is highly polysemous <strong>in</strong> nature as they express different semantic<br />

relations. H<strong>in</strong>di is no exception <strong>in</strong> this regard. However, the <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g fact<br />

<strong>of</strong> Indo-Aryan languages and other language families is that genitive data<br />

occur <strong>in</strong> many other contexts. We discuss those contexts <strong>in</strong> H<strong>in</strong>di here one by<br />

one. The most significant one is the relation that occurs between the genitive<br />

noun and verb as illustrated <strong>in</strong> (1), which is dist<strong>in</strong>ct from (2), which is a<br />

regular noun-noun genitive construction.<br />

1. rAm ke do beTA hE<br />

Ram-gen two son be-3sg pr<br />

„Ram has got two sons.‟<br />

2. rAm ke do beTe skul jA rahe hE<br />

Ram-gen two son school go be-3sg pr<br />

„Two sons <strong>of</strong> Ram are go<strong>in</strong>g to school.‟<br />

In (1), the genitive noun is connected to the verb directly and not with the<br />

follow<strong>in</strong>g noun do beTA „two sons‟. One might argue for the whole NP rAm<br />

ke do beTe „Two sons <strong>of</strong> Ram‟ to be argument <strong>of</strong> the verb hE „is‟ <strong>in</strong> the sense<br />

<strong>of</strong> „There exists two sons <strong>of</strong> Ram‟. This <strong>in</strong>terpretation is not viable because<br />

the NP do beTe can be scrambled with hE as <strong>in</strong> (3), which is not a regular<br />

phenomenon for Noun-gen Noun construction.<br />

3. rAm ke hE do beTe, aur madhu ke t<strong>in</strong><br />

Ram-gen be-3sg pr two sons and Madhu-gen three<br />

„Ram has got two sons and Madhu three.‟<br />

However, the case becomes more complex than it was assumed <strong>in</strong> the<br />

beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g because we have come across <strong>in</strong>stances where the head noun is not<br />

contiguous with its genitive modifier as exemplified <strong>in</strong> (4):<br />

4. mAntriyoM kI samiti kI adyakshaytA rakshA mantrI karenge<br />

m<strong>in</strong>ister-pl-gen committee-gen chair defense m<strong>in</strong>ister do-3sg fut<br />

„The committee <strong>of</strong> the m<strong>in</strong>isters will be chaired by Defense M<strong>in</strong>ister.‟<br />

200

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