Bornini Lahiri - The Case System of Eastern Indo‑Aryan Languages: A Typological Overview

This book presents a typological overview of the case system of Eastern Indo-Aryan (EIA) languages. It utilizes a Cognitive Framework to analyse and compare the case markers of seven EIA languages: Angika, Asamiya, Bhojpuri, Bangla, Magahi, Maithili and Odia. The book introduces semantic maps, which have hitherto not been used for Indian languages, to plot the scope of different case markers and facilitate cross-linguistic comparison of these languages. It also offers a detailed questionnaire specially designed for fieldwork and data collection which will be extremely useful to researchers involved in the study of case.

A unique look into the linguistic traditions of South Asia, the book will be indispensable to academicians, researchers, and students of language studies, linguistics, literature, cognitive science, psychology, language technologies and South Asian studies. It will also be useful for linguists, typologists, grammarians and those interested in the study of Indian languages.

Bornini Lahiri is Assistant Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. She has a PhD in Linguistics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She has previously worked as a resource person with the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages, hosted by the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru. She was a research assistant for Study and Research of Indigenous and Endangered Languages of India, hosted by Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She has also collaborated on projects studying aggression and hate speech, including an ongoing project on studying communal and misogynistic aggression, sponsored by Facebook Research. She has worked extensively on typological and morpho-syntactic properties of several lesser-known, low-resourced, under-researched languages, including Toto, Mahali, Dhimal, Magahi and Angika. Her publications include Bangla-Kurmali-English-Hindi Dictionary (forthcoming), Effect of Bangla on Koda Verbs (2020), Kurmali: A Language of Undivided Bihar (2019), Presence of Minor Languages of West Bengal in Social Media (2018), and A Typological Study of Local Cases in EIA Languages (2013), among others.

First published 2021
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2021 Bornini Lahiri

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ISBN: 978-0-367-49822-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-75633-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04751-3 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by SPi Global, India

This book is dedicated to two inspiring women in my life. One introduced me to the world of alphabets: my mother, Mrs Subhalakshmi Lahiri. The other introduced me to the world of Linguistics: my Guru, (Padma Shri) Prof. Anvita Abbi. Both of them share an infectious energetic personality which is a source of inspiration and motivation to me.

Terms like parents, sibling, spouse and friend define the different human relationship. Each term has particular features which define it. Yet, every relationship is influenced by the individual involved in it. For example, the relationship between two siblings or two spouses can never be the same across the world because, for every relationship, the individuals involved are different. The relationship I share with my brother could be different from the relationship you share with your brother.

The same is true for case relations.

There are certain universal features of the various case relations that define those cases, yet these case relations get influenced by the specific languages where they occur. In some languages, one case can differentiate between animate and inanimate objects, but the same case may not do so in other languages. Alternatively, one case can share its marker with the other cases in one set of languages, but not in the another set of languages. However, things are not haphazard! They share a uniformity along with their individual features. For example, ablative, instrumental, perlative and comparative cases can share markers, but this set of cases generally do not share markers with accusative or benefactive cases. Most of the time, when the case relations share markers, they also share semantics, though at times they may be studied as homophonous markers or taken as instances of case syncretism. In this book, case markers have been largely described using the Cognitive Framework (CF), which looks at them as part of the same semantic continuum.

The CF in linguistics looks at conceptualization as the basis of language, so it is claimed that when two case markers are homophonous, they are not only homophonous by chance but are conceptually connected. The first chapter of this book gives a brief introduction to CF. The CF is used to analyse the case markers of Eastern Indo-Aryan (EIA) languages because I believe that the polysemous nature of these markers can be explained through CF. In EIA languages, case markers are versatile, and they are never restricted to one function.

Often I come across research scholars and students of linguistics who struggle to understand the general concept of case and the distribution of cases in a specific language. These things become even more challenging when there is a need to undertake a cross-linguistic study of cases. This book refers to both of these points: 1) the general concept of case and different case relations and their markers are explained; and 2) there is a cross-linguistic study of cases of EIA languages. In the book, one may find it interesting to note that the closely related languages have different features related to case. In some languages, animacy plays an essential role in choosing the case markers, while in the others it does not. Moreover, the semantic range of case markers varies a lot depending on the languages. In the semantic maps, the different senses of some of the markers have been plotted.

I hope the book will not only help one understand the notion of case, but also give an overview of the EIA languages, which are mostly under-studied. I believe the present book will motivate the readers to work in a related area and help in the development of the study of cases.

There is a vast list of names that deserve to be mentioned. I cannot mention them all here, for obvious reasons, but I hope they all know that they have a place in my heart. I begin by showing my gratitude towards (Padma Shri) Prof. Anvita Abbi, who paved the path for me with her guidance. I also want to thank Prof. Ayesha Kidwai, whose academic input in my research work is beyond my expression of gratitude.