LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:4 April 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

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         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
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         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

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Causatives in the Sham Variety of Ladakhi

Saurabh Kumar Nath, MPhil

Abstract

Ladakhi is a Sino-Tibetan Language spoken mainly in the Ladakh region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. In this paper, I primarily discuss the causatives in the Sham variety of Ladakhi, spoken in the lower part of Ladakh. I explore causatives as a valence increasing device which is expressed both lexically and morphologically in Sham-Ladakhi. I also explore how the role of the arguments changes in monovalent, bivalent and trivalent predicates when a causative situation is expressed in the verb stem. Furthermore, I explore the relationship between the direct-indirect causation and lexical-morphological causatives in this variety.

Keywords: Sham-Ladakhi, lexical and morphological causative, direct and indirect causation

1. 0. Introduction

A causative is a valence increasing operation in which a subject cause someone or something to do something. It is defined as the addition of an external AGENT (causer) in an event, and thus the valence of the predicate increases. Payne (1997:176) describes a causative as “a linguistic expression that contains in semantic/logical structure a predicate of cause, one argument of which is a predicate expressing an effect”. Causatives, as Payne (1997:176) categorizes them, can be divided into three types: lexical, morphological and analytical causatives. In Sham-Ladakhi, the presence of both lexical and morphological causatives is observed.

1.0.1 The Ladakhi Language and Speech Community

Ladakhi is a Sino-Tibetan Language spoken mainly in the Ladakh region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Census of India 2001 reported that there were 104618 Ladakhi speakers, but the latest Census of India 2011 reports an exponential decrease in the number of Ladakhi speakers, which is 14952. Ladakhi is different enough from Tibetan. Ladakhis and Tibetans often use Hindi or English for communication. Educated Ladakhis usually know Hindi/Urdu and often English. Within Ladakh, there is a range of dialects/varieties of Ladakhi. The language of the Chang-Pa people may differ markedly from that of the Purig-pa in Kargil, or the Zangskaris, but they are all mutually intelligible. Due to its position on important trade routes, the racial composition, as well as the language of Leh, is enriched with foreign influences. Traditionally, Ladakhi had no written form distinct from classical Bhoti, but recently several Ladakhi writers have started using the Bhoti script to write the colloquial tongue. (Tashi 2010:2)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Saurabh Kumar Nath, MPhil
University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
saurabhkumarnath@gmail.com
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