Genitive Marking of Subjects in West Pahāṛī

Authors

  • Claus Peter Zoller University of Oslo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/ao.7389

Abstract

Some languages of West Pahāṛī may mark their subjects with a possessive ending. This is typically done in order to realise various forms of the inabilitative mood. "Inahilitative mood" means that the subject person is (temporarily) unable to do some action, or his or her agency of action is reduced. However, other  forms of this mood, also realised with Genitive Subjects, are the involitive mood (the subject person is unable to control an event) and the 'perferitative' mood (the subject person is unable to prevent
an essential change of its own condition and has to suffer it). In addition, Genitive Subjects are sometimes employed in reflexive
and gerundive constructions, and in complex sentences expressing contemporaneity and anteriority. These Genitive Subject constructions differ basically from Dative Experiencer constructions in that verb semantics do not seem to play a significant role.

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