Verbs in Hindi: a semantico-syntactic classification
List of Authors
  • Richa

Keyword
  • NLP, intransitive, transitive, verb class, internally caused, externally caused

Abstract
  • Hindi, an Indo-Aryan language has the vocabulary of mostly tatsam (borrowed from Sanskrit and kept intact) and tadbhav (derived from Sanskrit and modified) words. The examination of the root forms shows that most of the verbs are intransitive at base but the present paper argues that morphology cannot be the reliable basis to decide this. Hence, the need of the hour is to probe into their semantico-syntactic behaviour and classify them according to that criterion. The paper provides a detailed semantic-syntactic classification of Hindi verbs. This classification will also provide a range of information regarding the linguistic properties of the verbs. It will be a powerful resource for various NLP applications as well as research in the area of cognitive linguistics.

Reference
  • Abbi, A. (1992). Reduplication in South Asian languages: An areal, topological and historical study. New Delhi, India: Allied Publishers Limited.
    Asher, R.E. (1985). Tamil. London: Routledge.
    Bhatt, R. & Embick, D. (2004). Causative derivations in Hindi. Retrieved on December 21, 2011 from http://people.umass.edu/bhatt/papers/bhatt-embick-caus.pdf.
    Dowty, D.R. (1991). Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. Language 67, 547-619.
    Gnanasundaram, T. (1972). On echo-words in Tamil. In Proceedings of All India Dravidian Linguistics Conference, 247-254.
    Jespersen, O. (1927). A modern English grammar on historical principles 3. Heidelberg: Germany Winter.
    Kimball, J. (1973). The grammar of existence. In C. Corum, C.T. Smith-Stark & A. Weiser (eds.). Papers from the Ninth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistics Society (pp. 262–270). Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistics Society.
    Levin, B. & Rappaport Hovav, M. (1995). Unaccusativity at the syntax-semantics interface. Cambridge,Massachusetts: MIT Press.
    Levin, B. (1993). English verb classes and alternations. Chicago, US: University of Chicago Press.
    Mulder, R. & Wehrmann, P. (1989). Locational verbs as unaccusatives. In H. Bennis & A. van Kemenade (eds.). Linguistics in the Netherlands (pp. 111-121). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
    Perlmutter, D. (1978). Impersonal passives and the unaccusative hypothesis. In In J. Jaeger, A.C. Woodbury, F. Ackerman, C. Chiarello, O.D. Gensler, J. Kingston, E.E. Sweetser, H. Thompson & K.W. Whitler (eds.). Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society (pp. 157-189). Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistic Society.
    Rappaport Hovav, M. & Levin, B. (2002). Change of state verbs: Implications for theories of argument projection. Retrieved on December 21, 2011 from http://www.stanford.edu/~bclevin/bls02hdr.pdf.
    Richa. (2011). Hindi verb classes and their argument structure alternations. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholarly Publishing.
    Smith, C.S. (1970). Jesperson’s ‘move and change’ class and causative verbs in English. In M.A, Jazayery, E.C. Polomé & W. Winter (eds.). Linguistic & literary studies in honor of Archibald A. Hill, Vol.2. (pp. 101-109). The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton.
    Vajpayee, K. (1987). Hindi Shabdaanushaashan. Varanasi: Naagri Prachaarini Sabhaa.