Journal | Bhasha
Journal issue | 3 | 1 | 2024
Research Article | Passive and Causative in Sanskrit
Passive and Causative in Sanskrit
Abstract
To what extent can fine-grained statistical analysis provide evidence regarding syntactic patterns in corpus languages like Sanskrit, particularly in cases where the interaction of multiple syntactic phenomena obscures the evidence? We investigate the value of a correlation matrix for bivariate data analysis in relation to varying syntactic patterns in a relatively poorly attested yet productive construction in Classical Sanskrit: the passive of the causative (‘passive causative’). The interaction of causative and passive is complex in Sanskrit, but we show that even in the case of low frequency data, syntactic conclusions can be drawn from such interactions when detailed statistical analysis is employed. In particular, our analysis speaks to the status of the ergative in Sanskrit.
Submitted: July 5, 2023 | Accepted: Sept. 23, 2023 | Published March 1, 2024 | Language: en
Keywords Causative • Ergative • Sanskrit • Passive • Correlation matrix
Copyright © 2024 John Lowe, Adriana Molina-Muñoz, Antonia Ruppel. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/bhasha/2785-5953/2024/01/001
