Differential subject marking in Nepali: The agent marker le in imperfective constructions

Abstract

In the Indo-Aryan language Nepali, the transitive subject A in perfective constructions is ergatively marked with the postposition le. However, in contrast to Hindi, also Indo-Aryan, le can mark A in imperfective constructions. The postposition is then optional and seems to occur on a highly irregular basis. Various hypotheses have been assumed to account for this anomalous distribution; the traditional textbook hypothesis considers as the factor controlling the occurrence of le. However, pure emphasis is too vague as a linguistic concept to account for all occurrences. Other accounts select different syntactic and/or semantic factors that determine the distribution of le; for instance, le would distinguish between a stage-and an individual-level predicate. An in-depth analysis of new data in Nepali shows that none of the previous accounts can predict the occurrence of le as a marker of A in an imperfective construction. The emphasis approach has the greatest validity among the existing explanations; however, it is shown that le does not simply indicate the emphasized A-argument, but rather, the argument in focus. Secondly, it is argued that le, as a syntactic postposition associated with perfective verbs, carries over a perfective meaning to present and progressive verb constructions and adds a notion of completeness and determination to the clause.