Drifting between passive and anticausative. True and alleged accent shifts in the history of Vedic-ya-presents

Abstract

This paper focuses on the system of the Vedic present formations with the suffix ya- and middle inflexion, paying special attention to the attested accent patterns. On the basis of a study of the paradigmatic and syntactic features of this verbal formation we can conclude that the traditional analysis of some members of this class in terms of the passive/nonpassive (anticausative) opposition is inadequate. I offer a short overview of the history of this class, concentrating, in particular, on several accent shifts which account for a number of exceptions to the general correlation between the semantics and accent placement (passives: accent on the suffix vs. non-passives: accent on the root). Some of these shifts can be dated to the prehistoric (Common Indo-Aryan?) period (cf. suffix accentuation in such non-passives as mriyate ‘dies’), while some others must be features of certain Vedic dialects, dating to the period after the split of Common Indo-Aryan.