Rigvedic nú: Configurational Syntax, Semantics, and Poetics

Abstract

AbstractThe Rigvedic particle nú (310x) appears most frequently in second position within the clause, which is normally equivalent to the pāda. Often, nú is displaced to third or fourth position by other clitic(‐like) elements with which it competes (most frequently íd, cid, and u), In a smaller group of passages, nú (nearly always lengthened to n) appears in initial position in the clause and pāda, where it represents a topicalization of time. The collocation n cid (usually also clause‐initial) with a few exceptions has the meaning ‘never’. Most likely, this usage has been extracted by ellipsis from the phrase *ná n cid ‘not even now’, where the scope of the scalar particle (cid ‘even’) entails all time past and present and, by pragmatic implicature, the future. In a few instances n cid has the value ‘even now’. Instances where nú appears in penultimate or final position within the clause and pāda most likely presuppose a clause‐final focus position. The chief remaining passages where nú cannot possess the meaning ‘now’ are those where it follows the interrogative pronoun ká‐. In such instances, nú possesses a cooperative interpersonal conversational value like English ‘now’ under the same circumstances.