Abstract
Pashto is an Indo-Iranian language which expresses different semantic aspects and functions with the help of case markers. The post-position & case marker Ta has the quality to posit many types of usages i.e. temporal, spatial and structural in Pashto language. In the research on Pashto syntax, Khan (2009), Roberts (2000) and Tegey and Robson (1996) have described the phenomenon of case marker ‘Ta’ but have not been investigated extensively. This study follows Ahmed (2006) to analyze in detail different functions and usages of Ta in terms of semantic and syntactic principles and provides a unified account for these diverse usages and their meanings. The analyses confirm that Ta as a case marker is not only used for Dative case as a subject but it has a polysemous nature in terms of spatial and non-spatial (structural, temporal) usages. The non-spatial usages are the extension of its spatial origin in the semantic field that is metaphorically spatial by default. Besides temporal and structural ­Ta usages can be extended to purpose, reason, obligations, immediate future, perception, ability and inability in relations to DAT (as a SUBJ or OBJ) in Pashto language.
Highlights
Pashto as an Indo-Iranian language is mostly spoken by 25 million speakers as a national and first language in the south, southwest and east Afghanistan, regional language in the north west of Pakistan called Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and most of the central Asia, Europe and America by the migrants as their first language (Hamid & Bukhari, 2017; O’Leary, Rensch, & Hallberg, 1992; Penzl, 1961; Roberts, 2000; Skalmowski, 1996)
The analyses confirm that Ta as a case marker is used for Dative case as a subject but it has a polysemous nature in terms of spatial and non-spatial usages
This paper focuses on the only one post-position “Ta’’ with different spatial, temporal and structural usages in Pashto language
Summary
Pashto as an Indo-Iranian language is mostly spoken by 25 million speakers as a national and first language in the south, southwest and east Afghanistan, regional language in the north west of Pakistan called Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and most of the central Asia, Europe and America by the migrants as their first language (Hamid & Bukhari, 2017; O’Leary, Rensch, & Hallberg, 1992; Penzl, 1961; Roberts, 2000; Skalmowski, 1996). Pashto is written in Arabic script (Aslamzai & Saad, 2015; Zuhra & Khan, 2009). Many studies (Khan, 2009; Penzl, 1954, 1961; Tegey & Robson, 1996) have been conducted to study Pashto language in different perspectives. One area of increasing attention, is to study ad-positions (pre-position, post-position and ambi-position) in Pashto language in detail. This paper focuses on the only one post-position “Ta’’ with different spatial, temporal and structural usages in Pashto language.
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