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The Influence of English on the History of Hindi Relative Clauses

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The Influence of English on the History of Hindi Relative Clauses Journal of Language Contact 4 (2011) 250–268 brill.nl/jlc Th e Infl uence of English on the History of Hindi Relative Clauses Vandana Puri University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [email protected] Abstract Th e infl uence of Hindi on English has been well documented; however, little has been said about the infl uence of English on the structure of Hindi. In this paper I provide evidence that Hindi “embedded” (i.e. post-nominal) relative clauses result from English infl uence. Hindi originally had Relative-Correlative (RC-CC) constructions that could adjoin to the left or the right of the main clause. Since evidence from early Hindi is limited, I draw on Awadhi and Braj Bhakha to provide greater time depth for the earlier history of Hindi. In addition I examine early 19 th cen- tury grammars and texts. None of these provide unambiguous evidence for embedded relative clauses. By contrast, late 19 th century and early 20 th century Hindi texts translated from English exhibit many instances of central embedded relative clauses (besides the old adjoined relative- correlatives), thus supporting the argument that Hindi embedded relative clauses result from the infl uence of English. I argue that what may have helped in this developed is the occasional occur- rence of potentially ambiguous structures in earlier Hindi, which could be reinterpreted as involving embedding, rather than a relative-correlative construction with deleted correlative pronoun. Keywords Hindi ; English ; India ; language change ; syntax ; embedded relative clause 1. Introduction Th e infl uence of Hindi on English has been a topic of research for many years (Agnihotri 1991 , 1999 ; Agnihotri & Sahgal 1988 ; Bansal 1962 ; Bhatia 1978 ; Chaudhury 1985 ; Kachru, B. 1983). Th e infl uence of English on Hindi has also been discussed in the literature (Hock 1992 ; Kachru, B. 1979; Kachru, Y. 1989; Krishnamurty and Mukherjee 1984; Mishra 1963 ). In this paper I look at one eff ect of such infl uence, namely central-embedded relative clauses in Hindi. I present arguments in favor of the view that central-embedded relative clauses were not found in Hindi syntax originally and have become a part of Hindi due to the infl uence of English. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI 10.1163/187740911X589299 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 01:48:12AM via free access V. Puri / Journal of Language Contact 4 (2011) 250–268 251 Since evidence from early Hindi is limited, I draw on 17th and 18 th century Awadhi and Braj Bhasha texts to provide greater time depth. Even though both of these language varieties are not immediate ancestors of standard Hindi, they are closely related to it. I also looked at well-known 19 th century Hindi grammars and 19 th century Hindi texts. A close examination of all of these grammars and texts shows evidence of relative-correlative constructions but not of central-embedded relative clauses. By contrast, texts translated from English to Hindi in the late 19 th century and early 20 th century by non-native speakers of Hindi exhibit many instances of both relative-correlatives and of central-embedded relative clauses, thus supporting the argument that central- embedded relative clauses found in Hindi are due to the infl uence of English. In section 2, I provide background information about English in India and relative-correlative structures in Hindi. Section 3 provides evidence of the lack of central-embedded relative clauses in Hindi, Awadhi and Braj Bhasha. In section 4, I show how central-embedded relative clauses came about in Hindi due to the infl uence of English. I conclude this paper by showing that even though central-embedded relative clauses exist in Hindi today, they are still not as widely used as the other RC-CC constructions. 2. Background Information In this section I outline the background information necessary for this paper. More specifi cally, I discuss how English became a part of India (section 2.1); the relationship between Hindi, Hindustani and Urdu (section 2.2); and introduce the relative-correlative structures that Hindi traditionally had and the central-embedded relative clauses that it later acquired (section 2.3). 2.1 English in India Th e British imperial rule brought English to India. With the East India Company becoming a political power in the mid-18 th century, English was slowly introduced as a media of instruction for administrative purposes. Th is was initiated in 1835 on T. B. Macaulay’s recommendations to have English as the medium of instruction in universities and schools in India. Th e main reason behind this was to create a population that would act as interpreters between the British and the people that they governed in India. Th is historic policy was called the Macaulay’s Minute (Agnihotri and Khanna 1995). Over time English slowly became the language of the elite and still continues to be so. Th ere were many stages of nativization of English in India and this has Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 01:48:12AM via free access 252 V. Puri / Journal of Language Contact 4 (2011) 250–268 been well documented (Agnihotri 1991 , 1999 ; Agnihotri & Sahgal 1988 ; Bansal 1962 ; Bhatia 1978 ; Chaudhury 1985 ; Kachru, B. 1983). With English becoming the language of power and of the elite, Hindi and other Indian languages also underwent a number of changes due to extensive English-to-Hindi translations, Hindi-English bilingualism, and the growing importance of English in the Indian subcontinent. Much has been said about the lexical modernization of Hindi under the infl uence of English and the Sanskritization of Hindi due to polarization of Hindi and Urdu (Kachru, B. 1979; Kachru, Y. 1989; Krishnamurthi and Mukherjee 1984; Mishra 1963 ; Hock 1992 ). In this paper I analyze the infl uence of English on Hindi relative clauses. 2.2 Relationship between Hindi, Hindustani and Urdu According to Grierson ( 1906 ) Urdu and Hindi developed from Hindustani. Th e origin and development of Hindustani can be attributed to the Western dialects (in particular Vernacular Hindustani and Bangaru) and Eastern Punjabi (Chatterji, 1969 ). Socio-culturally Urdu and Hindi are counted as diff erent languages, but linguistically Urdu and Modern Standard Hindi are not even diff erent dialects. Th ey are considered diff erent literary styles of the (linguistically) same sub-dialect (Masica, 1991 ). ‘Urdu’ is confi ned to the vari- ety where Persian words are of frequent occurrence and which is written in the Persian script. On the other hand ‘Hindi’ is the variety of Hindustani where Sanskrit words are in abundance and is written in the nagari script. Also, Urdu has a few sounds that Hindi does not have. However, both Hindi and Urdu are essentially the same syntactically. Although the main focus of this study is on Hindi, I also include evidence from texts in Urdu/Hindustani. 2.3 Relative-Correlatives in Hindi In this section I discuss the relative-correlative constructions and central- embedded relative clauses in Hindi. Hindi like most other South Asian lan- guages (Marathi, Bangla) has relative-correlative (RC-CC) structures. Hindi inherited these RC-CCs from Sanskrit. However, RC-CC constructions in Sanskrit and Hindi are extremely diff erent from each other today (Davison 2006 ). 1 1 According to Davison ( 2006 ) Hindi and Sanskrit diff er in the adjunction relation of rela- tives: Sanskrit has symmetric adjunction of CP to CP, but Hindi has asymmetric adjunction of CP to TP with the corresponding correlate XP. Hindi has asymmetric c-command that rules out stacked relatives, but Sanskrit has symmetric adjunction that permits stacked relatives. Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 01:48:12AM via free access V. Puri / Journal of Language Contact 4 (2011) 250–268 253 An RC-CC structure is defi ned as a relative clause (RC) containing a rela- tive pronoun (RP) which is followed or preceded by a correlative (main) clause (CC) introduced by an (optional) ‘correlative’ pronoun (CP) (Hock 1989 ). Th ese RC-CC constructions allow the relative clause to adjoin to the right [1] or left [2] edge of the main clause. [1]. [MC vah baccaa sundar hai ] [RC jo nahaa rahaa hai ] that child beautiful is REL bath PRS-PROG-M-SG is Th e child who is taking a bath is beautiful. [2]. [RC jo baccaa nahaa rahaa hai ] [MC vah sundar hai ] REL child bath PRS-PROG-M-SG is that beautiful is Th e child who is taking a bath is beautiful Contemporary Hindi also allows central-embedded constructions like [3] and [4] where the RC is embedded in the main clause after the head noun. 2 Th ere are two ways of defi ning ‘embedded relative clauses’: one where there is embed- ding in the main clause and second where it is adjoined to the main clause. For ease of exposition in this paper I use the term “embedded” to refer only to central-embedded relative clauses and reserve the term “RC-CC” for the rela- tive-correlative structures of the type shown in examples [1] and [2]. In [3] the correlative and the head noun precede the embedded clause. Example [4] shows an alternative “embedded” type in which the correlative precedes the head noun and follows the embedded clause. [3]. [MC vah baccaa [RC jo nahaa rahaa hai ] sundar hai ] REL child who bath PRS-PROG-M-SG is beautiful is Th at child who is taking a bath is beautiful [4]. [MC vah raanii [RC jo kile me rahatii hai ] vah merii sahelii hai ] Th at queen REL fort in live-PRS-HAB-F-SG is she my friend is Th e Queen who lives in the fort is my friend It should be noted that in this paper no distinction has been made between Restrictive relative clauses (those that restrict the reference of the head noun) and Appositive relative clauses (those that give some extra but relevant infor- mation about the head noun).
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