ACTA ORIENTALIA EDIDERUNT SOCIETATES ORIENTALES DANICA FENNICA NORVEGIA SVECIA CURANTIBUS LEIF LITTRUP, HAVNIÆ HEIKKI PALVA, HELSINGIÆ ASKO PARPOLA, HELSINGIÆ TORBJÖRN LODÉN, HOLMIÆ SIEGFRIED LIENHARD, HOLMIÆ SAPHINAZ AMAL NAGUIB, OSLO PER KVÆRNE, OSLO WOLFGANG-E. SCHARLIPP, HAVNIÆ REDIGENDA CURAVIT CLAUS PETER ZOLLER LXXIII Contents ARTICLES S. GANESHRAM: Daśāvatāras in Tamil bhakti literature and programme of sculptures in Vijayanagara-Nāyaka art ...................... 1 OTARED HAIDAR: The poetics the Iraqi War: Between Discursive Conflicts and Diasporic Discourse .................................................. 17 VIRGINIE PREVOST: Mağmāğ et les sept savants : la création du Dīwān al-‘azzāba ............................................................................ 35 R.K.K. RAJARAJAN: Antiquity of the divyakṣetras in Pāṇḍināḍu ... 59 JULIAN RENTZSCH: The evolution of Turkic modal verbs ............ 105 STELLA SANDAHL: The seven oceans in the Purāṇas and elsewhere ....................................................................................... 151 DMITRY SHLAPENTOKH: Afanasiy Nikitin’s Journey Beyond the Three Seas: An Orthodox Russian in Medieval India ................... 173 STEFAN BOJOWALD: Zum ägyptischen Lautwandel zwischen „a“ und Gutturalen ............................................................................... 193 BOOK REVIEWS BASSIOUNEY, REEM (ed.). Arabic and the Media: Linguistic Analyses and Applications, reviewed by Torkel Lindquist ........... 207 VIBEKE BØRDAHL AND MARGARET B. WAN (eds.). The Interplay of the Oral and the Written in Chinese Popular Literature, reviewed by Christopher Rosemeier ............................................. 213 Wörterbuch der tibetischen Schriftsprache, 16 fascicles (to be continued), reviewed by Per Kvaerne ........................................... 216 Acta Orientalia 2012: 73, 105–150. Copyright © 2012 Printed in India – all rights reserved ACTA ORIENTALIA ISSN 0001-6483 The evolution of Turkic modal verbs Julian Rentzsch Szeged Abstract This paper investigates the mechanisms underlying the grammaticalization of Turkic modal auxiliary verbs. Special attention is paid to the linking device between main verb and auxiliary, i.e. the segment that corresponds to the infinitive in many Standard Average European modal constructions. Turkic modal constructions display a considerable variation regarding this linking device, which, however, can be reduced to a set of seven structural types, the origin and development of which will be investigated. It will be argued that interacting analogous mechanisms that build on formal and semantic principles contribute to the evolution and distribution of these types. Keywords: Auxiliary verbs, root modality, grammaticalization, variation, analogy, Turkic languages. 1. Full verbs and auxiliary verbs Turkic modal constructions are predominantly morphosyntactic units consisting of a main verb and an auxiliary segment, which may be of 106 Julian Rentzsch either nominal or verbal origin. This paper focuses on auxiliary verbs, although some constructions that entail a nominal auxiliary will be mentioned as well. The constructions to be discussed in the present article mainly pertain to the semantic domains of root possibility and willingness. As root modality does not constitute a closed formal class in the Turkic languages but resorts to morphosyntactic patterns that occur in other semantic domains as well, a non-modal type of construction that displays a similar behavior as the modal constructions to be investigated will also be considered in order to provide a broader formal and semantic context. This non-modal type is instantiated by a construction that denotes inception, i.e. ‘to begin’. All Turkic modal auxiliary verbs originate in full verbs. The lexical properties of full verbs include, besides their semantic value, specific syntactic characteristics, namely their argument structure, which implies specific government patterns. In the event that a full verb assumes auxiliary functions, in other words if it combines with another verb, some strategy is needed to link the main verb to the auxiliary. One option that is available in the Turkic languages is to build a nominal form from the main verb, i.e. a verbal noun, and to integrate the resulting nominal form into the original government pattern of the auxiliary. This strategy is in fact frequently found in the Turkic languages, but it is by no means the only one. Other widespread strategies include converb constructions, a shift in the government pattern and subjunctive uses of voluntative or optative forms. Hence, auxiliarization of an original full verb necessarily involves the choice of some linking device. This choice may be different in individual linguistic varieties, and some varieties may even permit several options, but in any event it is conventional in any given variety. Conventionalization of lexicosyntactic and morphosyntactic patterns is tantamount to grammaticalization (cf. Himmelmann 2004: 31). 1 Needless to say, the selection is not 1 For the purposes of this paper, grammaticalization is thought to entail all kinds of conventionalization processes that produce (simple or complex) grammatical items, i.e. developments from lexical items to grammatical ones, from lexico-grammatical combinations to grammatical items and from grammatical items to more grammatical ones. The starting point for every conventionalization process (lexicalization, idiomaticization and grammaticalization) will be labeled arbitrarity, which here Evolution of Turkic Modal Verbs 107 completely random but makes use of components that are already available in the language. On the other hand, the available components may change some of their morphological and syntactic properties. The following discussion pays special attention to the linking device between main and auxiliary verb, identifying the main types available in the Turkic languages, elaborating on their diachronic evolution and showing their approximate synchronic distribution within genetic and areal groups. Setting aside the details, the Turkic languages can be subdivided into four major branches – Southwest Turkic (Oghuz), Southeast Turkic (Karluk-Uyghur), Northwest Turkic (Kipchak) and South Siberian Turkic – plus three languages that cannot be directly linked to one of these branches – Yakut (and closely related Dolgan), Khalaj and Chuvash. For the purposes of this paper, a rough diachronic division into Old Turkic (8th–12th c.), Middle Turkic (13th–19th c.) and Modern Turkic (since 20th c.) will be sufficient. 2. Old Turkic full verb prototypes and their use in auxiliary constructions Almost all Turkic modal auxiliary verbs may function as full verbs as well, and many of them are attested either as full verbs or as verbs with both full verb and auxiliary functions in Old Turkic, i.e. either in the Turkic Runic inscriptions of Siberia and Mongolia or in Old Uyghur. Old Turkic verbs that became involved in Turkic modal constructions include u- ‘to be capable’ (Clauson 1972: 2), bil- ‘to know’ (Clauson 1972: 330) and bol- ‘to become’ (Clauson 1972: 331) for the semantic domain of possibility and küse- ‘to wish, desire, long for’ (Clauson 1972: 749), tile- ‘to seek’ (Clauson 1972: 492) and iste- ‘to seek, pursue’ (Clauson 1972: 243) for the semantic domain of willingness. Inception as the non-modal category consulted for comparative purposes is expressed by bašla- ‘to begin, to lead’ (Clauson 1972: 381–382), which is originally a denominal verb from baš ‘head, beginning’. The present study will focus on these seven signifies the spontaneous combination of lexical and grammatical items without a pre- existing model. 108 Julian Rentzsch verbs. All of them are attested as full verbs, so their argument structures and government patterns can be identified for the Old Turkic stage. Bol- as a verb denoting a change of state does not govern any (marked) case; its arguments (maximally2 two) are in the direct case, which is morphologically unmarked in Turkic. All other verbs mentioned could take direct objects in Old Turkic, which appear in the accusative case or, if unspecific, in the unmarked direct case: (1) Šimnu küč-iŋe qop-uγ u-γay. NP power-POSS.3.DAT all-ACC be.capable-FUT ‘By the power of Ahriman he will be capable of everything.’ (Old Uyghur, M II 5, 10–11; cited from Clauson 1972: 2) (2) Eki yiltiz-ig üč öð-ki nom-uγ bil-t-imiz. two roots-ACC three time-REL doctrine-ACC know-ASP-1.PL ‘We knew the two roots and the doctrine of the three times.’ (Old Uyghur, Xwāstvānift L 158–159)3 (3) Burxan qut-ïn küse-deči bodisatv-lar maxasatv-lar Buddha fortune-POSS.3.ACC desire-PTCP Bodhisattva-PL Mahāsattva-PL ‘Bodhisattvas and Mahāsattvas, which desire the Buddhahood’ (Old Uyghur, Altun Yaroq P1.02.02.r14–15) (4) Alqu-dïn sïŋar nom-uγ tile-yü all-ABL direction Dharma-ACC seek-CV ‘Seeking the Dharma everywhere’ (Old Uyghur, BT13.19.A.1.l.A01–02) (5) Ïraq-ta iste-d-i tözün-ler iz-in. far-LOC seek-ASP-3 Ārya-PL trace-POSS.3.ACC ‘In the distance he sought the traces of the Āryas.’ (Old Uyghur, Xuanzang Biography VII: 1465–1466) 2 Argument slots can be left empty in Turkic. 3 If not stated differently, Old Turkic examples are cited according to the VATEC database (see sources). The transcription has been adapted to the principles of Johanson & Csató (1998: XVIII–XIX). Evolution of Turkic Modal Verbs 109 (6) Öz-üŋe öŋ iš-in bašla-γïl. self-POSS.2.SG.DAT front work-POSS.3.ACC begin-IMP.SG ‘Begin with the work which confronts you.’ (Old Uyghur,