46 ■ Article ■ The Cases in the Oblique Case Subject Constructions in Oriya* ● Junji Yamabe 1. Preliminaries This article is concerned with the oblique case subject con- structions in Oriyal), exemplified in (1) and (2).2) (1) a.mo-ra girlfrend naah-i～.3) me-GEN girlfriend not. be (E)-3s 'Idon' t have a girlfriend .' b. bas-re mo-ra parisraa hei gal-aa. bus-Loc me-GEN urine happened-3s 'Iurinatedonabus .' (2) a. mo-te nabina bhala laag-e. me-ow Nabin like-3s 'I like N abin. ' lit. 'Nabin strikes me as good.' b. mo-te e barsa bi caakiri miLil-aa ni. me-ow this year also job received-3s not 'I did not get a job this year either.' These sentences have a logical subject4) in non-nominative, i.e. oblique, case, and hence, the name of oblique case subject con- struction. 山 部 順 治Junji Yamabe, Graduate School, University of Tokyo, Linguistics. Main Publication: "Word Order within Gerund Clauses in Bengali" , Tokyo University Linguistic Papers 10, pp. 227-256, Department of Linguistics, University of Tokyo, 1991 . The Cases in the Oblique Case Subject Constructions in Oriya 47 Oblique case subject constructions ("dative subject construc- tions" or "experiencer subject constructions", as more commonly called), attested in many languages of the world,5) are cross-linguis- tically characterizable in terms of semantics. Their logical subjects are "non-volitional" [Kachru 1981 for Hindi; Klaiman 1980,1981 for Bengali; Sridhar 1976,1979 for Kannada] or "non-agentive" [MacAlpin 1976:193 for Malayalam], that is, do not exert con- scious control over the realization or non-realization of the de- scribed situation.6) This characteristic distinguishes them from passive constructions. The logical subjects of the latter are voli- tional (= agentive), obligatorily in many languages including Oriya, and canonically in others such as English. While widespread cross-linguistically, it is in South Asian lan- guages where oblique case subject constructions present great vari- ety and appear in text frequently. They thus constitute one of the geographical features of these languages, among which is Oriya, an Indo-Aryan language.7) Those in Oriya choose for the cases on the logical subjects be- tween genitive (henceforth abbreviated as GEN, related to mark- ing with GEN) as in (1) and dative (DAT, related to marking with OBJ)as in(2),and for those on the logicalobjects(henceforth, themes afterits semantic role)between nominative(NoM)and accusative(Acc).8)This articleis to describe the uses and non- uses of the four cases and go on to explain aspects of the observa. tions.9) The subsequent part of this paper is organized as follows.Sec- tion 2 explores the cases on logicalsubjects,and section 3 those on themes.Section 4 looks into the cases in nominalized clauses.Sec- tion 5 detailsthe combinations of the cases on the logicalsubjects and themes inclauses.Section 6 is a conclusion. 2.The Dative and Genitive Cases on Logical Subjects Like Oriya,Hindi distinguishestwo cases for the oblique case subjects(=the so-called"dative subjects"). 48 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 7, 1995 (3) merii ek bahan hai. me.GEN one sister is 'I ha ve a sister.' (4) mujh-e vah laRkii acchii lagtii hai. me-OBj that girl like 'I like the girl .' The Oriya (la) and the Hindi (3) involve the same semantic rela- tions and both have logical subjects in genitive. Further, the Oriya (2a) and the Hindi (4) involve the same semantic relations and both have dative logical subjects.10) In contrast, Bengali has only genitive subjects, and Dravidian languages such as Malayalam only dative subjects. Thus, Hindi and Oriya are similar in dividing the oblique case subjects to the two cases. We consider that the dative and genitive cases have abstract meanings and are used (or not used) in accordance with them. First, dative means the prototypical role of goal, a locus toward which something moves: this is most clear when it is on the recipi- ent noun phrase in a ditransitive clause (= the one to whom some- one {gives/tell/shows} something) [Mohanan and Mohanan 1990, Verma and Mohanan 1990:9]. The datives on subjects are to ex- press their semantic status as goals in terms of localistic metaphor, as schematized in (5b) for the Malayalam example in (5a) [Mohanan and Mohanan 1990]. (5) a.baalanｅ{dukkham/santooSam}wannu. boy.DAT grief.NoM/happiness.NoM come.PAST 'The boy became{sad/happy} .' [Mohanan and Mohanan 1990:47] b. sadness/ happiness •¨ o boy [Mohanan and Mohanan 1990 : 49] Second, genitive means the prototypical role of possessor [Verma and Mohanan 1990 : 9], as is obvious when it is on a modifier of a noun as in nabina-ra baapaa Nabins father'. And in localistic The Cases in the Oblique Case Subject Constructions in Oriya 49 metaphor a possessor can be conceived of as a locus {at/by/in} which a possessum is found. On the basis of the above, we can characterize the semantic features distinguishing between dative and genitive cases as involvement and non-involvement of such notional directional movement as an arrow indicates in (5b).11) Cases, including the two of our concern, extend their ranges of uses from more to less typical circumstances. They , however, di- verge in the distances and courses of such extensions. As a conse- quence, corresponding ("the same") cases in different languages appear at widely differing, though substantially overlapping , ranges. Oblique case subjects overall are non-typical positions for dative and genitive cases to appear on, and accordingly form do- mains where a great deal of divergence is observed across lan- guages.12)In what follows we look into the distributions of the two cases in Oriya (2.1-2.4) and account for the observations in light of the semantic considerations above (2.5, 2.6). 2. 1 The Verb ach- 'Be(E)' The existential 'be' verb, ach-, forms a clause denoting a state of possession. The noun referring to the possessed entity (= possessum) appears in nominative and agrees with the verb. Where the possessum is a concrete entity, namely a thing or a person, the case on the possessor is genitive and never dative. Genitive is in use whether the possession is a permanent/integral/ inalienable one as in (6), or a temporary/alienable one as in (7) . (6) {mo-ra / *mo-te} {bhaai / girlfriend I ghara / bahuta me-GEN/ me-ow brother / girlfriend / house / many braNa / daaRhi / lambaa baaLa} ach-i / baapaa pimple / beard I long hair be(E)-3s / father ach-anti.13) be(E)-3p 'Ihave{a brother/ a girlfriend/ahouse/rnany pimples/ a beard/long hair/a father}.' 50 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 7, 1995 (7) {tuma-ra / *tuma-ku} {eka Tankaa / cigarette} you-GENI you-OBJ one rupee I cigarette ach-i ki? be(E)-3s Q 'Doyouhave{one rupee/cigarettes}(with you)?' For temporary possession, the possessor can alternatively be fol- lowed by the abstract location noun paakha-re `side-LOC', as in (8). (8) tuma-paakha-re {eka Tankaa / cigarette} ach-i ki?'= (7)' Abstract possessed entities can be classified as follows: (i) emo- tions, ex.(9); (ii) physiological phenomena, (10); (iii) characters, (11); (iv) social relations, (12); (v) results and plans of volitional activities, (13); (vi) time, (14). Genitive on the possessor is in use with all these. Dative is marginal in some instances of (i), (ii) and (vi), and outright unacceptable elsewhere. (9) {mo-ra / ?mo-te} {bhaya / sandeha / dukkha / icchaa / me-GEN/ me-OBJ fear / doubt / sorrow / will / aagraha / taaThi prema / taaThi gruNaa / aasaa / aapatti} desire at.him love / at.him hatred / hope / objection ach-i. be(E)-3s (10) a. {tuma-ra / ?tuma-ku} {bhoka / jvara} ach-i ki? you-GEN/ you-OBJ hunger / fever be(E)-3s Q b. {taa-ra / *taa-ku} {cancer I TB I sardi} ach-i. he-GEN/ he-OBJ cancer / TB / cold be(E)-3s (11) {taa-ra / *taa-ku} {computer-ra gyaana / homosexual he-GEN/ he-ow computer-GENknowledge / homosexual prakruti / dharja / bhala guNa / kharaapa abhyaasa} nature / patience / good virtue / bad habit ach-i. be(E)- 3s (12) {tuma-ra / *tuma-ku} {samparka / daaittva / dosa / you-GEN/ you-ow relation / responsibility / guilt I The Cases in the Oblique Case Subject Constructionsin Oriya 51 eThi adhikaara} naah-i•`. here right not.be(E)-3s (13) {mo-ra / *mo-te} {jojanaa / kaama / chuTi / income} me-GENi me-OBJ plan / work / holiday / income ach-i. be(E)-3s (14) {aama-ra / ?aama-ku} {samaya / Deri} ach-i. we-GEN / we -OBJ time / delay be(E)-3s Note that, according to our classification, some nouns have dual membership and some are not typical members of any class: aasaa 'hope'can be(i)an emotion or(v)aresult of activity that is mental; ruci 'taste, interest' is under an ordinary interpretation (v) a char- acter (as distinguished from aagraha (i) `desire'); bhala dhaaraNaa 'good idea' and semitiuddesya 'such intention'areperhaps(v)re- sults of activities that are mental; asubidhaa 'inconvenience' is left unclassifed (Regarding cases, this patterns with (i)). Inanimate nouns can be possessors in the sense that they can participate in the same construction as typical possessors, as in (15). (15) ei gacha {-ra / *-ku} bisa ach-i. this plant -GEN I -OBJ poison be(E)-3s 'This plant has poison .' We assimilate such inanimates to the instances as in (6) where the possessum is concrete, or to those as in (11), (iii) characters, where the possessum is abstract. 2. 2 The Verb he- 'Become, Happen' The verb he- 'become, happen' takes nominative nouns to yield one-place predicates denoting events.