Abstract
This paper examines possible motivations for departures from canonical clause-final word order observed for the finite verb in Hindi-Urdu and other modern Indo-Aryan languages. Depiction of speaker attitude in Premchand's novel godān and the imperatives of journalistic style in TV newscasts are shown to be prime factors. The emergence of V-2 word-order in Kashmiri and other Himalayan languages may have had a parallel history.
References
Chatak Govind. 1976. ghāt (Murder). In: gār myate ki gangā. A. B. Bahuguna, Ed. New Delhi: Alaknanda Prakashan. 120-125.
Ghildiyal Durgaprasad. 1981. gāri (Pebbles). New Delhi: published by the author. godān. See Premchand.
Khattri Devakinandan. 1892. candrakāntā.
Mir Taqi Mir. 1941. kulliyāt. Abdul Bari Asi, Ed. Lucknow: Naval Kishor Press.
Negi Mohanlal. 1967. joni par chāpu kilai? (Why are there spots on the moon?). Tihri: by author?
Premchand [alias Dhanpat Rai]. 1936. godān. (The Gift of a Cow). Allahabad: Saraswati Press. (Pagination from 1970 edition). Webtext at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pehook/godan01.html
Shant Ratan Lal. 1985. sāyikal (The bicycle). In Sheeraza 22, 2, 57-63. SECONDARY SOURCES
Deshpande Madhav, Hook Peter E. (eds.). 2002. Indian Linguistic Studies: Festschrift in honour of George Cardona. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Gambhir Vijay. 1981. Syntactic Restrictions and Discourse Functions of Word Order in Standard Hindi. University of Pennsylvani. PhD dissertation.
Hendriksen Hans. 1986. Himachali Studies III: Grammar. København: Munksgaard.
Hook Peter E., Jain Kusum. 2002. "How to be Sarcastic in Hindi-Urdu." In: Deshpande & Hook 2002: 365-373.
Hook Peter E., Koul Omkar N. 1996. "Kashmiri as a V-2 Language." In: Lakshmi & Mukherjee 1996: 95-105.
Lakshmi V. S., Mukherjee Aditi (eds.). 1996. Word Order in Indian Languages. Hyderabad: Centre of Advanced Study in Linguistics, Osmania.
Masica Colin P. 1976. Defining a Linguistic Area: South Asia. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Masica Colin P. 1991. The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press.
McGregor R. S. 1993. The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Ross John R. 1973. "The Penthouse Principle and the Order of Constituents." In: You Take the High Node and I'll Take the Low Node: Papers from the Comparative Syntax Festival. Chicago: CLS, 397-422.
Russell Ralph, Islam Khurshidul. 1968. Three Mughal Poets. Cambridge: Harvard Univ Press.
License
Copyright (c) 2012 Peter Hook
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.