Possessive of experience in Darai

Himalayan languages code experiencers in two broad areal patterns (Bickel 2004). The most common across the Indo-European languages is experiencer-goal or Dative subject construction, which is already discussed in the 2.2.1 of this paper. In the Himalayas, it is universal in the Indo-Aryan languages, but has also spread into adjacent Tibeto-Burman languages (and in to Burushaski; Bashir 1985). It is vigorously attested in the Newar and the Kiranti languages of Eastern Nepal, and also in the western Tibetan language Balti (Bickel 2004). Apart from Dative subject construction, in the Northeastern part of the Indic subcontinent, occur the Experiencers-possessor constructions, which spread all over South-East Asia (including Myo-Yao, Mon Khmer, and Tai-Kadai languages). It is widely found in the Kiranti languages, but apart from few examples in Newar it is not a common feature of other Himalayan Tibeto-Burman languages. In Indo-Aryan, except for Maithili (Yadava 1996) and Marathi in the majority of South Asian Indo-Aryan languages, a verb does not agree across a postposition (Kachru, 1980). However, the recent research shows that in Darai a verb agrees with the possessor typically in comparative situation of the Dative Subject construction, which is sometime termed as ‘Possessive of experience’ or ‘Experiences-possessor’. Such constructions recapitulate the pan-Southeast Asian theme of what Matisoff (1986) calls psycho-collocations or haplologized, psychollocations. Among Indo-Aryan languages, it is also found to some extent in Assamese, Bangla and Oriya adjacent to the Tibeto-Burman world (Bickel 2004).

These examples (27-32) show that the possessive subject agrees with the verb.

(27) me-r peT bota-im

1s-POSS stomach hurt-1s

'I have a stomach ache.'

(28) te-r peT bota-ir

2s-POSS stomach hurt-2s

'You have a stomach ache.'

(29) ik-r peT bota-ik

3s-POSS stomach hurt-3s

'He has a stomach ache.'

(30) ham-r peT bota-it

1p-POSS stomach hurt-1p

'We have a stomach ache.'

(31) teu-r peT bota-iu

2p-POSS stomach hurt-2p

'You (pl) have a stomach ache.'

(32) onen-k peT bota-ikan

3p-POSS stomach hurt-3p

'They have a stomach ache.'