Constructional Approach to Old Persian Argument Structure

The Old Persian genitive and 'ditransitive' phenomena are examined within the framework of Construction Grammar, (CG) and the usage-based model. The syntactic functions and/or semantic roles encoded by the Old Persian genitive do not coincide precisely with the uses of the genitive in other Indo-European languages. Indeed, the OP. genitive is a result of IE genitive-dative merging and it combines the functions of both cases comprising. At the clause level, the functional extension of the genitive covers a broad spectrum of functions and roles including subject, direct object and the second argument of intransitive verbs.
Given this linguistic complexity, the present study will adopt a constructional approach in line with the work of Adele Goldberg (1995, 2006) arguing that the selection and realization of verb's argument are largely taken care of by constructions.
The present paper has a diachronic-comparative scope, seeking to establish a basic range of argument realization constructions which may be reconstructed for the Old Iranian genitive.
Maria Carmela Benvenuto Flavia Pompeo
mariacarmela.benvenuto@uniroma1.it flavia.pomepo@uniroma1.it

References
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Pompeo, F. & Benvenuto, M. C. 2011. Il genitivo in persiano antico. Un caso esemplare di categoria polisemica. Studi e saggi linguistici 49 (2011), pp. 75-123