LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:5 May 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

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         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Taking a Road Not Travelled: A Cross-lingual Study of Kāraka-Cognition

Jayashree Aanand Gajjam

Abstract

The Kāraka theory in the Pāṇinian grammatical tradition in the Sanskrit studies stands as a benchmark to understand the confluence of Sanskrit syntax and semantics. The theory has been explored from syntactico-semantic and philosophical perspectives till date by ancient and modern scholars in India and beyond. Relying on the earlier theoretical discussions, the current report, the first of its kind, tries to investigate the cognition of the kārakas in real-life human communication by carrying out experimental research on a total of 900 readers of Sanskrit and Marathi. The study argues that (1) the ontological classification of the verbs affects the cognition of the kārakas, (2) while kartā (agent) and karma (object/ destination) of the verb are more accurately cognized, adhikaraṇa (location/ substratum) of the verb is not, unless it adds to the main semantic component of the sentence, (3) the first language of the readers affects their comprehension of the kārakas in the second language, provided if the second-language is not used in daily life conversations. The novelty of the research lies in the experimental methodology that is still in its infancy in Sanskrit studies.

Keywords: Single-verb, Kāraka, Psycholinguistics, Sanskrit studies, Experimental Research

Introduction

Kāraka (pronounced as kaaraka) is a syntactic category or a non-linguistic item that participates in an action. A sentence usually consists of two main parts: verb (ākhyāta) and argument/s or complement/s (kāraka). Thus, kāraka serves to bring an action to accomplishment (kriya-sādhana) and is always connected with the action (kriya-viśeṣayukta). It is a constituent of the main action (Cardona, 2008, p. 107).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Jayashree Aanand Gajjam
PhD Research Scholar
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Jayashree1aanand@gmail.com
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