Reciprocal Constructions in Meitei and Nyishi

This book investigates three interesting questions arising from the intriguing cross-linguistic perspective of Meiteilon and Nyishi, two Tibeto-Burman languages respectively spoken in the states of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh in India. The first question relates to developing a model for the syntax and semantics of these verbal reciprocal languages. Secondly, the book attempts to provide an account of the surface variations between the languages using this model. The book also tries to build an account for the co-occurrences of the nominal and verbal reciprocals in languages like Meiteilon and Nyishi. Both languages use a verbal strategy for default reciprocalization and both the languages show discontinuous reciprocity. The author argues that if the reciprocal marker consists of one suffix (as in the case of Meiteilon), it may express several other functions, but if the reciprocal marker composes of more than one suffix (as in Nyishi), it does not show polysemy. Both languages can reciprocalize unaccusative and unergative verbs, and in both the languages, overt distributive nominal reciprocal markers show strong reciprocity. This book will be of interest to syntacticians and typologists working in the domain of universal grammar, as well as computational linguists seeking empirical data on endangered and underrepresented languages.

Atanu Saha is an Assistant Professor in the School of Languages and Linguistics at Jadavpur University, India. His doctoral research focused on reciprocal constructions within the Meiteilon and Nyishi languages.