Verb semantics and argument structure, a valency dictionary of Ladakhi verbs

• Applicant: Dr. Bettina Zeisler
• Subject Area: Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 157090814

Ladakhi is a Tibetan language spoken in North India (Jammu & Kashmir). It consists of two main dialect groups which differ significantly in their grammar, in notably with respect to the choice of case markers for a given verb meaning.The project aims at recording the verbs of one representative dialect each, to describe their valency and frames, and the relation between argument structure and meaning, and to publish a valency dictionary (as book and online data base). It is further planned to establish semantic and syntactic verb classes and to build a simple semantic net.Case frames (or sentence structures) specify the number and type of arguments of a given verb (also known as actants or participants), their obligatory occurrence in context-independent clauses, their standard position in a clause, their case markers, and possible alternations in position and/ or case marking. A special focus lies on the occurrence of alternations, their semantic or pragmatic implications, as well as on the documentation of collocations. All in all, the project contributes to the investigation concerning the interface between semantics, pragmatics, and grammar, as well as to the documentation of a group of under-described languages, which is particularly important for typological research, because their structures contradict some of the more syntax-oriented assumptions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants