Borrowing and disappearance of light verbs: Loan-verb integration in Indian languages

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss patterns of loan-verb integration attested in Indian languages and show that certain English verbal borrowings in languages like Hindi and Marathi can either be accommodated into the host language using a supporting light verb or be directly integrated to carry the host language’s verb morphology without needing to undergo any means of verbalization. I argue that syntactic analyses which assume the existence of a common (or identical) verbal functional structure between the donor and recipient (or host) languages to be a prerequisite for direct integration of loan verbs fail to adequately explain this optionality of direct integration. Instead, I show that it is the degree of bilingualism of speakers which makes direct integration of loan verbs into the target language possible; and propose that verbal borrowings are borrowed with an understanding that they are verbs – irrespective of whether they are accommodated using a light verb construction or not.