Indo-European linguistics and classical philology
S. Luraghi Instrument and Cause in the Indo-European languages and in Proto-Indo-European (pp. 603–618)
Author
S. Luraghi (University of Pavia)
Pages\n 603–618
Summary\n
While the semantic role instrument is uniformly encoded through the instrumental case (or cases that replaced it, such as the Latin ablative or the Greek dative) in ancient Indo-European (IE) languages, cause is variously encoded through plain cases or adpositional phrases. Comparison allows reconstructing a similar situation for Proto-Indo-European (PIE) as well. In particular, one can reconstruct cause expressions involving the plain instrumental, the plain ablative, and the adverb *pró, which, most likely, already had an adpositional function in the proto-language. It is assumed that cases and adverbs/adpositions originally had a spatial meaning, and that abstract meanings came about through metaphoric extension. In the case of the ablative and of *pró in cause expressions, some common patterns of semantic extension are visible (from source/origin to cause: the cause of a situation is conceived as its origin; from location to cause: a cause is conceived as an entity which constrains a situation by being placed in front of it). The instrumental case is traditionally thought as having originated as a comitative. While extension from comitative to instrument is based on the well-known ‘Companion metaphor’, an earlier local meaning of the PIE instrumental case cannot be reconstructed easily.
Keywords\n
instrument, cause, cases, adpositions, semantic roles
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