Abstract:
Introduction
The Old Persian language comprises of seven cases, one of which is the accusative case. This case is used in intransitive, transitive, and ditransitive verbs. Depending on the meaning and context of a sentence, it can perform different functions and express various semantic roles. In transitive constructions, the accusative case marks the semantic role of the theme or patient.
Materials and methods
While previous studies have mentioned the existence of structures with double accusative cases in ancient Iranian languages, their semantic function and characteristics have not been fully explored. This article aims to classify there structures by extracting all instances of double accusative constructions from Old Persian texts. The inscriptions were sourced from Kent (1953) and Schmidt (2009). Additionally, similar verbs in Avestan were extracted from Yasn, Gahan, Haft, Yash, and Vendidad, based on Bartholomew's Dictionary (1961).
Results and discussion
Verbs derived from the root aiš (to rush) combined with the preverb fra (to send) are used in structures requiring two accusative cases. In this case, the first accusative case represents the theme/patient, whereas the second case marks the destination. When the destination is animate, it is often accompanied by an additional letter abiy.
Conclusion
In Old Persian, certain verbs are associated with double accusative cases. These verbs include: aiš (Av. aēš) , bar (Av. 1bar) , 2dī (Av. zyā) , fraϑ (Av. fras) , jad (Av. gad) , kar (Av. 1kar) , 1man (Av. man) , 1var (Av. 2var) , and vain (Av. vaēna).
When using verbs with two accusative cases, one of the object states must be in the semantic role of theme/patient. The second object state must have one of the following semantic roles in order:
destination (for verbs derived from the root aiš with the preverb fra) ;
object complement (for verbs derived from the roots kar, 1var, vain, and 1man in the middle mood) ;
manner (for verbs derived from the root fraϑ and bar without a preverb, as well as with the preverbs ā and pairi) ;
source-maleficiary (for verbs derived from the roots 2dī and jad).
Passive constructions with double accusatives are rare in Old Persian, limiting detailed analysis. However, it may be proposed that verbs related to asking, requesting, and the maleficiary ditransitive structures can be included among the structures of double accusative, and both accusative cases have the same characteristics. The result shows that the analogs of the studied verbs in the Avesta language are not necessarily associated with double accusative cases with the same semantic roles.
Machine summary:
Some of the terms used to refer to semantic roles include patient, 2 agent, 3 instrument, 4 experiencer, 5 location, 6 destination, 7 recipient, 8 goal, 9 beneficiary, 10 possessor, 11 extent, 12.
In Avestan and Old Persian languages, the accusative case, depending on the context of the sentence, can denote any of the aforementioned semantic roles; for example, in the first and second sentences below, the accusative case appears in an object structure and is semantically theme/patient: (refer to the page image) I praised Ahura Mazda (Darius the Great's Susa inscription f, line 18).
In Avestan and Old Persian ditransitive structures, one of the objects in the accusative case denotes the semantic role of theme/patient, and the other object, with the dative or genitive-dative case, indicates the semantic role of recipient: (refer to the page image) May Ahura Mazda give this reward to me (Darius the Great's Persepolis inscription d, 1, line 23).
In this article, to provide classifications of structures with two accusative cases, all sentences containing two accusative cases from Old Persian were extracted based on the inscriptions presented in the books of Kent (1953) and Schmitt (2009) and the counterparts of those verbs in the Avestan language were extracted based on the lexicon of Bartholomae (1961) from the Yasnas, Gathas, Haftahs, Yashts, and Vendidad and have been investigated from a grammatical perspective.
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