14 A comparative study of non-finite verb forms with narrative-chaining function in Hindi and Italian

One of the most important typological observations on converbs is the distinction proposed by Bickel (1998) between European languages, where converbs are restricted to adverbial subordination, and Asian languages, where converbs conflate adverbial modification and narrative chaining. The aim of the present work is to propose a comparative investigation of two representatives of these linguistic areas: Italian for the European group and Hindi for the Asian group. Specifically, the analysis focuses on two non-finite forms that display a narrative chaining interpretation as their main function: the Hindi conjunctive participle in -kar and the Italian past participle in -to. The comparison is intended to show that these two forms are similar in many respects, specifically regarding the Aktionsart properties of the verb and the narrative chaining interpretation of the construction. This makes it reasonable to hypothesize the existence of syntactic and semantic correlations that would define a cross-linguistic feature bundle characterizing narrative chaining verb forms. Additionally, I will attempt to demonstrate that the narrative chaining function of the Hindi converb in -kar and the Italian past participle in -to is correlated with their source constructions. As I will discuss, the similarities between these two forms seem to support the hypothesis proposed in previous literature that the Hindi conjunctive participle in -kar may derive from a Sanskrit past participle. The perfective aspect implied in the narrative chaining function of these Italian and Hindi constructions thus seems to be derived from the perfective semantics of past participles.