The Indo-Iranian cákri-type

Abstract

This paper discusses the Indo-Iranian reduplicated i-adjectives of the type Ved. cákri-, Av. caxri- ‘doing’. These adjectives are formally associated with the weak stem of the corresponding perfect, but their lexical semantics are not always those expected of an adjectival derivative of the perfect stem. A subgroup of forms is associated with synchronically resultative perfects (cákri-: cakā́ra, jágmi-: jagā́ma, etc.), but pattern functionally as present participles, often with iterative or intensive readings. I show that these “form-meaning mismatch” formations share a number of syntactic properties (accusative case objects, adverbial modification) both in Vedic and in Avestan and are likely to be the starting point of the type. I conclude from this that the synchronic association of the cákri-type with the perfect stem is secondary, and that its original derivational basis must have been a different reduplicated verbal (or nominal) category. I furthermore provide arguments that this cannot be one of the synchronic Indo-Iranian reduplicated verbal categories (e.g., the reduplicated present).