Butt (1995) used the epithet 'complex' for Urdu predicates. Certainly, they are so, but no less complex are Urdu Noun Phrases. A major source of complexity in NPs are a few particles that often accompany them. Most of the researchers term these particles as case clitics. But some eminent researchers, like Schmidt (1999), considered them postpositions. Both sides missed one aspect of these particles. They forgot they performed both roles, postpositions and case markers. In addition to them, they also marked grammatical relations. The gigantic task before the researchers is to mark a boundary line between their various functions and suggest a theory as to when the above-mentioned particles assume the function of a postposition. We believe that analysis in generative grammar may resolve some of the confusions.

According to Anderson (2006) The word case is derived from the Latin casus, and means a falling. The old grammarians regarded the nominative as the upright case, and all the others as falling from that. Hence the use of the words decline and declension. (Of course, the nominative cannot be a real case, because it is upright and not falling) (p. 18).

Urdu NPs carry two types of cases: (1) Nominative case, (2) Oblique case. The nominative case is only an abstract case, which remains phonetically unpronounced. Oblique case appears through different markers: [ne], [ko], [m??], [p?r], [t??k], [se], and [k?, ke, ki]. [ne] is the Ergative case marker which appears on subject agent arguments. [ko] marks Accusative/Dative cases. As an Accusative marker, [ko] marks Object themes, but in the infinitive and passive constructions, it may appear on subject themes too. Dative [ko] may appear on the subject, indirect object arguments, and also on adjuncts. Another set [p?r], [se], [t??k] are Locative case markers (Koul, 2008; Butt, 2006; Kachru, 2006; Butt and King, 2004; Schmidt, 1999; Mohanan, 1990). Generally, they appear on oblique object (PP object) (Valin, 2004, Woolford, 2006) arguments (Rizvi, 2008), or on adjunct phrases. There is another clitic with three variants: [k?] is masculine singular, [ki] is feminine singular, [ke] is plural for both. This is the Genitive marker, and functions like the free genitive, ‘of’ (Carnie, 2013).

The above-mentioned case markers exist as clitics. Butt (1995) calls them case clitics. Schmidt calls them postpositions. As the majority of the syntacticians consider them case markers, we will also follow this term, until we redefine this concept in the coming pages. In Urdu, Nominative and Oblique noun forms show different plural suffixes. [a] is usually used as a singular masculine marker on nominative nouns, and [e] as the plural masculine marker, [i] as a singular feminine marker, and [?] as a plural feminine marker. At the same time, singular vocative maker, and singular oblique marker also appear as [e]. In addition to this, [e] also appears as the agreement feature between nouns and case clitics. In vocative form, they are actualized as [e] on a singular, and as [õ] on plural NPs. In oblique form, they appear as [e] on a singular, and as [o] on plural NPs. Though their plural forms are different, yet their singular forms are phonetically alike. But these apparently similar markings are two different features. Oblique markings [e] and [o] are the agreement feature between a noun and its case marker (Butt and King, 2004). In this paper, we will term it as Oblique Agreement Feature (OAF). They are going to play a very important role in defining Urdu PPs. The vocative markings [e] and [o?] are not the agreement features. They are the addressing styles. Though they are not the topics of the present study, yet we may need their plural form [o?] to sort out oblique forms.

It is generally observed that Oblique Agreement Feature (OAF) [e] precedes a case marker, and appears as a suffix on the nouns, and their respective adjectives and determiners that end on [?] sound. In this way, OAF [e] forms as a chain link between the determiner, the adjective, and the noun in a DP. For example,

Nominative Singular Masculine Noun

Nominative Plural Masculine Noun

Nominative Singular Feminine Noun

Nominative Plural Feminine Noun

Oblique Singular Masculine Noun

Oblique Plural Masculine Noun

Oblique Singular Feminine Noun

Oblique Plural Feminine Noun

The nouns that don not end on [?] sound do not carry it phonetically. It rather silently sits on every noun head that precedes a case marker. So, most of the nouns that precede a case marker apparently bears no OAF, but logically it is always there, and its presence can be tested. The null presence of OAF can be verified by three tests: (1) replacement with a parallel NP that end on [?], (2) insertion of a pre-modifier that ends on [e], (3) replacement with plural variant that ends on [o?]. On the other hand, sometimes, OAF exists, overtly, or covertly, but no case marker is seen. Such environments are often observed around adjunct NPs. The presence of an OAF hints at the presence of a silent postposition (Kachru, 2006). For example,

Nominative case is different from null case clitic. Nominative case is not preceded by an overt or covert OAF.

Schmidt (1999, pp. 68-86) has defined all single case markers as simple postpositions, and their combinations as serial postpositions. For example, [me? se]. She has also given a long list of chunks which she calls compound postpositions. Most of them are the expressions carrying genitive markers in various combinations. Some of the examples of compound postpositions are given below. Case markers are coloured blue, concrete and null OAF, null case marker, null case markers, null NPs also coloured red,

[ka] + Oblique Noun + Case Marker

(Schmidt, 1999, p. 81)

[ka] + Oblique Noun (OAF) + Ø Case Marker

(Schmidt, 1999, p. 82)

[ka] + Oblique Adjective(OAF) + Ø NP

(Schmidt, 1999, p. 82)

[ka] + Oblique Adverb (OAF)

(Schmidt, 1999, p. 83)

Postpositional Sequences

(Schmidt, 1999, p. 85)

Kachru (2006) classifies Hindi/Urdu postpositions as simple postpositions (p. 103), complex postpositions (pp. 104-06), and zero postpositions (p. 107). Kachru’s concept of complex postpositions and Koul’s compound postpositions are very similar.

She also gives the concept of zero postpositions (p. 107). In her opinion, a few directional simple postpositions like [t??k], [p?r], and [ko] sometimes remain phonetically unpronounced, though their trace may easily be sensed in certain slots. In the latter part of this paper, such situations will be discussed in detail.

Koul (2008) describes Urdu/Hindi postpositions semantically. He has given the following list of compound postpositions (p. 57):

Butt and King (2004, p. 18) have preferred to classify simple and compound postpositions as case phrases and postposition phrases. They take those constituents as postpositions which fall in adjunct slot and perform possessive, spatial, or temporal functions. She presents the following list of Urdu postpositions:

Butt and King (2004, p. 18)

Rizvi (2008) mostly borrows from Butt and King (2004), but he introduces a concept of tetravalent argument structures of Urdu verbs. He calls Locative marked NPs oblique phrases.

Davison (2004) and Mohanan (1990, p. 80) describes the constituent structure of a clitic phrase as:

The problem with all the above theories is that they have mainly focused subject and object NPs, and have ignored adjunct slots where adpositions mainly belong. Postpositions usually describe possessions, spatial, and temporal relations. Butt (1995), and Butt and King (2004) have taken the same positions, but they have not explored this possibility in detail. Moreover, Butt and King have studied Urdu postpositions in the LFG framework. They have not described the constituent structure of Postposition Phrases and their formal distribution. We aim to accomplish this missing part.

Research Questions

The information obtained from the available literature raises the following questions:

1. Adjunct slots are not solely occupied by compound postpositions. Simple and zero postpositions also may sit there. Are they also postpositions too?

2. In addition to occupying the adjunct slots, compound postpositions also function as complements of subject and object NPs. Shouldn’t they also be labelled as postposition phrases?

3. Pre-modifying adjectives may also take complement/adjunct phrases. Aren’t they PPs either?

4. The Concepts of compound postposition (Kachru, 2006; Koul, 2008), and the concept of postposition phrases (Butt and King, 2004) do not represent a single constituent, according to X Bar theory. Elements of two different constituents have been merged into a third single constituent. How can it be reduced to its basic constituents?

The researcher presumes that the structure of Urdu PPs can be mapped by comparing them with English PPs.

The research design is qualitative. The researcher has depended mainly on the secondary data, collected from the works of Schmidt (1999), Kachru (2006), Koul (2008), and Butt and King (2004), and on personal ‘intuition’ and ‘grammaticality judgment’ (Carnie, 2013, p. 15). The available data was analyzed in X bar background, as described by Carnie (2013).

The researchers plan to follow X Bar theory to describe the distribution of head and complement phrase, and the projection of adjunct phrases in NPs, VPs, AdjPs, AdvPs, and IPs. ? NP VP

NP? (Adj.P) (Comp. PP) N (Chhota sa sonay ka chamcha; Sonay ka chhota sa chamcha)

Adj.P? (AdvP) (Comp. PP) Adj. (Voh bohat purani moseeqi ka mahir he)

Adjunct P ? Comp. NP P (Zara kitabon ke neechey or Kitabon ka zara neechey)

PP? (NP) P

Keeping in mind other researchers’ opinions, and confusions arising thereof, I have tried to redefine the concept of Urdu Postposition Phrases. In my opinion, this issue can be resolved if we try to map this concept onto the concept of English Preposition Phrases. By this, many, if not all, of the questions may be answered. Cases marked on subject and Object NPs may be dropped from the list of postpositions. However, cases marked on the complement or adjunct phrases of subject NPs will be considered postposition heads. Cases marked on the NPs falling in complement and adjunct slots are postpositions. Case markers heading oblique phrases (Rizvi, 2008) are also postpositions. This will make a long list of PPs: Genitive Phrase (GENP), Locative Phrase (LOCP), Instrumental Phrase (INSP). In addition to them, a few new concepts are introduced here. They are Accusative Adjunct Phrase (AAP), Oblique Adjunct Phrase (OAP), and Oblique Agreement Feature (OAF). These concepts will be described in detail in the coming pages.

Before we proceed with this concept, we should know how Urdu constituent structure is arranged. Urdu is the head last language. In contrast with the top to bottom arrangement in the tree diagram of an English structure, Urdu lexical items follow bottom to top arrangement pattern. An example is given below:

Dative [ko] may mark appear on subject, indirect object DPs. Being an inherent case, it is specific to goal/experiencer roles (Woolford, 2006). But, it also appears on adjunct NPs. As a part of an argument, it is assigned as a case marker at AgrOP specifier position (Woolford, 2006); but adjuncts are not arguments. How can we justify its presence on adjuncts? We are left with only one option. In adjunct PPs, [ko] is not a dative case. It is rather a postposition.

[ko] is a very flexible case marker that may jump into any slot. DPs in subject, direct object, indirect object, adjunct positions may carry [ko]. In 9 and 10, Accusative Adjunct Phrases are shown in the adjunct slots of NP, AdjP, AdvP, VP, IP. An extraordinary feature of [ko] is that it may exist as a silent case marker too. Further detail is given below:

Spatial adjuncts are projected in VPs, and temporal adjuncts in IPs.

Though this theory is not final yet, but it does point out flaws in the older theory of Urdu Postposition Phrases, and suggests an alternative scheme to address this issue. With the help of the old theories, neither we can describe the complement structures of NPs, and VPs, nor those of adjunct phrases. Moreover, this scheme also distinguishes postpositions from case markers.