Vector in hindi compound verbs

‘reads’ 
pii lii > pii 
„drank‟ 
kho dii > khoyii 
„lost‟ 
mil gayaa > milaa 
„met‟ 
jaa milaa > milaa 
‘met‟ 
de maaraa > maaraa
‘hit, strike‟ 
maar diyaa > maaraa
„hit strike‟ 
This demonstrates that MV assumes a finite form in the absence of a vector in both the 
unreversed and reversed order CVs. Thus MV substitution could be construed as a 
reliable test to find out the MV in an CV. 

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There is yet another mode of isolating an MV from a complex predicate. CVs rarely 
occur in negation, it is the MV which is negated e.g. 
kitab paRh letaa hai > kitab nahi~ paRhtaa 
ha~s paRaa > nahi~ ha~saa 
ro uThaa > nahi~ royaa 
maar diyaa > nahi~ maaraa 
maar Daalaa > nahi~ maaraa 
de maaraa > nahi~ maaraa 
ug aaye > nahi~ uge 
We find that despite the MV+vector order, it is the MV which is negated. Hence, simple 
verb substitution and verb-negation could be employed to identify an MV in an CV 
sequence. 
Hook(1974 : 60) observes that the verbs cal 
„walk‟, uTh „stand‟, de „give‟, dhar „hold‟, 
and maar 
„strike‟ occur as vectors in reordered/reversed CV sequences e.g. 
Ordered/Unreversed
Reordered/Reversed 
nikal calaa 
cal niklaa 
„moved‟ 
dhar liyaa 
le dharaa 
„held‟ 
toR diyaa 
de toRaa 
„broke‟ 
choR diyaa 
* 
„left, gave up‟ 
choR aayaa 
aa choRaa 
„forgot „left‟ 
dauR gayaa 
jaa dauRaa 
„ran away‟ 
ghuum gayaa
* 
„turned around‟ 
bol uThaa 
* 
„spoke up 
uTh baiThaa
* 
„stood up‟, „got up‟, 
laa choRaa 
* 
„brought‟ 
sukhaa diyaa
* 
„dried‟ 
aa lenaa 
* 
„to come‟ 
khol diya 
* 
„opened‟ 
aa liyaa
„came‟ 
> 
le aayaa 
„brought‟ 
These examples demonstrate that not all CVs could be reversed and that there are some 
ordered instances like khol diyaa which would allow kar insertion khol kar diyaa. The 

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example aa liyaa and le aayaa seems to be a case of reordered verb sequence at the 
surface level but the two are distinct verb sequences semantically. Such instances show 
that a reordered verb sequence may not necessarily relate to the ordered sequence at the 
semantic level. The latter example here would allow kar insertion but the former will not. 
Hook (ibid.) proposes a class of factor verbs, distinct from vector verbs to account for the 
reversible verb sequences. His proposed class of factor verbs comprises aa 
„come‟, jaa 
„go‟, nikal „go out‟, laa „bring‟, le jaa „take away‟, and nikaal „take out‟. According to 
him the distinguishing characteristic between vector and factor verbs is based upon 
complete grammaticalisation in the former and partial grammaticalisation in the latter. A 
factor verb contributes a component of its meaning (analogous to its meaning as a MV) to 
the verb sequence (CV). 
23. laRkaa bakse ko ghasiiT laayaa / laa ghasii Taa 
The boy dragged the box. 
24. khabar sunte hii vah yahaa~ dauR aayaa/ aa dauRaa 
As soon as he heard the news, he came here running 
25. vah ghar se/pe naashtaa khaa jaataa/ jaa khaataa hai 
He takes his breakfast at home / goes to his house to have his breadfast. 
The verb sequences in 23-25 are reversible and the verb forms laa, aa and jaa contribute 
a component of their meaning to the whole verb sequence, however, kar and te hue 
insertion in the unreversed sequences would be acceptable in these sequences as follows: 
ghasiiT kar laayaa----------------- 
dauR kar aayaa 
khaa kar jaataa 
jaa kar khaataa 
In 25, the reversed sequence too allows kar insertion which would alter the sequence of 
actions accordingly. 
It may be noted that in CVs with the so-called factor verb, the negation may not 
eliminate the second verb. For instance, dauR aayaa upon negation would appear as 
dauR nahi~ aayaa. Hence the first verb in such cases functions as an adverbial dauRaa 
aayaa. 

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Nespital (1997) is of the view that the choice of a vector in a CV sequence is guided by 
the lexico-semantic features of the second verb. Accor
ding to him the “second verb 
additionally contributes a varying number of lexico-semantic features that are already 
present or inherent in the lexical meaning of the first verb (MV)”. For instance, in mar 
jaanaa 
„die‟, the MV mar „die‟ indicates a change of state from being alive to ceasing to 
be alive and jaanaa 
„go‟ too entails the lexico-semantic features like „to proceed/to reach 
a terminal point‟. Hence jaanaa goes well with mar. Similarly, maar „kill‟ goes well with 
the verbs like : denaa 
„give‟ (maar denaa), daalnaa „pour/lay‟ (maar Daalnaa), and 
giraanaa 
„fell‟ (maar giraanaa). 
However, the second/factor verb‟s contribution to the meaning encompasses only a 
certain number of CV sequences. There are instances like rah jaanaa 
„stay/ remain‟, 
baiTh jaanaa 
„sit‟, cal paRnaa „move‟ etc, where the second verb‟s lexico-semantic 
features do not match with the meaning of the CV, e.g. stay-go (rah jaanaa), sit-go 
(baiTh jaanaa) do not seem to go together as far as their semantic features are concerned. 
Hence, the category of vector verbs which are completely grammaticalised in a CV 
sequence and a class of factor verbs which are partially grammaticlised, for these 
contribute shades of their meaning features to the CV sequence, seems to be a plausible 
explanation. 
Modals sak 
„can‟, cuk „already‟ and paa „get/manage‟, unlike vectors, occur freely with 
MVs. sak and paa occur freely with negative elements. sak does not occur as a MV. 
(Guru, p.272, cites an instance from Ramcharitmanas where sak has been used as an 
independent verb). cuk occurs primarily in association with other verbs like khaa cuk 
„has 
eaten‟, paRh cuk „has read‟ etc. McGregor (1977 : 104) includes paa in his list of thirteen 
vectors whereas Hook (1974) includes cuk, paa, sak in his list of twenty four vectors and 
Nespital (1997) includes only cuk in his list of forty seven vectors. Nespital (1997) 
considers verb sequences with sak and paa as modal syntagmas. For him the verbal 
expressions like mar jaanaa 
„die‟ represent one verb lexemes (CVs).
Grammaticalisation, sensitivity to negation and generality 
–that the item occurs with at 
least five different MVs-, according to Hook, should be considered as the main criteria to 
identify vector verbs. 

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Nespital has proposed the following list of forty seven verbs that occur as second verbs 
(vectors) in correlative and perfective CVs in Hindi : 
aanaa, uThnaa, khaRaa karnaa, khaRaa honaa, khaanaa, girnaa, guzarnaa, ghasiiTnaa, 
calnaa, cuknaa, choRnaa, jaanaa, Tapaknaa, Daalnaa, dikhaanaa, dekhnaa, denaa, 
dauRnaa, dhamaknaa, dharnaa, nikalnaa, paTaknaa, paRnaa, pahu~cnaa, phe~knaa, 
bacnaa, bannaa, basnaa, baahar karnaa, biitnaa, baiThnaa, baiThaanaa, bhaagnaa, 
bhejnaa, marnaa, maarnaa, miTnaa, miTaanaa, rakhnaa, rahnaa, laanaa, le calnaa, le 
jaanaa, lenaa, sunaanaa.