The linguistic prerequisites and grammaticalization of ‘compound verb’ in Hindi

The present paper is an attempt to understand the complex structure of compound verb construction (CV henceforth) and the linguistic prerequisites of CV in Hindi. In doing so, I have divided this research paper in three sections. Section one establishes the linguistic prerequisites and the philosophical basis under which two or more lexical items come to get syncretized both semantically and morphologically to form a new category of grammar that we know as ‘compound verb’. It establishes the semantic, morphological and syntactic prerequisites of CV. Section two discusses one of the salient features i.e. the process of grammaticalization of linguistic elements in the formations of CV and talks about the degree of grammaticalizations. The third section investigates the types of the compound verb construction and their linguistic properties in Hindi. This helps to end the paper with a conclusion as to what should and should not be called the compound verb in Hindi.