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Atypology of Marked-S Languages A typology of marked-S languages Corinna Handschuh language Studies in Diversity Linguistics, No 1 science press Studies in Diversity Linguistics Chief Editor: Martin Haspelmath Consulting Editors: Fernando Zúñiga, Peter Arkadiev, Ruth Singer, Pilar Valen zuela In this series: 1. Handschuh, Corinna. A typology of marked-S languages 2. Rießler, Michael. Adjective attribution 3. Klamer, Marian (ed.). The Alor-Pantar languages: History and typology 4. Berghäll, Liisa. A grammar of Mauwake (Papua New Guinea) A typology of marked-S languages Corinna Handschuh language science press Language Science Press Berlin Language Science Press Habelschwerdter Allee 45 14195 Berlin, Germany langsci-press.org This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/18 © 2014, Corinna Handschuh Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-944675-19-0 Cover and concept of design: Ulrike Harbort Typesetting: Corinna Handschuh Proofreading: Eitan Grossman, Daniel W. Hieber, Aaron Sonnenschein Storage and cataloguing done by FU Berlin Language Science Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, ac- curate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables and other factual information given in this work are correct at the time of first publication but Language Science Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter. Für Tommeck Contents Acknowledgments ix List of abbreviations xi I Preliminaries 1 1 Introduction 3 1.1 Marked-S coding ........................... 3 1.2 Definition .............................. 5 1.3 Markedness in grammar ...................... 8 1.4 Case-labels .............................. 9 1.5 Explaining the existence of marked-S ............... 13 1.5.1 Rare and geographically skewed ............. 13 1.5.2 Historical explanations ................... 14 1.5.3 Functional explanations .................. 17 1.6 Implications for formal approaches to case-marking ....... 20 1.7 Domains of alignment ........................ 24 1.7.1 Beyond case-marking ................... 24 1.7.2 Head-marking ........................ 24 1.7.3 Word order ......................... 25 1.7.4 Behavioral properties .................... 28 1.7.5 The domain of investigation ................ 29 1.8 Outlook ................................ 30 2 Redefining alignment 31 2.1 Introduction ............................. 31 2.2 Split alignment ............................ 32 2.3 Micro-alignment ........................... 33 2.4 Contexts of investigation ...................... 37 Contents 2.5 Incidental splits ........................... 39 2.5.1 Contexts versus other splits ................ 39 2.5.2 Splits based on the semantics of the noun phrase .... 40 2.5.3 Splits based on the semantics of the verb ......... 42 2.5.4 Splits based on morphophonological factors ....... 43 2.6 Usage-based factors ......................... 44 2.6.1 Frequency .......................... 44 2.6.2 Omission of arguments ................... 46 2.6.3 Optional case-marking ................... 47 2.7 Summary ............................... 49 II The contexts studied 51 3 Nominal predication 53 3.1 Introduction ............................. 53 3.2 Case-marking in nominal predication ............... 55 3.3 Identity predication ......................... 57 3.4 Research questions ......................... 58 3.5 North America ............................ 60 3.6 Afro-Asiatic ............................. 64 3.7 Nilo-Saharan ............................. 66 3.8 Pacific ................................ 69 3.9 Summary ............................... 71 4 Existential and locational predication 75 4.1 Introduction ............................. 75 4.2 Linguistic properties ........................ 76 4.3 Research question .......................... 78 4.4 Nilo-Saharan ............................. 80 4.5 Afro-Asiatic ............................. 85 4.6 North America ............................ 88 4.7 Pacific ................................ 92 4.8 Summary ............................... 96 5 Emphatic subjects 99 5.1 Introduction ............................. 99 5.2 Case-marking and discourse structure ............... 100 5.3 Zero-coded emphatic subjects ................... 102 vi Contents 5.4 Overtly coded emphatic subjects .................. 107 5.5 Research questions ......................... 110 5.6 Nilo-Saharan ............................. 113 5.7 Afro-Asiatic ............................. 116 5.8 Pacific ................................ 119 5.9 North America ............................ 126 5.10 Summary ............................... 128 6 Subjects of non-basic clauses 131 6.1 Introduction ............................. 131 6.2 Dependent clauses .......................... 132 6.3 Valency-decreasing operations ................... 136 6.4 Research questions ......................... 139 6.5 North America ............................ 142 6.6 Pacific ................................ 150 6.7 Nilo-Saharan ............................. 155 6.8 Afro-Asiatic ............................. 161 6.9 Summary ............................... 165 7 Non-clause-level case marking 169 7.1 Introduction ............................. 169 7.2 Attributive possessors ........................ 170 7.3 Forms of address ........................... 172 7.4 Citation form ............................. 173 7.5 Research questions ......................... 174 7.6 Nilo-Saharan ............................. 177 7.7 Afro-Asiatic ............................. 182 7.8 Pacific ................................ 186 7.9 North America ............................ 189 7.10 Summary ............................... 194 III Analysis of the data 197 8 Typological comparison of marked-S languages 199 8.1 Introduction ............................. 199 8.2 Making generalizations ....................... 200 8.3 Comparison across roles ...................... 203 8.4 Comparison across languages ................... 209 vii Contents 8.5 Similarity networks ......................... 213 8.6 Geographical patterns ........................ 221 8.7 Summary ............................... 225 9 Conclusion 229 9.1 Summary of the findings ...................... 229 9.2 Generalizations about the functional motivations for marked-S languages ............................... 231 9.3 Concluding remarks on the micro-alignment approach ..... 233 9.4 Consequences for formal theories ................. 234 9.5 Future research ........................... 238 Bibliography 241 viii Acknowledgments This book started out as a PhD dissertation at Universität Leipzig by thesame title, which I submitted in December 2010 and successfully defended in July 2011. The original dissertation has undergone minor revisions, but its contents havein essence remained the same. Many people have contributed to the work in its current state, : to all of whom I would like to express my gratitude. The original research started out as part ofthe project ‘Marked-absolutive and marked-nominative case systems in synchronic and diachronic perspective’ of the Forschergruppe ‘Grammatik und Verarbeitung verbaler Argumente’ in Leipzig. Financial support for my research has been pro- vided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through a grant to this project. Michael Cysouw, who was the principal investigator of the project, has patiently accompanied the development of the dissertation from the very beginning. He has always provided me with much valued feedback on all aspect of my work from methodological discussion to stylistic comments. Without his encourage- ment, this work would probably not have been completed. The referees for the dissertation were Martin Haspelmath and Helen de Hoop. Their comments dur- ing and after the writing process, respectively, have been much appreciated and greatly improved the final result. The research for this book work was carried out during the heyday ofthe Leipzig typology community. I was lucky to have had the opportunity to conduct my research as a member of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthro- pology’s linguistics department. Its excellent facilities and stimulating research environment have contributed much to the completion of this work. Through the Forschergruppe, I also had the chance to collaborate with the larger linguistic community both at the University of Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science. During this time, I presented parts of my work at various occasions in the MPI’s ‘work in progress’ series, at the meetings and workshops of the Forscher- gruppe and at ‘Typologiekolloquium’ at Universität Leipzig. Through these and through the regular interaction with the members of the Leipzig linguistic com- munity and the numerous guests over the years, my work has been greatly in- Acknowledgments spired. In particular, I would like to mention (in alphabetical order): Balthasar Bickel, Bernard Comrie, Tom Güldemann, Andrej Malchukov, Gereon Müller, Jochen Trommer, Søren Wichmann, and Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, with whom I also taught a course at Leipzig Springschool on Linguistic Diversity in 2008. The preparations for this course have been very valuable for my research. In addition, I would like to thank the following people for providing information on the lan- guages of their expertise: Lea Brown on Nias,
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