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Ergativity in Kurdish Language (PP طؤظارى زانكؤ بؤ زانستة مرؤظايةتييةكان بةرطى. 91 ، ذمارة.6، سالَى 5192 Ergativity in Kurdish Language (PP. 143-160) Assistant Prof. Dr. Ali M. Jukil English Dept. College of Basic Education-Salahaddin University- Hawler (SUH) Received: 16 /02/2015 Accepted: 05 /05/2015 Abstract This study deals with the ergativity in Kurdish Language, since the ergativity is a case system and within a case system, languages can be classified into "accusative" "ergative" and "active" according to how they mark the core arguments in a clause. The objective of this study to find out the phenomenon of ergativity status as a case system in the Kurdish language. First of all, the study presents transitivity in Kurdish language, and then it explains case systems in which it identifies ergative, accusative and active languages. After this the study illustrates case marking which is divided into three types; case endings, markedness of pronouns and markedness of clitics which are the core topics to examine Kurdish 'language, particularly the Hawler subdialect comparing with sulemani subdialect and Northern Kurmanji (NK) dialect to indicate split-ergativity and clitic movement in Hawler subdialect. Then the study presents the criteria to test ergativity such as Equi-deletion, raising rules and causative. At the end it presents the conclusion and bibliography. 1-Introduction his study deals with the ergativity in Kurdish Language, since the ergativity is a case system and within a case system, languages can be classified into "accusative" T "ergative" and "active" according to how they mark the core arguments in a clause. The term "ergativity" as a case system used to identify the grammatical pattern in which the subject of a transitive clause is different from the intransitive subject which is treated in the same way as the object of a transitive clause. Ergative refers to case marking of a noun phrase which is the subject of transitive. It is the case which is contrasting with another case called "nominative" but at present "absolutive" in which the subject of the intransitive verb and the "object" of the transitive verbs are in the same case, the nominative or the absolutive, while the subject of the transitive verb is in ergative case. The whole points about the ergative languages can only be interpreted by reference to the transitive verbs. First of all, the study presents transitivity in Kurdish language, and then it explains case systems in which it identifies ergative, accusative and active languages. After this the study illustrates case marking which is divided into three types; case endings, markedness of pronouns and markedness of clitics which are the core topics to examine Kurdish 'language, particularly the Hawler subdialect comparing with Sulemani subdialect and Northern Kurmanji (NK) dialect to indicate split-ergativity and clitic movement in Hawler subdialect. Then the study presents the criteria to test ergativity such as Equi-deletion or Big PRO, raising rules and causative. At the end it presents the conclusion and bibliography. 11. Transitivity This section presents the relationship between NPs and verb within the clause. All languages have intransitive and transitive clauses. In transitive, a verb is one place verb which requires only one NP (argument) i.e., intransitive clause involves with a verb and just on NP participant. e.g., darmé, damri, daçi, darwa, .... as in 143 Vol.19, No.6, 2015 طؤظارى زانكؤ بؤ زانستة مرؤظايةتييةكان بةرطى. 91 ، ذمارة.6، سالَى 5192 1) diwaraka darmé. (intransitive) wall the T collapse. S V The wall is collapsing. 2) Piyâwaka damri. (intransitive) man the T die. S V The man is dying. 3) ?aw daçit. ( intransitive) He T go he. S V He is going. 4) Qutabyaka darwât. ( intransitive) Student the T walk he. S V The student walks (is walking). While a transitive verb is a two-place verb, here the verb requires two NPs (arguments) i.e., transitive clause involves with a verb and two NP participants, one of the NPs fills the place of the subject and the other the place of the object. e.g., 5) damréni, kuşt, danwéni, darzéni darmând, damrând, danwând, darzând. 6) Kabra diwarak darméni. (transitive) Man wall the is collapsing / falling down. The man is falling down the wall. 7) Kabra diwarakay darmand. (transitive) Man wall the was collapsing/ falling down. The man was falling down the wall. 8) Polisaka piyawkujekay kuşt . ( transitive) Police the murdered the killed. The police killed the murdered. 9) Źnaka mindalakay danwěni. ( transitive) Woaman the child the her is sleeping. The woman made her child to be slept. 10) Źnaka mindalakay danwand. (transitive) Woman the child the her was sleeping. The woman makes her child to be slept. 11) Kiçaka çayaka darženi . ( transitive) Girl the tea the is spilling. The girl is spilling the tea. 144 Vol.19, No.6, 2015 طؤظارى زانكؤ بؤ زانستة مرؤظايةتييةكان بةرطى. 91 ، ذمارة.6، سالَى 5192 12) Kiçaka çayaka daržand. (transitive) Girl the tea the was spilling. The girl was spilling the tea. In Kurdish most verbs are inherently transitive or intransitive for example' rôyiştin "to go" ; kawtin "to fall" hâtin "to come" ?âxâftin "to speak", çun "to go", ... etc are inherently intransitive, while verbs like girtin "to seize" birdin "to take" dîtin "to see" dân "to give" are inherently transitive. 13) ?aw rôyişt. (intransitive) He went. 14) ?aw kawt. (intransitive) S/he fell S/he fell. 15) ?aw hât. (intransitive) S/he came. S/he came. 16) ?aw di?axeft / dadwet. (intransitive) S/he T speak/ T speak. S/he is speaking. 17) ?aw çu:wa bâzâr. (intransitive) S/he went to bazaar. S/he went to bazar. 18) Policaka dizakay girt. (transitive) Police the thief the s/he seized. The police arrested the thief. 19) Qutabiyaka kitébi romanakay bird. (transitive) Student the book novel the took. The student took the novel book. 20) ?âmin mindâlakanim dît. (transitive) I children the saw. I saw the children. 21) ?amin kitébakânim ba ?ali da. (transitive) I book the pl. to Ali gave. I gave the books to Ali. In Kurdish verbs may be used transitively and these verbs take verbal affix en / ând which is a very productive suffix for deriving transitive verbs which can be considered ditranstive or complex transitive verbs because each of these verbs can select the number of internal arguments and also they can be turned into causative verbs. e.g., 22) Diwâraka darûxé. present tense( intransitive) 23)Piyawaka diwarakay ruxand. (transitive) (causative) 24) Diwâraka rûxa. past tense( intransitive) 25) Piyâwaka diwarakay ruxand. (transitive) ( causative) (Jukil,2000;67-87). In Kurdish it can be distinguished between intransitive clause such as (24) and passive clause below since the verbs in the passivized clauses are inflected by the suffix ra/ ré; e.g., 145 Vol.19, No.6, 2015 طؤظارى زانكؤ بؤ زانستة مرؤظايةتييةكان بةرطى. 91 ، ذمارة.6، سالَى 5192 26)Diwaraka daruxéndré. (present tense) The previous presentation indicates that Kurdish distinguishes between clauses with a verb and just one core argument and those clauses with a verb and two core arguments in addition to ditransitive clauses a subtype of transitive clauses; i.e., Kurdish works in terms of three primitive relations (Dixon 2002 ;6) 1- NP core argument as an intransitive subject (S). e.g.; 27) ?âzâd hat, past tense intransitive Azad came. 28) ?âzâd dét, present tense intransitive Azad is coming. 29) Xânwaka darmét. present tense intransitive The house if falling down. 30) Xânwaka rima. past tense intransitive The house was falling down. 2- NP or core argument as transitive subject (A) agent. e.g.; 31) ?âzâd Xânwaki kirî. Past tense transitive Azad bought a house. 32) ?âzad Xânwak dakrét. present tense transitive Azad will buy a house. 33)? âzâd Xânwakay ruxând. Past tense transitive Azad collapsed the house 34)? Âzâd Xânwakay daruxénét. Present tense transitive Azad is collapsing the house 3- NP as transitive object (O) or (P). 35) ?âzâd Xânwakay bajéheşt / bajehéla. Azad left the house. 36) ?âzâd Xânwaka bajédelét. Azad will leave the house. The above examples indicate that (S) "subject" is a mere argument of an intransitive verb; (O) is clearly object and (A) is for agent. The prototypical semantic role is taken by the subject of a transitive verb, and the transitive subject "A" can be distinguished from object (0) or (P); "?âzâd" and xânwaka (house) respectively. (Tallerman 1998; 152). 1II.0. Case System This section presents the major case systems because within the case system, languages are classified as "accusative", "ergative" and "active" according to how they mark the core arguments in a clause. Subject which is a universal category links functions from intransitive and transitive clause type; and the relationship between S, A and O are the basic universal syntactic relations. This relation is entirely natural in accusative language to case-mark 146 Vol.19, No.6, 2015 طؤظارى زانكؤ بؤ زانستة مرؤظايةتييةكان بةرطى. 91 ، ذمارة.6، سالَى 5192 subject (S) and (A) with one single case which is nominative, whereas the (O) , the argument of a transitive verb is marked with accusative, and this can be presented as; (Dixon 2002;6). Nominative; A S Accusative; O While ergative languages show an ergative -obsolutive case system in which (S) and (O) are assigned the same case, called absolutive, whereas (A) is an ergative case as in; Absolutive : S O Ergative: A While in active languages (A) and (O) in the transitive clause might be marked as nominative vs accusative, whereas in the transitive clause the verb determines whether the S argument patterns with (A) or with (O). The languages are also called split languages in which intransitive verbs are divided into two groups; active and state verbs. The subject of the active verb is grouped with the agent (A) of a transitive verb which has an ergative case, while the subject of the state verb is grouped with (O) in the transitive construction, and an accusative language.(Barwari,2004;84).
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