Syntactic Ergativity: Analysis • Explore Related Articles • Search Keywords and Identification
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Strategy of Case-Marking
Case marking strategies Helen de Hoop & Andrej Malchukov1 Radboud University Nijmegen DRAFT January 2006 Abstract Two strategies of case marking in natural languages are discussed. These are defined as two violable constraints whose effects are shown to converge in the case of differential object marking but diverge in the case of differential subject marking. The strength of the case bearing arguments will be shown to be of utmost importance for case marking as well as voice alternations. The strength of arguments can be viewed as a function of their discourse prominence. The analysis of the case marking patterns we find cross-linguistically is couched in a bidirectional OT analysis. 1. Assumptions In this section we wish to put forward our three basic assumptions: (1) In ergative-absolutive systems ergative case is assigned to the first argument x of a two-place relation R(x,y). (2) In nominative-accusative systems accusative case is assigned to the second argument y of a two-place relation R(x,y). (3) Morphologically unmarked case can be the absence of case. The first two assumptions deal with the linking between the first (highest) and second (lowest) argument in a transitive sentence and the type of case marking. For reasons of convenience, we will refer to these arguments quite sloppily as the subject and the object respectively, although we are aware of the fact that the labels subject and object may not be appropriate in all contexts, dependent on how they are actually defined. In many languages, ergative and accusative case are assigned only or mainly in transitive sentences, while in intransitive sentences ergative and accusative case are usually not assigned. -
A Crosslinguistic Approach to Double Nominative and Biabsolutive Constructions
A Crosslinguistic Approach to Double Nominative and Biabsolutive Constructions: Evidence from Korean and Daghestanian∗ Andrei Antonenko1 and Jisung Sun2 Stony Brook University1,2 1. Introduction Distribution of case among distinct grammatical relations is one of the most frequently studied topics in the syntactic theory. Canonical cases are, in accusative languages, subjects of both intransitive and transitive verbs being nominative, while direct objects of transitive verbs are usually marked accusative. In ergative languages, subjects of intransitive verbs share properties with direct objects of transitive verbs, and are marked absolutive. Subjects of transitive verbs are usually ergative. When you look into world languages, however, there are ‘non-canonical’ case patterns too. Probably the most extreme kind of non-canonical case system would be so-called Quirky Subject constructions in Icelandic (see Sigurðsson 2002). This paper concerns constructions, in which two nominals are identically case-marked in a clause, as observed in Korean and Daghestanian languages. Daghestanian languages belong to Nakh-Daghestanian branch of North Caucasian family. Nakh-Daghestanian languages are informally divided into Nakh languages, such as Chechen and Ingush, spoken in Chechnya and the Republic of Ingushetia, respectively; and Daghestanian languages, spoken in the Republic of Daghestan. Those regions are located in the Caucasian part of Russian Federation. Some Daghestanian languages are also spoken in Azerbaijan and Georgia. This study focuses on Daghestanian languages, such as Archi, Avar, Dargwa, Hinuq, Khwarshi, Lak and Tsez, due to similar behaviors of them with respect to the described phenomenon. 2. Ergativity in Daghestanian Aldridge (2004) proposes that there are two types of syntactically ergative languages, based on which argument is performing functions typical for subjects. -
Dative (First) Complements in Basque
Dative (first) complements in Basque BEATRIZ FERNÁNDEZ JON ORTIZ DE URBINA Abstract This article examines dative complements of unergative verbs in Basque, i.e., dative arguments of morphologically “transitive” verbs, which, unlike ditransitives, do not co-occur with a canonical object complement. We will claim that such arguments fall under two different types, each of which involves a different type of non-structural licensing of the dative case. The presence of two different types of dative case in these constructions is correlated with the two different types of complement case alternations which many of these predicates exhibit, so that alternation patterns will provide us with clues to identify different sources for the dative marking. In particular, we will examine datives alternating with absolutives (i.e., with the regular object structural case in an ergative language) and datives alternating with postpositional phrases. We will first examine an approach to the former which relies on current proposals that identify a low applicative head as case licenser. Such approach, while accounting for the dative case, raises a number of issues with respect to the absolutive variant. As for datives alternating with postpositional phrases, we claim that they are lexically licensed by the lower verbal head V. Keywords Dative, conflation, lexical case, inherent case, case alternations 1. Preliminaries: bivalent unergatives Bivalent unergatives, i.e., unergatives with a dative complement, have remained largely ignored in traditional Basque studies, perhaps due to the Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 11-1 (2012), 83-98 ISSN 1645-4537 84 Beatriz Fernández & Jon Ortiz de Urbina identity of their morphological patterns of case marking and agreement with those of ditransitive configurations. -
Ergative As Accusative Case: Evidence from Adiyaman
ERGATIVE AS ACCUSATIVE CASE: EVIDENCE FROM ADIYAMAN KURMANJI ÜMİT ATLAMAZ ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! BOĞAZİÇİ UNIVERSITY 2012 ERGATIVE AS ACCUSATIVE CASE: EVIDENCE FROM ADIYAMAN KURMANJI Thesis submitted to the Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Linguistics by Ümit Atlamaz ! ! Boğaziçi University 2012 ! ! Thesis Abstract Ümit Atlamaz, “Ergative as Accusative Case: Evidence from Adıyaman Kurmanji” This study aims to investigate the nature of ergativity in Adıyaman Kurmanji within the premises of the Minimalist Program. Adıyaman Kurmanji displays two alignment patterns depending on the tense. In non-past structures nominative alignment is observed whereas the past tense requires an ergative alignment. Based on these two types of alignments many linguists like Haig (2004), Thackston (2006), and Gündoğdu (2011) argue that Kurmanji is a split ergative language. Accordingly, the major aim of this study is to investigate the structure of the ergative pattern in Adıyaman Kurmanji. In this study, the initial step was to compare the ergative and nominative subjects in terms of certain tests like binding, scope and EPP to determine the phrase structure and where the subjects reside on the structure. Additionally, voice properties of the language were inspected as a background to the major claim. Based on the results of the tests applied and the motivation obtained from the data, it was argued that what has been called ergative in Adıyaman Kurmanji is, indeed, a passive structure diachronically reanalyzed as the past tense. According to Trask’s (1979) typology of ergative languages, there are two types of ergative languages, which labels as Type A and Type B. -
Verb Agreement and Case Marking in Burushaski
Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session Volume 40 Article 5 1996 Verb agreement and case marking in Burushaski Stephen R. Willson SIL-UND Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/sil-work-papers Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Willson, Stephen R. (1996) "Verb agreement and case marking in Burushaski," Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session: Vol. 40 , Article 5. DOI: 10.31356/silwp.vol40.05 Available at: https://commons.und.edu/sil-work-papers/vol40/iss1/5 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Verb Agreement and Case Marking in Burushaski Stephen R. Willson 1 Burushaski verb agreement and case marking phenomena are complex and have not been described adequately by any current theory ofsyntax. In particular, no explanation has yet been given as to why a variety of nominals can trigger agreement in the verbal prefix. In some cases the apparent subject triggers this agreement, in others the direct object appears to do so, in others the indirect object, in others the possessor of the direct object, in others a benefactive or source nominal. Also, the constraints on the usage of ergative, absolutive and oblique case, and other indicators ofgrammatical relations on nominals, have been insufficiently characterized in the literature on Burushaski. -
Ergativity Can Be Defined As Either a Morphological of Syntactic Process
Laura J. Mahalingappa - University of Texas at Austin Acquisition of Split-Ergativity in Kurmanji Kurdish: Variability and Language Change Questions of learnability surrounding ergativity have prompted studies suggesting that children acquire the morphological systems of ergative and accusative languages equally easily (Pye 1990) and that sociolinguistic distribution can cause the late appearance of ergative case- marking (Ochs 1982). However, what do children acquiring ergativity do when presented with the problem of variability in caretaker input? Research suggests that children can acquire “variable forms of a language at an early stage, reflecting the proportion in which the variants occur” in caregiver input (Henry 2002, 278). This study examines the acquisition of split-ergativity in Kurmanji Kurdish, where, in present-tense transitive sentences, the oblique case (OBL) marks patients and the direct case (DIR) marks agents, the verb agreeing with the agent. In past-tense transitive sentences, however, agents are marked with OBL and patients are marked with DIR, the verb agreeing with patient instead of agent (Example 1). Subjects of intransitive sentences are always marked with DIR. However, recent research suggests that split-ergativity in Kurmanji is weakening due to either internally-induced change or contact with Turkish (Dixon 1994, Dorleijn 1996), perhaps moving towards a full nominative-accusative system. This change is demonstrated by the disappearance of OBL on masculine nouns and the increasing use of OBL to mark objects in past-tense transitive structures (Example 2). Therefore, children acquiring Kurmanji are faced with learning split-ergative grammatical relations with highly variable non-systematic input from caretakers, likely due to language change in progress. -
Effect of Chain Foot and Island in Relative Clauses in the RT Analysis
FROM INTRUSIVE TO RESUMPTIVE THE ACQUISITION OF WH-DEPENDENCIES BY BEHDINI LEARNERS OF ENGLISH By Shivan Shlaymoon Toma A thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Second Language Acquisition in the School of Languages, Cultures, and Societies Department of Linguistics and Phonetics The University of Leeds May 2016 Thesis supervisor: Dr Cécile De Cat I confirm that the work submitted is my own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. 2016 The University of Leeds Shivan Shlaymoon Toma ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, praises and thanks to God, the Almighty, for having made everything possible and for His showers of blessings throughout my research work to complete this thesis. I have been waiting for this section for so long to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Cecile De Cat, my supervisor, who advised me through all the steps necessary for the completion of this thesis, from designing the structure of the study, collecting data, setting research questions, analyzing data, and discussing the results. Her competence in the field of empirical research and her expertise in statistical analysis were utterly helpful and resolved major doubts in this research. She has also been an encouraging, patient and nice person. I am extremely grateful to the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government for sponsoring and funding my studies through the Human Capacity Development Program (HCDP) in Higher Education, which is an ambitious program that aims to develop human capacities in Kurdistan Region in the field of higher education. -
Types of Crosslinguistic Variation in Case Assignment
Types of Crosslinguistic Variation in Case Assignment Mark Baker Rutgers University In this work, I do not address directly issues about what range of hypotheses concerning crosslinguistic variation are or aren’t Minimalist, or questions about micro- vs. macro- parameters, or clarifying the role of the lexicon versus syntactic principles in crosslinguistic variation, or so on. It is not because I’m above talking about such things or don’t have opinions about them. That is simply not what I want to focus on here. Rather I want to offer something more along the lines of addressing what Cedric Boeckx calls Greenburg’s problem. I agree with him that Greenburg’s problem is quite distinct from Plato’s problem, but I think that it’s also interesting, and we should be trying to come up with solutions for it—although not perhaps in exactly the way Greenburg might have foreseen. In particular, I’ll focus here on a specific issue in syntactic variation, namely the theory of morphological case, especially overt structural case. I imagine that if there is such a thing as abstract Case (i.e. NP licensing) that that is systematically related, but that topic is not my focus here. In presenting this research, I also want to illustrate a style of relating to the material that I want to recommend, what I’ve been calling Formal Generative Typology (Baker, 2010). This involves committing to two kinds of ideas which I think are both attractive. The first is the generativist vision of accepting a degree of abstractness in our descriptions of languages, and looking at how insight into empirical details can emerge from proper formalization of the patterns. -
Variation in the Ergative Pattern of Kurmanji Songül Gündoğdu, Muş
Variation in the Ergative Pattern of Kurmanji Songül Gündoğdu, Muş Alparslan University, Muş, Turkey LANGUAGE KEYWORDS: Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) AREA KEYWORDS: Middle East (Turkey) ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) Kurdish-Kurmanji (or Northern Kurdish) belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. This study is dedicated to a deeper understanding of a specific grammatical feature typical of Kurmanji: the ergative structure. Based on the example of this core structure, and with empirical evidence from the Kurmanji dialect of Muş in Turkey, I will discuss the issues of variation and change in Kurmanji, more precisely the ongoing shift from ergative to nominative-accusative structures. The causes for such a fundamental shift, however, are not easy to define. The close historical vicinity to Turkish and Armenian might be a trigger for the shift; another trigger is language-internal (diachronic) change. In sum, the investigated variation sheds light on a fascinating grammatical change in a language that is also sociopolitically in a situation of constant change, movement, and upheaval. ABSTRACT (DEUTSCH) Kurdisch-Kurmanci (oder Nordkurdisch) gehört zum iranischen Zweig der indoeuropäischen Sprachfamilie. Eine zentrale und charakteristische grammatische Struktur dieser Sprache ist der Ergativ; ihm ist der vorliegende Beitrag gewidmet. Am Beispiel des Ergativ werde ich Variation und Wandel im Kurmanci diskutieren und insbesondere auf den Dialekt von Muş (Türkei) eingehen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass sich derzeit im Kurmanci der Wandel von einer Ergativ- zu einer Nominativ-Akkusativ-Sprache vollzieht. Die Ursachen für einen derart grundlegenden Wandel sind nicht leicht zu benennen. Ein Grund mag in der schon historisch engen Nachbarschaft zum Türkischen und Armenischen liegen; ein anderer Grund mag im sprach-internen (diachronen) Wandel des Kurmanci selbst zu finden sein. -
Syntax Case Theory
Syntax Case Theory Modul 04-006-2002 Phonology – Morphology – Syntax Institut für Linguistik Universität Leipzig home.uni-leipzig.de/heck Morphological case Point of departure: Many languages involve morphological case marking on noun phrases (and its dependents, such as determiners and adjectives). How many different morphological cases there are depends on the language. German, for instance, distinguishes nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative (1-a-d). (1) a. Die blaue Elise schlä. the.nom blue.nom Elise.nom sleeps b. Die blaue Elise bedarf der Hilfe (der Ameise). the blue Elise needs the.gen help.gen the.gen ant.gen c. Die Ameise entkommt der blauen Elise. the ant escapes the.dat blue.dat Elise.dat d. Die blaue Elise hat einen Plan. the blue Elise has a.acc plan.acc Structural and abstract case The syntactic dependency of case: (Morphological) case is syntactically dependent. The case on an NP depends on the abstract syntactic structure the NP shows up in. In German, for instance, the object of a verb generally bears accusative, the subject generally bears nominative. Such cases do not depend on the concrete predicate that is involved (2): structural case. Even if a case is not always morphologically visible (cf. no morphological marking on the noun Elise itself in (2-a-c)), it is assumed to be abstractly present. (2) a. Die blaue Elise hat einen Plan. the.nom blue.nom Elise.nom has a.acc plan.acc b. Die blaue Elise hasst die Ameise. the.nom blue.nom Elise.nom hates the.acc ant.acc c. Die Ameise überlisted die blaue Elise. -
Overview of Ergativity
Chapter 2 Ergativity Chapter 2 Overview of Ergativity Ergativity is a term that refers to a certain pattern that some languages show in treating arguments of a verb. Generally, arguments are classified into three types: the subject of a transitive verb, the object of a transitive verb and the subject of an intransitive verb. Adopting Dixon’s (1979) terminology, we will refer to them as A, O, and S, respectively. If a language treats A and S in the same way, distinguishing O, the pattern is called accusative. In contrast, in an ergative pattern, S and O are treated as equivalent, while A is treated differently. The notion of ergativity is often used with regard to case marking. In an ergative case system, S and O appear in the same case, absolutive and A appears in a special case, ergative. An ergative pattern of case marking is referred to as morphological ergativity. Ergativity is not merely a morphological phenomenon. Some languages treat S and O as equivalents in some syntactic operations such as coordination and relativisation. An ergative pattern found at the level of syntax is referred to as syntactic ergativity. It should be noted that morphological ergativity does not entail syntactic ergativity. A language may have an ergative case marking without showing syntactic ergativity. However, a language that shows syntactic ergativity necessarily has an ergative case system. Syntactic ergativity is incompatible with accusative case marking. In other 13 Chapter 2 Ergativity words, there seems to be some correlation between morphological ergativity and syntactic ergativity. This leads to a hypothesis that ergative case marking is associated with syntactic configuration. -
Rubbettino 2007 H
XII Incontro Italiano di Linguistica Camito-semitica (Afroasiatica) ATTI a crrradi Marco Moriggi Rubbettino 2007 H. Satzinger Absolutestate and absolutive case in Afro-Asiatic In the pastdecades the ideahas spread that the Afro-Asiaticancestor lan- guagewas ofiginallyof the ergativerype. This view is basedon rhe observarion of somefeatures of variousindividual languagesand/or severalbranches that seemedto offer themselvesto suchan interpretationl,For Berber,A. Aikhen- 64 H. Satzinger vald hasclaimed that the accusativeor "free state"of the noun, aswell asthe "objectpronoun", representthe absolutivecase of an ergativecase system, an opinion that doesnot hold in this form2;what we are here dealingwith is the feature of an absolutestate, or case,a featurethat has nothing to do with an ergativecase system (nor with an accusativecase system, at that).Nevertheless, Lipiriski, inhis SemiticLanguages, refers in severalparagraphs to Berber as an unequivocalergative type languagel.Obviously, the two (near-)homonymous termsof "absolutestate (or case)"and "absolutivecase" have been con- f u se d by theseand other authors; this questionshall be the maintopic of this paper. The issueof Afro-Asiatic ergativityhas not only been met with agreement among scholars.Of the critical contributions,we will take into consideration the articleby M. \X/altisberga.However, the author seemsto havefallen for the very samemistake which thosemade whom he criticises,viz. the confounding of "absolutestate" and "absolutivecase". What. then, is an "absolutive case"?Itisoneof thetwobasic casesof an ergative-absolutivecase system, the other being the ergativecase. Absolutivecase is the caseof nounsin ergative-absolutivelanguages that would generallybe the subjectsof intransitiveverbs or the objectsof transitiveverbs in thetranslational equivalents of nominative-accusativelanguages such as English. Ergativecase is the caseof nounsin ergative-absolutivelanguages that would gen- erallybe the subjectsof transitiveverbs in the transladonequivalents of nomina- tive-accusativelanguages such as Englishs.