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Case, Valency and Transitivity View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Ghent University Academic Bibliography Case, Valency and Transitivity Edited by Leonid Kulikov Leiden University Andrej Malchukov PeterdeSwart Radboud University Nijmegen John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements 8 of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Case, Valency and Transitivity / edited by Leonid Kulikov, Andrej Malchukov and Peter de Swart. p. cm. (Studies in Language Companion Series, issn 0165–7763 ; v. 77) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. 1. Grammar, Comparative and general--Case. 2. Grammar, Comparative and general--Transitivity. 3. Dependency grammar. 4. Semantics. I. Kulikov, L.I. II. Mal’chukov, A.L. (Andrei L’vovich). III. Swart, Peter de. IV. Series. P240.6.C37 2006 415’.5--dc22 2006040572 isbn 90 272 3087 0 (Hb; alk. paper) © 2006 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa Introduction 1. Case,valencyandtransitivity Thepresentselectionofpapersdealingwithcase,valency,andtransitivity,originated fromaconferenceonthesimilartopicheldattheUniversityofNijmegeninJune2003. Thematicallyitbelongstoarowofrecentpublicationsindicatinganewupsurgeofin- terestinthatfield.1Thecontributionstothepresentvolumediscussissuesrelatedto case,valency,andtransitivityinawiderangeoflanguagesfromdifferenttheoretical perspectives.Beforeturningtothepresentationofindividualchapters,abriefdiscus- sionofthecentralconceptsaddressedinthisvolumeisinorder.Thenotionsofcase, valencyandtransitivity,whichareinthecenterofthepresentpublication,aredistinct, albeitrelatedphenomena.Asmostoftheconceptscomingfromtraditionalgrammar ‘case’ismultiplyambiguous(seeBlake2001;seealsoSpencer,thisvolume,fordiscus- sion).Inanarrowsenseitpertainstomorphologicalcase,buttheterm ‘casemarking’is frequentlyusedtocoveralsoalternativemeansofencodinggrammaticalrelationssuch asagreement,andevensyntacticposition.Theterm‘valency’isalsoambiguous.On theonehand,itpertainstoavalencypattern,i.e.,specificationofthenumberofver- balargumentsandtheirencoding,butisalsousedtorefertoaverbalcategorymark- ingvalencychange,suchascausatives,applicatives,etc.Manyauthors,likeDixonand Aikhenvald(2000),alsoincludevoicesintothevalencychangingcategories.Onecould expectthattransitivityisthemostspecificnotion,asatleastonthetraditionalinterpre- tationitisreferringtoaspecificvalencypatterninvolvingadirectobjectinadditionto thesubject,ormoreprecisely,transitiveverbsarethoseverbswhichtakeanagentand apatientargumentandanyotherverbwiththesamevalency(Blake2001).However, inthelasttwodecades(asinHopperandThompson’swork,seebelow)transitivityhas beenelevatedintoacentraloverarchingcategoryinteractingwithmanyfunctionalfac- tors,whichmanifestthemselvesinarangeof‘transitivityalternations’,pertainingtoa changeofcaseandvalency.Onthisbroadviewtransitivityisthecentralphenomenon addressedinthisvolume. The contributions in the present volume belong to different research traditions. Manyofthem,inparticularthosewhichhaveacross-linguisticscope,followafunc- tional-typological approach trying to uncover functional motivations behind cross- linguisticallyrecurrentcase-markingpatterns.Adifferentlineofresearchdealingwith theissuesofcasemarkingcanbefoundwithinthegenerativetradition.Thistradition focusesonsyntacticeffectsofmorphologicalcase,onrelationsbetweenmorphologic- alcase,abstractcaseandgrammaticalrelations,andtriestogiveastructuralsyntactic implementationformanynotionsdiscussedabove(forexample,throughassociating valencyandcasewithspecialfunctionalprojections;thecontributionsbyAbraham andTrommercangiveanideaoftheresearchagendawithinthistradition).Thereare viii Introduction anumberofothertheoreticalapproaches,asrepresented,forinstance,bySahoo’scon- tribution.AspecialmentionshouldbemadeofOptimalityTheory(OT)whichseeks tointegrateavarietyofformalandfunctionalapproachestogrammarandwherecase markinghasbeenoneofthefavouritetopics(seecontributionsbydeHoopandLamers anddeSwartfordiscussionofOTapproachestocasemarking).Malchukov’scontribu- tion,forexample,triestointegrateOTwithfunctionaltypology,whereasTrommer’s OTapproachisgroundedinthegenerativetradition. Asisclearfromtheabove,differentcontributionsaligntodifferenttraditions,al- thoughmanyofthem,inparticularlythoserepresentingcasestudiesofindividuallan- guages,canbeconsideredastheoryneutral.Equallydiversearetheissuesaddressed in the respective contributions. Some contributors (Abraham, Johanson, Spencer, BarðdalandEythórsson,Sahoo,deSwart,andTrommer)focusontheoreticalissues, othercontributionsaremoretypologicallyoriented(Naess,Malchukov,andKittilä), whilestillotherstakeadiachronic(Kulikov,Vydrine,andPeterson),orapsycholin- guisticperspective(deHoopandLamers).Themajorityofpapersrepresentcasestud- iesofindividuallanguages,oftenbasedonoriginalfieldwork.Thelanguagesaddressed inindividualcontributionsincludeAmerindianlanguages(Broadwell,Lehmannand VerhoevenonMayan,PetersononTsimshian,TrommeronAlgonquian),African(Vy- drineonMandeandGaliaminaonSonghay),Turkiclanguages(Johanson,Lyutiko- vaandBonch-Osmolovskaya,andLetuchiy),Finno-Ugric(Kalininaetal.),Caucasian (Ganenkov on Nakh-Daghestanian), Indo-Aryan (Sahoo), as well as better studied Europeanlanguages(asinthecontributionsbyAbraham,BarðdalandEythórsson,de HoopandLamers). Stillanotherwaytoclassifythecontributions,whichisagainorthogonaltothepre- viousclassification,concernstheempiricalfocusofthecontributions.Abovewehave notedthatthenotionsofcase,valencyandtransitivityareinterrelatedbutdistinct.The currentorderofpresentationinthevolumeroughlyfollowsthefollowingoutline:the volumestartswithcontributionsexaminingcaseasamorphologicalphenomenon,af- terwhichitcontinueswithcontributionsdealingwithcasemarkingonasyntacticlev- elandinteractionbetweencasemarkingandtransitivity,andfinally,thevolumecon- cludeswiththecontributionsrelatedtoverbalvalencyandvalencychanging.Itgoes withoutsayingthataneatclassificationintoclassesisimpossible,asmanyauthorsad- dressseveralinterrelatedtopics,asisevidentfromthechaptersummaries. 2. Overviewoftheindividualcontributions PartI:Morphologicalcase Thecontributionstothispartprimarilyfocusonmorphologicalcase.Andrew Spen­ cers ’ contributionSyntactic vs. morphological case: implications for morphosyntax iswell-fittoopenthevolumeasitdiscussestherelationbetweenmorphologicaland Introduction ix syntacticcasesettingthescenefordiscussioninthesubsequentparts.Inhiscontribu- tionSpencerdrawsattentiontothedualcharacterofthecategoryofcaseincase-mark- inglanguages.Ontheonehand,caseisexpressedasamorphologicalformofanoun; ontheotherhand,itismanifestedasapropertyofaphrasalnode,thusfulfillingitssyn- tacticfunction.Theauthorfocusesonexamplesofmismatchbetweenthetwo,arguing thatforsomecaserelationsdefinedinsyntaxthereisnostraightforwardmorphologic- alcorrespondent.Hisclaimisillustratedbythreeexamples:therealizationofsyntactic ergativecasedistributedacrosstwoothermorphologicalcasesinChukchee;thereal- izationofcertainclassesofdativemarkednounsincertainpositionsintheNPasaspe- cialmorphologicalsubtypeofdativeinCzech(whichhasnootherreflexinthesyntax ofthelanguage);andtheverycomplexmorphologicalrealizationofnounsingenitive markedsyntacticcontextsinGerman(whichcannotbeunderstoodunlesswedecou- plesyntacticandmorphologicalcaselabels). AbroaddiachronicperspectiveonmorphologicalcaseisprovidedbyLeonid Kuli­ kov.HiscontributionCase systems in a diachronic perspective: A typological sketch isatypologicaloverviewofthemaintypesofchangesincasesystems.Itdealswiththe mainmechanismsoftheriseofnewcasesandexpansionofcasesystems(case-increas- ing),typesofdecayingcasesystems(case-reducing),aswellaswithsomeprocesses withincasesystemswhichhelptoresistphoneticerosionandcasesyncretism(stable casesystems).Onthebasisofthiscross-linguisticdiachronicsurveyofcasesystems, theauthoroffersatentativeclassificationoftheevolutionarytypesoflanguages. ThisdiachronicperspectiveonmorphologicalcaseisalsoadoptedbyValentin Vy­ drineinhiscontributionEmergence of morphological cases in South Mande lan­ guages.Theauthorshowsthatpervasivephoneticprocesseshaveresultedintheemer- genceofcontractedformsofpronouns,andhefurtherarguesthatcontrarytothe establishedview,theirformscanbeinterpretedintermsofmorphologicalcases.The authorfurtherdemonstratesthatinsomelanguagesofthegroup,suchasGuro,elem- entsofanergativesystemhaveemergedinthepersonalpronouns.Interestingly,in theselanguagesergativecaseisfoundonpronouns,ratherthannouns,whichcontra- dictsoneofthetypologicaluniversals,establishedbySilverstein(1976)andKozinskij (1980)amongothers.Inthesecondpartofthechapter,theauthoraddressestheriseof locativecasesintwootherMandelanguages,TuraandDan. WhileVydrine’scontributionexaminestheemergenceofacasesystem,Tyler Peter­ sons ’ contributionIssues of Morphological Ergativity in the Tsimshian Languages focusesonthevestigesofacasesystemintheTsimshianlanguages(Canada,province ofBritishColumbia),whichhedetectsintheclassofcliticmorphemescalled‘connec- tives’.Hearguesthattheyarosefromrearrangementofseveraltypesofmorphemes whichincludeagreementmarkers,determinersandtheremnantsofamorphologic- alcasesystem.Theauthorfurtherprovidesanin-depthdiscussionoftheinteraction
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