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Atypology of Marked-S Languages View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Institutional Repository of the Freie Universität Berlin A typology of marked-S languages Corinna Handschuh language Studies in Diversity Linguistics, No 1 science press A typology of marked-S languages Case-systems all over the world exhibit striking similarities. In most lan- guages intransitive subjects (S) receives less overt marking than one of the two transitive arguments (agent-like A or patient-like P); the other one of these two arguments is usually encoded by the same form as S. In some languages the amount of overt marking is identical between S, A, and P. But hardly ever does the S argument receive more overt marking than A or P. Yet there are some languages that do not follow this general pattern. This book is about those languages that behave differently, the marked-S languages. Marked-S languages are well-known to be found in East Africa, where they occur in two different language families, Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Sa- haran. They can also be found in North-Western America and the Pacific region. This book is the first investigation of marked S-languages that treats the phenomenon on a global scale. The study examines the functional distribution of the two main case- forms, the form used for S (S-case) and the case-form of the transitive ar- gument which receives less marking (the zero-case). It offers a very fine- grained perspective considering a wide range of constructions. The con- texts in which the case-marking patterns are investigated include nom- inal, existential and locational predication, subjects in special discourse function (e. g. focused constituents), subjects of passives and dependent clauses, as well as the forms used for addressing someone (vocative form) and for using a noun in isolation (citation form). Apart from the functional distribution of case forms, the formal means of marking are also considered. The main focus is on the synchronic de- scription and comparison of marked-S languages, but historical explana- tions for the unusual case-marking pattern are also discussed. ISBN 978-3-944675-19-0 Corinna Handschuh A typology of marked-S languages 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
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