scholarly journals Ergativity and the active-stative typology in Loma

1983 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-284
Author(s):  
Noel Rude
Keyword(s):  
Accusative Case ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Case System

Ergativity would seem to be non-existant or at least quite rare in Africa. This lack, however, may be related to another continent-wide areal phenomenon: there is a paucity of morphological NP case marking according to either ergative or accusative typologies. It is thus possible that other more subtle attributes of the ergative organization of syntax are what should be sought in Africa. For example, in the Mande languages, as also in Celtic, phonological decay has produced a series of word initial consonant alternations. In Celtic these have come to function as part of a nominative-accusative case marking strategy. The situation is quite similar in Mande, but as this paper details for Lorna, the noun case system is ergative-absolute. And, accordingly, the pronoun system has active-stative characteristics.

PSIs with Head-Like Properties

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-210
Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqassas
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Case Theory ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Dependent Case ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Case Licensing ◽  
Polarity Sensitive ◽  
Genitive Case

This chapter discusses two main issues that arise from PSIs (polarity-sensitive items) with head-like properties. These PSIs seem to be outside the (immediate) domain of their licensor. The first issue is how these PSIs are licensed in syntax and how a unified analysis can handle their distribution. The author argues that these PSIs are adverbial phrases that do not project a clausal projection and that negation licenses these PSIs either in Spec-NegP or under c-command. This unified analysis does not appeal to the problematic head–complement relation as a putative licensing configuration. Another issue that arises from these NPIs (negative polarity items) with head-like properties is their ability to host clitics with accusative and genitive case marking. This issue raises interesting questions pertaining to case theory and dependent case licensing. The author argues that negation licenses the puzzling accusative case of the pronominal complement, a conclusion with far-reaching implications to dependent case licensing in natural language.

How the accusative became the relative

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-92
Author(s):  
Michael Fortescue
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
First Person ◽  
Firm Conclusion ◽  
Genetic Link ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
Relative Case

Abstract The Eskimo-Uralic hypothesis of a genetic link between Eskimo-Aleut and the Uralic languages is now reaching its second centenary. Two major problems with its advancement since Bergsland’s (1959) summary of its status are addressed in this article. The first of these is the lack of an obvious correlate of the ubiquitous Eskimo-Aleut (EA) relative case marker -m in Uralic; the other is the lack of an m-initial first person singular morpheme in EA to correlate with that of the Uralic languages. That the EA singular genitive/relative marker -m — as well as the instrumental/accusative singular -mək based on it — might be cognate with Uralic singular accusative -m was suggested already by Sauvageot (1953), but no firm conclusion on the matter has since been reached. This has remained a tantalizing possibility, despite the conflicting semantics. However, the remarkable morphosyntactic parallels between Eskimo-Aleut and Samoyedic in particular have grown more apparent with recent publications. A solution is proposed, linking the emergence of ergativity in the Eskimo-Aleut family with a reanalysis of the original nominative-accusative case marking system.

Linguistic Aspects of Regression in German Case Marking

1989 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Jordens ◽  
Kees De Bot ◽  
Henk Trapman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Basic Principle ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Case System ◽  
Default Case ◽  
L2 Learners

The tenability of the regression hypothesis as a basic principle for language attrition within languages has not been really questioned until now. In order to find out to what extent attrition might be the reverse of the process of acquisition, phenomena of attrition in the use of the German case system were studied. Two hypotheses were tested: the Linguistic Hypothesis and the Cognitive Hypothesis. the Linguistic Hypothesis is based on the notion of regression. According to this notion, attrition is the reverse of the language acquisition process. The Cognitive Hypothesis is based on the assumption that in natural cases of language acquisition, there is a tendency to establish a one-to-one correspondence between cognitive function and morphological case assignment. The results from experiments on case marking in headline-type constructions showed differences between native (L1) speakers and second language (L2) learners. In L1 speakers the relation between case marking and underlying semantic functioning becomes more prominent, whereas in L2 learners the nominative is used as a default case, indicating that morphological differentiations become reduced. This means that for L1 speakers the Cognitive Hypothesis provides a more adequate explanatory framework, whereas for L2 learners it is the Linguistic Hypothesis that is more appropriate.

Megrelian

2021 ◽  
pp. 528-569
Author(s):  
Alexander Rostovtsev-Popiel
Keyword(s):  
Informal Communication ◽  
Verbal Aspect ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Case System ◽  
Spatial Deixis

This chapter addresses Megrelian, a Kartvelian (South Caucasian) language spoken by Megrelians, a subethnic group compactly residing in one of the western provinces of Georgia, Samegrelo. A language of informal communication, Megrelian has been subject to linguistic research both in Georgia and beyond for more than two hundred years. Backed by the existing literature on the language, most of which has been published in Georgian, this sketch provides an account of essential features of Megrelian phonology, grammar, and lexicon, including such typologically renowned properties of Megrelian as the elaborate system of preverbs and innovative and extremely specific case-marking alignment that not only features ergative stimuli of affective verbs, but can also license this case to adverbs as well. Furthermore, new insights are proposed for such domains of linguistic structure as the language’s case system, grades of comparison, expression of spatial deixis by pronominal expressions, verbal aspect, and evidentiality; some of these statements are based on the data from the author’s long-term fieldwork and are now being introduced to linguistic discourse.

Grammatical Relations in Tariana

1994 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Keyword(s):  
Unusual Case ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Grammatical Relations ◽  
Case System ◽  
Case Marker

This article deals with the marking of grammatical relations in Tariana, North-Arawakan, and how this marking interrelates with topicality, definiteness and other discourse characteristics of nominal constituents. The following four case-marking systems are distinguished in Tariana: (i) a subject vs object case system, used with personal pronouns with animate reference; (ii) a case system characterized by an enclitic -nuku for marking topicalized and referential non-subjects, used with all types of nominal constituents; (iii) an ergative case-marking used with all types of nominal constituents under emphasis in A function, the ergative case marker being the same as instrumental; (iv) a system of peripheral cases – locative and instrumental, used with all types of nominal constituents, but obligatory only with pronouns. The overt case-marking in Tariana is related to such parameters as topicality, definiteness and emphasis, and consequently is dependent on the structure of discourse. I will argue that the unusual case-marking patterns in Tariana corroborate cross-linguistic generalizations on a dependency between case-marking and topical properties of NPs in languages with an opposition between marked and unmarked case forms.

Adstrate Influence in Sri Lanka Malay: Definiteness, Animacy and Number in Accusative Case Marking

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22
Author(s):  
Ian R. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Indonesian Archipelago ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Nominal Inflection ◽  
Obscure Origin

Sri Lanka Malay is a creole-like language spoken by the descendents of soldiers, exiles and slaves brought to Sri Lanka by the Dutch from Java and their possessions in the Indonesian archipelago in the 17th and 18th centuries and by recruits brought by the British from the Malayan Peninsula and elsewhere in the 19th century. Various authors have noted the influence of indigenous languages on the structure of Sri Lanka Malay but disagreement has arisen over the source and mechanism. An examination of the interaction of definiteness, number, animacy and the accusative case in Sinhala, Tamil, and Sri Lanka Malay nominal inflection shows that Sri Lanka Malay aligns more closely here with Tamil than with Sinhala. The pattern of accusative case marking, in particular, can be attributed to Tamil influence. Moreover, the ubiquity of accusative case marking in Sri Lanka Malay together with its obscure origin and the absence of recent cataclysmic social events to trigger rapid linguistic change indicate that this alignment is of long standing, rather than a recent development.

scholarly journals The syntax of Arabic vocatives

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-360
Author(s):  
Hussein Al-Bataineh
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Case Assignment ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Case Feature

Abstract This paper examines the syntactic structure of Arabic vocatives, focusing on case-marking of vocatives. The assignment of accusative and nominative-like case can be accounted for in the light of Hill (2017)’s proposal which provides the basic structure of the vocative phrase. This paper argues that in Arabic vocatives (i) the particle YAA is a transitive probe with valued [ACC-Case] and unvalued [2nd] and [Distance] features; (ii) The D has the unvalued case feature [u-Case], and it has both the [2nd] and [+Distance] features if it is a free pronoun and (iii) The vocative noun carries the valued [2nd] and [+/-Distance] features. Based on these assumptions, I argued that indefinite vocatives are assigned accusative case only if they are merged with an overt D -n, otherwise a nominative-like case surfaces on the noun by default. Proper names have the same analysis since the presence of the indefinite article -n is a prerequisite for accusative case assignment. Concerning vocatives as heads of Construct States, N-to-D movement takes place in order to assign [+def] feature to D and is assigned accusative case by YAA. Regarding vocatives in demonstrative phrases, the existence of a null D prevents the vocative noun from being assigned an overt accusative case. Concerning vocative pronouns, only accusative case is assigned since the determiner carrying the [u-Case] feature is overt.

scholarly journals The Syntax of Arabic Vocatives

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hussein Al-Bataineh
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Nominative Case ◽  
Case Assignment ◽  
Case Alternation ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Case Marking

This paper examines the syntactic structure of Arabic vocatives, focusing on Case-marking of vocatives. The assignment of accusative and nominative Case can be accounted for in the light of Hill (2017) and Larson (2014)’s proposals. Hill (2017) provides the basic structure of the vocative phrase, and Larson (2014) proposes the internal structure of DP. The combination of these proposals explains the derivation of Arabic vocatives and their Case alternation. This paper argues that indefinite vocatives are assigned accusative Case only if they are merged with an overt D -n, otherwise a nominative Case surfaces on the noun by default. Proper names have the same analysis since the presence of the indefinite article-n is a prerequisite for accusative Case assignment. Concerning vocatives as heads of Construct States, N-to-D movement takes place in order to assign [+def] feature to D and is assigned accusative Case once D raises to the light d. Regarding vocatives in demonstrative phrases, D-to-d movement is blocked because of the intervening constituent Dem, indicating that this operation is subject to the adjacency condition. The same analysis is applicable to definite vocatives occurring with the particle ʡayyuha.

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