Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Volume I: Clause Structure, Second edition
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Lgg Typology, Synt Description v. I - Clause structure
-at, expressed as -at/-yat/-t, whereas
full nps with other grammatical functions optionally take the oblique marker -y˜a, regardless of their cross-referencing on the verb: (138) a. Ofi-yat towa(-y˜a) lhioli-tok dog-nom ball(-obl) chase-past ‘The dog chased the ball’ b. Issoba-yat ˜ıpa-tok horse-nom eat-past ‘The horse ate’ c. Chim-alla-t cha:ha-h your-child-nom tall-pred ‘Your child is tall’ 218 Avery D. Andrews The case marking on nps thus reflects a unitary s category, and treats it the same as a, in spite of the split treatment of agreement. Choctaw doesn’t have a pas- sive, which shows that the basis for identification of a and s is not that they are both p-subjects. We conclude that Choctaw has an a-subject category, in spite of the split in intransitive predicates, since the two kinds of s show behaviour in common (np marking) as well as differences (cross-referencing), and the common behaviour furthermore cannot be attributed to p-subject because the language has no passives, and therefore lacks p-subjects. Choctaw therefore conforms to the generalization noted by Dixon (1994:75) that there is almost (but not quite) always evidence that the two kinds of intransitive subjects should be grouped together as some kind of single grammatical relation, in spite of their differences (one of the exceptions is Acehnese, to be discussed below). Split intransitivity has long been known as a feature of ‘exotic’ languages, but one of the more significant linguistic discoveries of the late ’70s and early ’80s is that it is also quite common, in a somewhat subtle form, in European languages, where it is generally known as ‘unaccusativity’. In unaccusativity, s A and s P are superficially the same in terms of coding features, but more careful consideration of syntactic properties reveals differences, with s A resembling a, and s P resembling p. This was demonstrated extensively for Italian by Perlmutter (1983). In this language there are two kinds of intransitive verbs, some taking avere ‘have’ to form a past tense, the others taking essere ‘be’. In either case the np in s function can appear before or after the auxiliary and the main verb: (139) a. Due persone sono rimaste two people are remained ‘Two people remained’ b. Sono rimaste due persone are remained two people ‘Two people remained’ c. Due persone hanno reagito two people have reacted ‘Two people reacted’ d. Hanno reagito due persone have reacted two people ‘Two people reacted’ The semantic basis of this split has been a matter of debate; early authors such as Perlmutter (1983) argued that there wasn’t any consistent one, while Van Valin (1990) argued that it was aspectually based: ‘telic’ verbs with a definite result state taking sono, those without taking avere. The major functions of the noun phrase 219 Although all of these s are superficially similar (for example the finite verb agrees with them), there are a variety of syntactic differences. For example, for verbs taking essere ‘be’ as their auxiliary, when the s is postverbal, there can be a partitive clitic before the verb, applying semantically to a quantifier in the postverbal s position. This is not possible for verbs taking avere ‘have’: (140) a. Ne sono rimaste due of.them are remained two ‘Two of them remained’ b. *Ne hanno reagito due of.them have reacted two ‘Two of them reacted’ One might imagine that there is just a constraint that Download 1.59 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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