Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Volume I: Clause Structure, Second edition
Download 1.59 Mb. Pdf ko'rish
|
Lgg Typology, Synt Description v. I - Clause structure
Avery D. Andrews
usual case (regardless of whether that is ergative or absolutive), and the subject must be initial in the complement. These additional phenomena complete the case for the existence of subjects in Warlpiri. 3.1.5 Switch reference The third grammatical test for identifying subjects that we will discuss involves what are called ‘switch reference’ systems. These are systems in which the verb of a clause bears a marker which indicates, among other things, whether the subject of that clause is the same or different from that of some other coordinated or subordinated clause. P. K. Austin (1981a, 1981b) uses switch reference to argue for subjects in the Australian language Diyari. Grammatical relations are not directly reflected by coding features in Diyari because, like many other Australian languages, Diyari has a ‘split ergative’ case-marking system in which different sorts of nominals have different systems of case forms for a, s and p. First and second person non-singular (dual and plural) pronouns have a nominative (a/s) and accusative (p); singular common nouns and masculine proper names have an ergative (a) and an absolutive (p/s), while all other nominals have distinct forms for all three functions: ergative (a), absolutive (s) and accusative (p). Most complex sentence constructions have switch reference marking expressed as an affix on the verb of the subordinate clause. The affix indi- cates the type of construction, and whether the subjects of the two clauses are the same or different. One of these constructions is the ‘relative clause’, a type of subordinate clause which further specifies either some participant in the main clause (an ‘np-relative’ interpretation (Hale (1976))), or the time of the clause (a ‘T-relative’ interpretation). If the subject (a or s np) of the subordinate clause is the same as that of the main clause, -na is added to its verb: if the subjects are different -n.an ¯ i is added. It is the a/s function rather than the case forms that is relevant for the switch reference system. Example (67) is an assortment of subordinate clauses with same subject (ss) marking, (68) an assortment with different subject (ds) marking. Note that the subordinate clause corresponds to a considerable range of subordinate clause types in English, including relative clauses, when-clauses, conditionals, and complement clauses. A shared subject may or may not be deleted in the subordinate clause. (67) a. n ¯ awu t.ika-n.a / n ¯ awu yat ¯ a-l ŋ ana-yi yi ŋ a ŋ u he(abs) return-rel(ss) he(abs) speak-fut aux-pres you(sg.loc) ‘If he comes back he’ll talk to you’ b. ŋ at ¯ u kan ¯ t ¯ a kul y akul y a t ¯ ayi-n.a / ŋ an ¯ i pit ¯ i-yi I(erg) grass(abs) green(abs) eat-rel(ss) I(abs) fart-pres ‘When I eat green grass, I fart’ The major functions of the noun phrase 177 c. win ¯ t ¯ a ŋ an ¯ i pali-n.a / ŋ at ¯ u kan.a ŋ akan ¯ i ŋ ama-1ka-yi n.aka when I(abs) die-rel(ss) I(erg) person me(dat) sit-tr-pres there(loc) ‘When I die, I will have my people there’ ( ŋ akan ¯ i is here functioning as a possessive modifier of kan.a ‘person’) (68) a. kan y t y i mindi-ya n ¯ ani / n ¯ aka-lda n ¯ awu wakar.a-n.an ¯ i can run-past she(abs) there-loc he(abs) come-rel(ds) ‘She could have run (the distance) if he had come back again’ b. t ¯ anali n ¯ in ¯ a n ¯ ayi-yi / n ¯ in ¯ a warar.a-n.a wanti-n.an ¯ i they(pl.erg) he(acc) see-pres he(acc) leave-part aux-rel(ds) ‘They see him after he had been left (for a long time)’ c. ŋ an ¯ i n ¯ i ŋ ki-ya wakar.a-n.a / ŋ at.u n ¯ an ¯ a wila I(abs) here(loc) come-rel(ss) I(erg) she(acc) woman(abs) n ¯ ayi-yi / yinda-n.an ¯ i see-pres cry-rel(ds) ‘When I come here I see that woman [who is] crying’ In (67a), there are coreferential nps in s function in the two clauses, so ss- marking appears. In (67b) the main clause s is coreferential with the (preceding) relative clause a, so again ss-marking appears, even though the coreferential nominals differ in their case forms. In (67c), the relative clause s is coreferential with the matrix a, so again ss marking appears. In (68a), the matrix and relative clause contain no coreferential nps, so ds- marking appears. In (68b) there are coreferential nps, but they are ps in both clauses (it is understood that the people who see him are different from the ones who left him, who are represented by an ellipsed subject for the clause). In (68c) there are two relative clauses, the first with a temporal interpretation with s coreferential with the matrix a, the second interpreted as a perception complement with s coreferential with matrix p. So the first relative clause has ss -marking, the second ds-marking. Switch reference in this and other types of subordinate clauses provides evidence that Diyari has a subject grammatical relation comprising a and s functions, in spite of the completely ambiguous testimony of the np-marking system. More than simple coreference between subjects is normally involved in switch reference systems; see Stirling (1993) for a detailed study. Download 1.59 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
Ma'lumotlar bazasi mualliflik huquqi bilan himoyalangan ©fayllar.org 2024
ma'muriyatiga murojaat qiling
ma'muriyatiga murojaat qiling