Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Volume I: Clause Structure, Second edition
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Lgg Typology, Synt Description v. I - Clause structure
Avery D. Andrews
(95) a. Kurdu-ngku ka miyi nga-rni child-erg pres food(abs) eat-nonpast ‘The child is eating food’ b. Kurdu-ngku ka-rla karnta-ku miyi marlaja-nga-rni child-erg pres -3(dat) woman-dat food(abs) cause-eat-nonpast ‘The woman brought about the circumstance that the child is eating food’ (96) a. Ngarrka-ngku ka yujuku nganti-rni man-erg pres humpy(abs) build-nonpast ‘The man is building a humpy [bush shelter]’ b. Ngarrka-ngku ka-rla warlu-ku piki-nganti-rni man-erg pres -3(dat) fire-dat danger-build-nonpast yujuku humpy(abs) ‘The man is building a humpy in danger of fire [either man or humpy is in danger]’ Since the semantic role of the supplementary dative is determined by the form of the verb, its status as a core grammatical relation is confirmed. Supplementary datives are probably best viewed as the results of a lexical process which derives from one lexical item another with an additional argument whose semantic role is determined by which preverb, if any, is added. It is quite common for benefactives to be added by a lexical operation of this sort, although the technique employed in Warlpiri is unusual. More commonly, the benefactive takes on the appearance and at least some of the properties of a direct object. In English, for example, we can express a benefactive as a for-adjunct or as what looks like a direct (first) object: (97) a. Bruce barbecued the steak for Darlene b. Bruce barbecued Darlene the steak Although the benefactive object in (97b) looks like a direct object, it is behaviourally somewhat different, since for most speakers it cannot passivize: *Darlene was barbecued the steak by Bruce (Fillmore (1965)). It is not clear whether we should think of benefactive objects as having a different grammat- ical relation from ordinary direct objects, or whether the differences are simply a consequence of the semantic role of the benefactives. In many Bantu languages, benefactives can only be expressed as derived object-like nps, benefactive adjuncts being absent. Furthermore, the benefactive objects take on object properties more readily than in English, being freely cross-referenced, passivized, etc. Similar processes also add arguments with a The major functions of the noun phrase 193 wide range of other semantic roles, such as instrument, locative, reason, etc. Such processes are widely discussed under the title of rules of ‘applicative’ formation (Baker (1988); P. K. Austin and Bresnan (1997)). 3.3 Syntactic ergativity In many languages with an ergative case-marking system, such as Warlpiri, the syntax appears to be organized along subject–object lines, as originally argued by Anderson (1976), and confirmed by much subsequent work, as reviewed and extended in Simpson (1991). But there are also languages in which at least some of the syntax is organized along absolutive–ergative lines, with rules targetting p/s rather than a/s. This phenomenon is called ‘syntactic ergativ- ity’. Languages that appear to be overwhelmingly ergative in their syntax are quite rare (there is only one well-described example, Dyirbal (Dixon (1972))); for languages with syntactic ergativity, the usual case is for some subject-like properties to apply to the p/s, others to the a/s, a situation that is called ‘mixed ergativity’. In this subsection we will introduce syntactic ergativity in the Australian language Yidi (Dixon (1977a)), and then provide some discussion of the more extensively ergative (and therefore more unusual) language Dyirbal. These two languages are concisely described and compared in Dixon (1977c). Then in the next section we will consider mixed ergativity together with another problematic kind of system of grammatical relations, the ‘Philippine type’, and will use these to motivate some revisions to our conception of grammatical relations. Yidi , like Warlpiri and most other Australian languages, has rather free word order (though there are strong preferences), relying entirely on np marking to code syntactic functions. Under certain circumstances, the components of an np may be split (Dixon (1977a:268–71)), but this is far more restricted than in Warlpiri (or Dyirbal, which is similar to Warlpiri in having very free word order). The np marking system is of the split ergative type, with different categories of nominals having different systems of case forms. The three relevant categories are common nominals (nouns and adjectives), pronouns, and deictics. Common nominals inflect ergatively, taking an erga- tive form in a function, an absolutive form in p/s function. Pronouns (existing only for first and second persons; for third person reference demonstratives are used) take an accusative in p function and a nominative in a/s function. Deictics (comprising demonstrative and interrogative/indefinite pronouns, the former also serving as third person pronouns) have two stems, human and nonhuman. Humans may only be referred to by a human stem, while non- humans may be referred to by either, the use of the human stem being more likely the more humanlike the referent of the np. Human deictics take an erga- tive a form, an accusative p form, and an absolutive s form, while nonhuman |
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