Case locality: Pure domains and object shift

Woolford, Ellen

doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2006.06.008

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Because of this, we can detect the occurrence of object shift by the change in the surface word order in Niuean, unlike in Inuit, and thus we can see the correlation between object shift and ergative case more easily in Niuean than in Inuit. (7), the ergative case morpheme for proper nouns, e, looks just like the absolutive case morpheme for common nouns, e. It is difficult to determine what the case of the object in an ergative subject construction is in Niuean, given that it is nominative in some languages, but accusative in other languages (Legate 2006, Woolford 2007). I will label these nominative here since this pattern is more familiar to readers and the label is not crucial for the present discussion.…”

Section: Word Order and Case In Niueanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ergativity and Transitivity

Woolford

2015

Linguistic Inquiry

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Ergative case is said to mark transitive subjects, and it is widely assumed that this is true under the ordinary definition of transitive; however, Bittner and Hale (1996) propose that ergative languages fall into two types, neither of which is based on the ordinary notion of transitivity. In one, a direct object is not necessary for ergative case: any verb with an external argument counts as transitive, following Hale and Keyser 1993 (e.g., Warlpiri). In the other, a direct object is necessary, but not sufficient: the subject gets ergative case only if the object moves out of the VP (e.g., Inuit). This article argues that Niuean, Dyirbal, and Nez Perce are also of this object shift type. A search yielded no language where ergative case is clearly governed only by ordinary transitivity; languages that do fit the stereotype have only ergative agreement. A formal account of the correlation between object shift and ergative case is proposed, under which ergative case can be used as a ''last resort,'' as one of three ways to avoid the locality violation that object shift creates.

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Section: Word Order and Case In Niueanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ergativity and Transitivity

Woolford

2015

Linguistic Inquiry

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“…Analyses of object shift (see Larson 1988;Holmberg and Platzack 1995;Zwart 2001;Bošković 2004;Woolford 2007; among others) lead to the prediction that a Mayan absolutive raised out of its base position should be able to bind a variable in a lower constituent. Unfortunately, this prediction is practically impossible to test, since Mayan languages with syntactic ergativity lack both double object constructions 15 and the sorts of adjunct clauses that would provide an appropriate test case.…”

Section: Asp-1sgerg-sleep-caus-derivedtr-2sgabsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Syntactic Ergativity

Polinsky

2017

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition

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This chapter presents the phenomenon of syntactic ergativity (SE), defined as the grouping of the absolutive subject and absolutive object into a natural class, to the exclusion of the ergative argument, with respect to A′‐movement. Two families of approaches to SE can be distinguished: those which place the explanatory burden on the derivation of the absolutive, and those which invoke the properties of the ergative expression to explain SE. For the first family of approaches, which include explanations based on locality and A′‐movement for case, the exclusion of the ergative from A′‐movement is a side effect of satisfying Case‐licensing needs of the absolutive. In the second type of approach, the restriction on A′‐movement of the ergative follows either from criterial freezing or from the adpositional‐phrase nature of the ergative. The approaches converge on the notion that ergative is an inherent case, assigned either by a verbal head or by an adposition selected by a v head.

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“…Under this hypothesis, the label absolutive masks two different structural Cases: the nominative and the accusative. Authors that defend this hypothesis are, for example, Woolford (2007), Legate (2002Legate ( , 2008, and Aldridge (2008). Finally, there is a third approach according to which absolutive is checked in Spec-AgrOP/vP.…”

Section: Theoretical Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The split-S system and the source of the absolutive case in Tenetehára

Duarte

2017

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ABSTRACT:The main goal of this paper is to investigate the split-S system in Tenetehára. I propose that the A and S a subjects are cross-referenced by means of the same set of prefixes in root eventive clauses, whereas O and S o are encoded by the absolutive clitics. The analysis demonstrates that this language exhibits an internal parametric variation in the sense that the S a , S o and A subjects may receive either the nominative or accusative Case, whereas objects systematically receive the accusative Case. This opens a parametric option in the sense that a higher functional projection must be activated in order to make possible the Case evaluation of the S a , S o , A and O arguments.Key-words: ergativity, absolutive Case, accusative Case, Tupi-Guarani, Tupi Stock. RESUMO:Este artigo examina o sistema cindido de marcação de argumentos nucleares na língua Tenetehára. Propõe-se que há uma série de prefixos que codifica os argumentos A e S a de predicados eventivos, enquanto outra série codifica os argumentos O e S o por meio de clíticos absolutivos. A análise propõe ainda que essa língua exibe uma variação paramétrica, visto que os sujeitos S a , S o , e A ora recebem Caso nominativo ora Caso acusativo, enquanto objetos recebem apenas Caso acusativo. Esta proposta abre uma opção paramétrica no sentido de que precisamos acionar uma projeção funcional acima do domínio de v-VP para possibilitar a valoração de Caso dos argumentos S a , S o , A e O.Palavras-chave: ergatividade, Caso absolutivo, Caso acusativo, Tupi-Guarani, Tupi Stock.

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Case locality: Pure domains and object shift

Cited by 14 publications

References 45 publications

Ergativity and Transitivity

Ergativity and Transitivity

Syntactic Ergativity

The split-S system and the source of the absolutive case in Tenetehára

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