The discourse basis of ergativity revisited

Haig, Geoffrey; Schnell, Stefan

doi:10.1353/lan.2016.0049

Cited by 52 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…PAS is proposed as a linguistic universal, but English appears to be a glaring exception to it, conforming only with respect to the O role. In English, new information tends to be introduced in direct object position rather than in subject position, as corpus work in English and work on PAS has consistently found (Prince 1981(Prince , 1992Francis et al, 1999;Everett 2009;Haig & Schnell 2016). For example, the transitive pattern can be illustrated by a discourse like (3), where in (3a) the DP in the A role has the status given (and is pronominal), and new information occurs in the direct object position, in the O role.…”

Section: English As An Ergative Language?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Existential unaccusativity and new discourse referents

Irwin

2018

Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics

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It is well-known that new information strongly disprefers subject position in English (Horn 1986; Prince 1981; 1992; Beaver et al., 2005), even though English allows indefinite subjects. English is therefore seen as one of the many languages that adheres to the given-new contract (Clark & Haviland, 1977). This paper argues that a subset of intransitive sentences in English readily establishes new discourse referents in subject position-in an apparent breach of the given-new contract. These sentences, exemplified by A fancy lady waltzed in, are analyzed as syntactically unaccusative and semantically as having an existential proposition. These sentences are termed existential unaccusative: in the proposed VP structure, a verbal root that (typically) denotes manner of motion selects for a headed small clause whose subject is interpreted as a Path to a contextually-determined location. The analysis adapts McCloskey's (2014) analysis of Irish existentials to English, and I argue that sentences with this structure establish discourse referents by the same means as existential there BE sentences. The analysis is discussed in the context of claims made by Du Bois (1987) that languages organize information such that new discourse referents are established as objects of transitive sentences and subjects of intransitive sentences. This analysis suggests that Du Bois's generalization holds for a structurally distinct subset of intransitives in English in sharing the discourse function of introducing new discourse referents.

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Section: English As An Ergative Language?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Existential unaccusativity and new discourse referents

Irwin

2018

Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics

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“…While co‐occurrence does not mean the two types are not logically distinct, it does strongly suggest there may be a link between them—as also suggested by the occurrence of apparently probabilistic realizations of animacy‐based splits as in Nepali, and partly also in Jaminjung. Links could be sought in functional‐typological generalizations, for instance adapting McGregor's () argument about generalized meanings of optionality to referent‐based splits, or using Preferred Argument Structure to link animacy principles with discourse structure (Du Bois, , but see also Haig & Schnell, ), or using OT‐style mechanisms with generalized constraints to incorporate both animacy‐based and prominence‐based phenomena (e.g., de Hoop & Malchukov, ). Given that the explanatory value of animacy‐based hierarchies can be questioned, however, it may also be useful to look elsewhere, specifically at diachrony (see also Cristofaro, ; Cristofaro & Zúñiga, ).…”

Section: Functional and Typological Generalizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optional and alternating case marking: Typology and diachrony

Chappell

Verstraete

2019

Language and Linguist. Compass

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This paper presents a survey of the typology and diachrony of optional and alternating case marking, in the context of related phenomena such as referent‐ and construction‐based splits. While there is much recent work in this area, driven by text‐based approaches to language description, as well as quantitative and areal approaches to typology, the domain remains somewhat scattered, conceptually and terminologically. We chart the relevant phenomena, and we provide a typological survey of optional and alternating marking for A and O arguments. We also highlight some of the questions that remain, including problems with the classic model of case marking based on markedness reversal. A final section investigates the diachronic origins of optional case markers. These are largely similar to those for non‐optional systems, apart from certain source domains, as well as factors related to information structure, both in the form of source domains and as constructional contexts playing a role in the development of the markers.

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“…On the other hand, the discourse-semantic prominence of a referent correlates negatively with the prominence of a linguistic expression: It seems that universally, discourse-prominent referents are expressed with lighter linguistic material (e.g. Ariel, 1990;Arnold, 2008:495;Chafe, 1976;Chafe, 1994:75-76;Givón, 1983:18;Gundel et al, 1993;Kibrik, 2011:46;Prince, 1981), as do semantically prominent referents such as humans (see Haig and Schnell, 2016). Possibly the first published statement in this regard was made by John Walker (1781:15): "Those things with which we suppose our hearers to be pre-acquainted, we express by such a subordination of stress as is suitable to the small importance of things already understood".…”

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confidence: 99%

On discourse-semantic prominence, syntactic prominence, and prominence of expression: The case of Movima

Haude¹

2019

Journal of Pragmatics

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HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

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The discourse basis of ergativity revisited

Cited by 52 publications

References 36 publications

Existential unaccusativity and new discourse referents

Existential unaccusativity and new discourse referents

Optional and alternating case marking: Typology and diachrony

On discourse-semantic prominence, syntactic prominence, and prominence of expression: The case of Movima

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