This dissertation describes two related phenomena in the syntax and semantics of K’ichee’ (Mayan), concentrating on the variety spoken in and around Nahualá. The first phenomenon is focus, the special discourse status granted to constituents which provide new and important information. The second phenomenon is syntactic movement, which occurs in several different constructions in K’ichee’ — most relevantly, that of focus movement. Across languages, focused constituents are highlighted in one way or another; and in Mayan languages, this highlighting often takes the form of movement to a position immediately before the verb. But I show that the relationship between focus and movement in K’ichee’ is less straightforward than has previously been assumed. In particular, it is often possible for a focused constituent to remain in situ. Having shown that focus in situ is possible, I turn to the question of when it occurs. I show that focus in situ follows an ergative/absolutive pattern: it is impossible for transitive subjects, but possible for all other constituent types. This pattern is compared to ergative/absolutive patterns found elsewhere in K’ichee’ grammar, and in other languages. / text

The so-called passive in Māori has been the topic of a long-standing debate in the linguistics literature. Its frequency, especially in past tense narratives, makes this construction an atypical passive. It has been suggested that the passive in Māori is used with perfective (Clark 1973) and dynamic (Bauer 1997) events, and when the clause contains an affected direct object (Chung 1978). This thesis finds that all of these suggestions are correct, but, rather than a passive construction, it is ergative, so that Māori has split-ergativity. As predicted under the Transitivity Hypothesis (Hopper & Thompson 1980), the most transitive clauses in Māori have ergative marking, and less transitive clauses are accusatively marked. Transitivity is understood as a property of an entire clause, involving a number of factors, and the most important features of transitivity in Māori are PARTICIPANTS, AFFECTEDNESS OF O, ASPECT and PUNCTUALITY. Clauses that are low in transitivity are uniformly accusative, in both their morphology and syntax. However, highly transitive clauses, which we expect to follow ergative alignment, have some evidence of syntactic accusativity. This mixed behaviour follows directly from the Inverse Grammatical Relations Hypothesis (Manning 1996). Manning claims syntactic constructions like control, binding and imperative addressee are accusatively aligned in all languages, because they are restricted at argument structure. Languages can only be ergative at the level of grammatical relations, where syntactic processes such as relative clauses, question formation and topicalisation are restricted. It then follows that ergativity is only present in Māori at gr-structure in the most highly transitive clauses. We also look at Māori from a diachronic perspective, and see that it differs from its Eastern Polynesian sisters, which are all accusative. Māori is different because the extension of the imperfective pattern did not spread to all transitive clauses, thus preventing a reanalysis of imperfective clauses as active.

This thesis was written to explore the structural case patterns of the Burushaski sentence and to examine the different participant coding systems which appear between noun marking and verb agreement. Verb suffixes follow nominative alignment patterns of agreement, while the verb prefix agrees with the affected argument as determined by semantic relations, as opposed to syntactic ones. The agent noun phrase is directly marked when highly active or volitional, suggesting a system of agent marking on the noun phrase and nominative alignment on the verb suffix. Nominative alignment also allows for a less marked presence of passive voice. Burushaski's agent marking is not entirely consistent; however, its nominative alignment is consistent. The conclusion is that Burushaski is not an ergative language at all.

Previous research about the acquisition of the case-marking systems of ergative languages suggests that children acquire ergative and accusative languages equally easily (Van Valin 1992), depending on the degree to which the case morphology is consistently ergative or accusative and the degree to which adults use the morphology (Pye 1990). However, split-ergative languages incorporate both accusative and ergative systems, some in the midst of a shift away from ergativity, thus providing variable and inconsistent input for children. Yet previous research suggests that children can acquire variable linguistic forms at early stages, reflecting frequencies in which the forms occur in caregiver input (Henry 1998, 2002, Miller 2006, 2007, Westergaard 2009). This study examines the acquisition of split-ergativity in Kurmanji Kurdish, where the direct case is used with both present-tense agents and past-tense patients and the oblique case is used with past-tense agents and present-tense patients. However, recent research suggests the weakening of ergativity in Kurmanji (Dorleijn 1996), resulting in variable use of case-marking. This study examines the acquisition of split-ergativity in Kurmanji when considering the split systems and inconsistent adult input. Data from children (n=12) and caretakers (n=24) include spontaneous speech samples and results from a modified Agent-Patient test (Slobin 1985). Four children from three age groups, 1;6, 2;6, and 3;6, were recorded interacting with caretakers every three months for one hour over a 12-month period. Statistical analyses were conducted focusing on adult patterns (input for children) and children’s production at different ages. Results suggest that Kurmanji may be shifting away from a split-ergative system, with the past tense extending to a double oblique pattern and nouns gradually losing oblique case-marking altogether, resulting in variable case-marking. Data show that children first use ergative case as early as 2;0 and show evidence of repeated use of split-ergative case-marking by 2;6. Even at these early ages, children use similar variability and frequency in case-marking as their caretakers, closer to usage of younger adults versus older adults. Thus children seem to use ergative case-marking early, and when faced with inconsistent input, they ultimately conform to the patterns modeled by the adult community. / text

This dissertation is an extended argument for the syntactic structure proposed in (1), referred to as the 'VICTR Hierarchy' after the initials of the five functional heads it comprises: (1) [VolitionP Volition [InitiationP Initiation [ConsecutionP Consecution [TransitionP Transition [ResultP Result [VP ] ] ] ] ] ] The VICTR Hierarchy is a hierarchy of functional heads corresponding to the part of the clause generally known in the minimalist literature as `vP' or the `thematic domain'. Nominal arguments are merged in the specifiers of one or more of these heads and receive their thematic interpretations on the basis of their merged positions. Evidence for a model of thematic roles and syntactic argument structure based in the VICTR Hierarchy is presented for a range of domains, with a focus on 'split intransitivity'. Split intransitivity is explored initially in regard to English, with close consideration of a range of split intransitive diagnostics (e.g. 'out'-prefixation, the resultative construction); a VICTR account of these patterns is presented. A VICTR account of auxiliary selection patterns in Western European languages is also given. This is followed by analysis of split intransitive case and agreement systems. A formal account of the case and agreement patterns in these languages based in the VICTR hierarchy is presented, derived in part from the inherent case theory of ergativity (Legate 2002, Aldridge 2004 and others) and drawing on a detailed typology. The dissertation then proceeds to detailed analysis of the semantic basis of split intransitive alignment in two languages, Basque and Georgian. Other split intransitive behaviours in these languages are also considered in VICTR terms. Throughout, the VICTR approach is compared to other approaches to split intransitivity following Perlmutter's (1978) Unaccusative Hypothesis. The VICTR Hierarchy is also compared to the similar proposal of Ramchand (2008). It is argued that the VICTR Hierarchy accounts more readily than these other approaches for the particular classes of verbs identified by split intransitivity diagnostics in the languages considered, and also for cross-linguistic variation in split intransitive behaviours. Much support, with some caveats, is also found in the data considered for the applicability of Sorace's (2000) Auxiliary Selection Hierarchy (ASH) to a range of split intransitive phenomena cross-linguistically. Together with acquisitional considerations, the VICTR features are argued to allow for a formalisation of the patterns described by the ASH.

Orientador: Charlotte Galves / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-03T17:21:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_MariaAmeliaReis_M.pdf: 2416410 bytes, checksum: 077ef2fe33cac9a6c320453b10b47beb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2001 / Resumo: Esta Dissertação descreve e analisa o fenômeno da ergatividade em Mebengokre, língua do ramo setentrional da família ,Te falada pela nações Kayapó e Xikrin nos estados do Pará e Mato Grosso. O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir a natureza da ergatividade cindida do Mebengokre. Minha hipótese sobre a ergatividade do Mebengokre, língua canonicamente SOV, é a de que há uma forte relação entre posição ocupada pelo verbo, suas propriedades verbais e o sistema de caso da língua. O capítulo 1 consistitui uma introdução geral sobre o povo Mebengokre, sua língua, as estapas do trabalho de campo, bem como a apresentação do fenômeno gramatical conhecido como ergatividade, com especial referência à línguas da família Jê .O capítulo 2 focaliza aspectos da morfossintaxe verbal. Nele discute-se a distinção entre nomes e verbos; categorias verbais, processos de mudança de valência. O capítulo 3 está dedicado à descrição do sistema pronominal. A principal questão a ser problematizada neste capítulo diz respeito ao estatuto dos prefixos de pessoa enquanto categoria sintática, isto é, se são pronomes ou concordância. Por fim, o capítulo 4 retoma a discussão sobre a manifestação da ergatividade cindida, apresentando argumentos a favor da hipótese de que a manifestação do sistema nominativo ou ergativo depende da natureza do elemento que ocupa a posição de núcleo do predicado / Abstract: This dissertation examines the phenomenon of split ergativity in Mebengokre, language of the northern branch of Jê family spoken by the Xikrin and Kayapo nations in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará in Brazil. Mebengokre is a canonicaly SOV language that shows consequences in the syntax, specifically in the case marking, when this order is not preserved. I explore the hypothesis that there is a strong link between the position of the verb, its verbal properties, and the case-marking system in this language. According to this hypothesis the split ergativity depends of the nature of the category filling the head position in the predicate. Thus I consider that in the accusative construction the predicate head is filled by the thematic verb while that position in the ergative construction is filled by a functional head / Mestrado / Mestre em Linguística

The aim of this paper is to investigate the semantic and syntactic properties of the -­ee suffix in English. The -­ee suffix was borrowed from the French ‑­é suffix during the late Middle Ages, when French started to exert its linguistic influence on English. Previous research suggests that the -­ee suffix in English exhibits the semantic properties of sentience, episodicity and passivity. Syntactically, the function of the ­-ee suffix in English may suggest ergativity. Furthermore, it has been suggested that contextual anchoring is involved in the use of the -­ee suffix. I explored these characteristics of the ­-ee suffix by testing non‑­standardised ­-ee suffixed nouns with the mentioned semantic and syntactic properties. The process of differentiating non‑­standardised from standardised -­ee suffixed nouns was done with the help of a well­-established dictionary and the Internet. The results showed that sentience and episodicity applied to most -­ee suffixed nouns. In addition, passivity was an important feature in the -­ee nominalisation of transitive stem verbs. When the meaning of ­-ee suffixed nouns was complex, contextual anchoring served to facilitate the understanding of the meaning of the noun. Syntactically, the relationship between the ‑ee suffix and ergativity was weak. Thus, it can be concluded that the use of the ‑ee suffix is controlled by several semantic properties simultaneously, whereas the syntactic properties are relatively unimportant. / Den här uppsatsen undersöker -ee-suffixets semantiska och syntaktiska egenskaper i engelska. Suffixet lånades från det franska suffixet -é under senmedeltiden, när det franska språket började påverka engelska. Tidigare forskning hävdar att det engelska -ee-suffixet påvisar semantiska egenskaper såsom animacitet, episodicitet och passivitet. Syntaktiskt sett kan suffixet även tyda på ergativitet. Användning av suffixet är i viss mån förknippad med förankringen i kontexten. Ickestandardiserade -ee -avledda substantiv identifierades och deras semantiska och syntaktiska egenskaper undersöktes. Urvalet av icke-standardiserade och standiserade substantiv utfördes med hjälp av ett väletablerat lexikon och Internet. Resultatet visade att de flesta -ee-avledda substantiven uppvisar episodicitet och majoriteten även animacitet. Passivitet är ett viktigt kännetecken av suffixet när det gäller substantiveringen av transitiva verb. Betydelserna av vissa mer svårtydda eeavledda substantiv förankras ibland i kontexten med exempelvis förekomsten av er-/-or-avledda motsvarigheter. Syntaktiskt sett är ergativitet inte ett tydligt särdrag av -ee-suffixet. Sammanfattningsvis kan det hävdas att -ee-suffixets användning styrs framför allt av samverkan mellan flera olika semantiska aspekter, medan den syntaktiska egenskapen, ergativitet, är relativt oväsentlig.

Patient-voice clauses within the symmetric voice system of Balinese disallow any extraction from the external-argument position, while definite external arguments are blocked from occurring altogether. The former fact is traditionally taken as evidence for syntactic ergativity in Austronesian. The latter fact has recently been argued to provide evidence for postsyntactic case licensing via adjacency with the verb. In this article, we offer a simple alternative explanation for the in-situ properties of patient-voice agents in Balinese—one that does not make reference to case.We argue that patient-voice heads come with a feature that triggers removal of the external argument’s DP shell, resulting in the loss of a determiner and a category-D feature that would otherwise enable extraction.

This thesis aims at investigating the grammatical relations in Turkish Sign Language (TiD). For this aim, word order, nominal morphology, and agreement morphology of verbs are examined. TiD lacks morphological case, but it has a very rich pronominal system like other sign languages. Verbs are classified according to their morphosyntactic features. With this classification, we can observe the effect of word order and agreement morphology on the grammatical relations. Combinatory Categorial Grammar as a lexicalized grammar encodes word order, morphological case, and agreement features in the lexicon. Hence, it has the tools for testing any lexicalized basic word order hypothesis for a language based on the gapping data. Gapping data based on grammatical judgments of native signers indicate that TiD is a verb final language. Syntactic ergativity seems to be prevailing in coordination of a transitive sentence and an intransitive sentence where the single argument of the intransitive clause or one of the arguments of the transitive clause is missing. TiD also shows a tendency for ergativity in lexical properties such as agreement and pro-drop.

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2014-11-07T15:56:54Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Paulo Sérgio Reis de Abreu - 2008.pdf: 19212729 bytes, checksum: cc4d286cde719e37f438ab185b4ae4e3 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2014-11-07T15:57:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Paulo Sérgio Reis de Abreu - 2008.pdf: 19212729 bytes, checksum: cc4d286cde719e37f438ab185b4ae4e3 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-11-07T15:57:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Paulo Sérgio Reis de Abreu - 2008.pdf: 19212729 bytes, checksum: cc4d286cde719e37f438ab185b4ae4e3 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-03-31 / This work focuses on Brazilian linguistic diversity and, within it, the Páno family, from which was pointed out, under the grammatical point of view, the operation of the case systems. The study consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, bibliography and three appendices. Chapter 1 brings historical information on the linguistic diversity in Brazil at the time of the Portuguese incursion, the present situation of our languages, the methods for linguistic classification and its application on the Brazilian indigenous languages, and also aims at pointing out the importance of the descriptive linguistic studies of our autochthonous languages. Chapter 2 deals specifically with the Páno family, with the history of how the region where it is situated in South-West Amazonia was populated, with the various Páno people situated in Brazil, with classificatory efforts, with studies already carried out by Brazilian researchers, and also searches for establishing a vision of the genetic relationships between those different languages. The chapter 3 brings theoretical information on the study of ergativity, based on Dixon (1994), as well as an analysis of this grammatical phenomenon carried out by Lyons (1968). Afterwards, still in the chapter 3, the case systems from ten Páno languages are summarily observed, as well as the split in the case marking system in some of these languages. The appendices contain: 1) maps of the Amazon region and of the State of Acre, Brazil; 2) symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet; 3) a updated survey, based on Rodrigues (1986/1994), (1997) and (2005), of all indigenous languages still spoken in Brazil (organized into linguistic families and stocks), number of speakers, location and index of languages. / Este trabalho enfoca a questão da diversidade linguística brasileira e, dentro dela, a família Páno, da qual se destacou, do ponto vista gramatical, o funcionamento do sistema de casos. O estudo é composto de uma introdução, três capítulos, conclusão, bibliografia e três apêndices. O capítulo 1 traz subsídios históricos sobre a diversidade linguística à época da chegada dos portugueses, a situação atual de nossas línguas, os métodos de classificação linguística e sua aplicação nas línguas indígenas brasileiras, e ainda procura ressaltar a importância dos estudos linguísticos descritivos de nossas línguas autóctones. O capítulo 2 cuida especificamente da família Páno, da história do povoamento da região que ela ocupa na Amazônia Sul-Ocidental, dos diversos povos Páno situados no Brasil, dos esforços classificatórios, dos estudos já realizados por pesquisadores brasileiros, e também procura estabelecer uma visão das relações genéticas entre essas diversas línguas. O capítulo 3 traz subsídios teóricos para o estudo da ergatividade, com base em Dixon (1994), além de uma análise desse fenômeno gramatical empreendida por Lyons (1968). Em seguida, no mesmo capítulo 3, os sistemas de casos de uma dezena de línguas Páno são sumariamente observados, bem como a cisão no sistema de casos em algumas dessas línguas. Os apêndices compreendem: 1) mapas da região amazônica e do Acre; 2) símbolos do Alfabeto Fonético Internacional; 3) um levantamento atualizado, com base em Rodrigues (1986/1994), (1997) e (2005), de todas as línguas indígenas ainda faladas no Brasil (organizadas em troncos e famílias), número de falantes, localização e índice de línguas.