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.

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一些研究發現常見的ESL(English as a Second Language)學習者在英語寫作時的錯誤為：用字不適當、動詞的形式不正確、句子缺少主詞、以及動詞時態錯誤。這些錯誤主要是起因於：字彙之不足、不清楚文法概念、本身母語的干擾。為了改善ESL學習者的寫作。我們希望能從文法關係的資訊來提供協助。目前，研究文法關係大多著重於字詞構成的單一文法關係，然而字詞在句中可能同時具備了不只一種文法關係。在我們的研究中，我們先發展文法關係樣式辨識系統。從句子中利用此系統提供使用者可搭配的文法關係，以了解可供使用的對應字詞。對應字詞可以輔助學習者適當地使用此關鍵字。此外設計使用者介面供查詢文法關係。以上，我們利用文法關係與搭配字詞來提供使用者英語寫作上的協助。而找尋樣式的做法，我們提出關聯法則和LSA(Latent Semantic Analysis)來實作。 / Some study found some common ESL (English as a Second Language) learners English Writing Error: improper use of the word, the verb form is not correct, the sentence lack of subject and verb tense errors. These errors are mainly due to: lack of vocabulary, grammar concept is not clear, the mother-tongue interference. In order to improve the ESL writing, we hope that the information from the grammatical relation to provide assistance. At present, the studies of grammatical relation mostly emphasize the word consisting of a single grammatical relation. However, words in the sentence may also have more than one grammatical relation. In our study, we first develop grammatical relation pattern recognition system. From the sentence using the system provides users with the grammatical relation, in order to understand the availability of the corresponding words. The corresponding words can help learners make appropriate use of this keyword. In addition the design of the user interface provides querying grammatical relation. This work makes use of grammatical relation and collocation in order to provide users with the assistance of English writing. And look for patterns of practice, we have proposed association rules and LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis) to implement.

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.

Cette thèse étudie la syntaxe et la typologie des propositions relatives en arménien parlé. Elle propose une analyse syntaxique et une classification des stratégies de relativisation disponibles en arménien, dans le cadre des approches théoriques et typologiques existantes de la relativisation, ainsi qu’à identifier les facteurs décisifs pour le choix des différentes stratégies. Chaque stratégie ayant des équivalents dans d'autres langues de la région, le contact linguistique peut influencer leur choix. Il est également probable que le rôle de l'élément relativisé dans la proposition relative soit pertinent pour le choix de la stratégie. En particulier, les données présentées dans de précédentes études sur l'arménien suggèrent que la distribution des relatives participiales peut constituer une violation de la hiérarchie d'accessibilité de la relativisation si elle est envisagée comme opérant directement en termes de fonctions grammaticales syntaxiques. L’étude se concentre sur les parlers de diverses régions d’Arménie. Les propositions relatives ont été saisies dans une base de données d’environ 2000 exemples avec des filtres portant sur les paramètres pertinents.Les résultats montrent que l’accessibilité à la relativisation est déterminée par la saillance liée aux rôles sémantiques (affectivité) et pragmatiques (thematicité) et par de fréquents modèles d’association rôle-référence plutôt que directement par des fonctions grammaticales syntaxiques. Ceci fournit une explication cohérente des violations apparentes de la hiérarchie d'accessibilité trouvées en arménien, ainsi que d'autres phénomènes qui se sont révélés problématiques pour les interprétations de l'accessibilité à la relativisation basées directement sur la structure syntaxique. / This thesis presents a study of the syntax and typology of relative clauses in colloquial Armenian. It proposes a syntactic analysis and classification of the relativization strategies available in Armenian within the framework of existing syntactic theoretical and typological proposals concerning relative clauses, and to identify the decisive factors associated with the distribution of these different strategies. As each of the available strategies is paralleled in other languages of the area, it is possible that language contact will have an impact on the choice of strategy. There is also evidence that the role of the relativized element in the relative clause is relevant for the choice of strategy; in particular, evidence presented in previous studies of Armenian suggests that the distribution of participial RCs may violate the Relativization Accessibility Hierarchy if this is envisaged as operating directly in terms of syntactic grammatical relations.The study is mainly based on data from sound recordings of native speaker consultants from various areas of Armenia, both spontaneous speech and responses to stimuli designed to elicit relative clauses with particular properties that have been proposed to affect the choice of relativization strategy. The relative clauses are entered into a database with filters for relevant features, which contains approximately 2000 examples. The results show that accessibility to relativization is determined by semantic (affectedness) and pragmatic (topicality) role prominence, and by frequent role-reference association patterns, rather than directly by syntactic grammatical relations. This provides a coherent explanation of the apparent Accessibility Hierarchy violations found in Armenian, as well as other phenomena that have proved problematic for syntactic structure-based interpretations of accessibility to relativization.

This study is a detailed investigation of a number of issues in colloquial Sinhala morphosyntax. These issues primarily concern grammatical relations, argument structure, phrase structure and focus constructions. The theoretical framework of this study is Lexical Functional Grammar.¶Chapter 1 introduces the issues to be discussed, followed by a brief introduction of some essential aspects of colloquial Sinhala as background for the discussion in the following chapters. In Chapter 2 we present basic concepts of the theoretical framework of Lexical Functional Grammar.¶ The next three chapters mainly concern grammatical relations, argument structure and clause structure in colloquial Sinhala. Chapter 3 examines grammatical relations. The main focus lies in establishing the subject grammatical relation in terms of various subjecthood diagnostics. We show that only a very small number of diagnostics are reliable, and that the evidence for subject is weaker than assumed previously. All the subjecthood diagnostics that were examined select the most prominent argument in the argument structure as the subject, i.e. 'logical subject'. However, there appear to be no processes in the language that are sensitive to the subject in the grammatical relations structure, i.e. 'gr-subject'. Further, there is no evidence for other grammatical relations like objects. In Chapter 4 we discuss the agentless construction and related valency alternation phenomena. It was previously assumed that the agentless construction, valency alternation phenomena and the involitive construction are all related. We argue that the agentless construction should be treated as a different construction from the involitive construction. We also show that the agentless construction and the involitive construction have contrasting characteristics, and that treatment of them as separate constructions can account for some phenomena which did not receive an explanation previously. The valency alternation phenomena are related to the agentless construction, therefore there is no valency alternation in involitive constructions. It will be shown that verbs undergoing the valency alternation can be distinguished from the other verbs in terms of the lexical semantic properties of individual verbs. Chapter 5 examines the structure of non-verbal sentences in terms of a number of morphosyntactic phenomena. It was previously argued that verbal sentences and non-verbal sentences in colloquial Sinhala differ in terms of clause structure. However, the present study shows evidence to the contrary.¶ The next two chapters deal with modelling contrastive focus and the phrase structure of the language. Chapter 6 is a detailed analysis of the contrastive focus (cleft) construction in various clause types in the language, and proposes a unified syntactic treatment of contrastive focus. Contrastive focus is in some constructions morphologically encoded, while in others it involves both morphological and configurational assignment of focus. The complex interaction between focus markers and verb morphology in various focus constructions is accounted for by general well-formedness conditions applying to the f-structure, and the principles of Functional Uncertainty and Morphological Blocking. In Chapter 7, we discuss the phrase structure of the language, in particular such issues as its non-configurational nature and the lack of evidence for VP. We propose non-configurational S and some functional projections to account for word order freedom under S and to explain certain morphosyntactic phenomena, such as configurational focus assignment. Finally, Chapter 8 summarises the conclusions made in previous chapters.

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This thesis concerns languages in the Greater Hindukush, the area in northern Afghanistan and Pakistan, where a total of about 50 languages are spoken. The thesis’ topic is case systems and case alignment systems of nouns in an areal-typological perspective. This is investigated by using a representative sample. The grammatical relations of S, A and P, and the cases marking these, are investigated. The three attested alignment systems are accusative, ergative and split, and are clearly geogra-phically distributed, which indicates that their status is areal-typological. Based on the sample, there seems to be a tendency for the languages in the Greater Hindukush to exhibit split align-ment systems built on tense-aspect. Most languages employ accusative alignment in imperfect-tive, and ergative alignment in perfective tense-aspects. A compa­rison with a worldwide sample (WALS) is only partly possible, as this sample uses more categories than accusative, ergative and split, but the present sample supports the results in those categories which can be compared. A predominant pattern in core case syncretism is observed, with an opposition of the nomi­native singular versus the nominative plural and the oblique in both numbers. / Denna uppsats behandlar språk i Hindukush i norra Afghanistan och Pakistan, där sammanlagt ca 50 språk talas. Ämnet för studien är kasussystem och kasusmarkeringssystem vid substantiv ur ett areal­typologiskt perspektiv, vilket undersöks utifrån grammatikor i ett representativt urval av språken. De grammatiska relationerna mellan S, A och P och de kasus som markerar dessa under­­söks. Belagda kasusmarkeringssystem är ackusativ- och ergativsystem samt kluvet system. Systemen uppvisar en distinkt geografisk distribution, vilket antyder att kasusmarkeringssystemen är ett arealtypologiskt drag. Vidare pekar resultaten på ett kluvet system baserat på klyvning i tempus-aspekt som det dominerande kasusmarkeringssystemet i Hindukush. De flesta av språken använder ett ackusativt kasusmarkeringssystem i imperfektiva, och ett ergativt kasusmarke-ringssystem i perfektiva tempus-aspekt. En jämförelse med ett globalt sampel (WALS) är bara till viss del möjlig, eftersom studien i WALS använder fler kategorier än ackusativa, ergativa och kluvna system, men den här studien bekräftar resultaten i de kategorier som kan jämföras. Ett dominerande mönster för kärnkasussynkretism kan observeras, med sammanfall av nominativ plural och oblik i båda numerus. / Språkkontakt och språksläktskap i Hindukushregionen, Vetenskapsrådet, Projektnummer: 421-2014-631

Dans cette thèse, j’étudie l’intransitivité scindée dans la famille linguistique arawak (Amérique du sud). L’analyse grammaticale du phénomène de l’intransitivité scindée s’appuie sur la prise en compte d’une part de ses motivations sémantico-pragmatiques, et d’autre part de ses réalisations morphosyntaxiques selon les catégories grammaticales, les changements de diathèse et les facteurs de TAM. En plus des marquages canoniques de l’agent et du patient d’un verbe transitif, les constructions impliquant des marquages non canoniques, comme celles engageant des verbes nominalisés ou un marquage différentiel, ont également été considérées.Cette étude non seulement révèle l’existence d’une grande diversité parmi les sous-types d’intransitivité scindée, mais propose les moyens de comprendre l’évolution diachronique de ces sous-types, avec laquelle ont pu interférer les effets du contact de langues. Les hypothèses avancées sur l’évolution historique des systèmes grammaticaux mettent à jour les voies où plusieurs langues ont pu s’engager vers des alignements à coloration accusative vs. ergative.Au travers de cette orientation, l’étude nous éclaire sur les différentes manières qu’a l’intransitivité scindée d’affecter l’alignement des actants, apportant ainsi sa contribution à la typologie des langues. / In this thesis I study in depth the split intransitivity in the Arawak family of languages of South America. The grammatical analysis of the split intransitivity phenomenon is based on both their semantico-pragmatical motivations and their morphosyntactical realizations according to grammatical categories, valence changes and TAM. Besides, I also take into account constructions involving other types such as nominalized verbs and differential marking.This study not only reveals the existence of a rich diversity of split intransitivity patterns within this family, but it also proposes paths to understand the diachrony of such patterns, involving shifts from ergative alignment to accusative alignment, for which the effects of language contact may have played an important role. In this connection, the study sheds light onto the ways split intransitivity has implication for alignment-type and it is thus of interest for language typology.

Dans cette thèse, j’étudie l’intransitivité scindée dans la famille linguistique arawak (Amérique du sud). L’analyse grammaticale du phénomène de l’intransitivité scindée s’appuie sur la prise en compte d’une part de ses motivations sémantico-pragmatiques, et d’autre part de ses réalisations morphosyntaxiques selon les catégories grammaticales, les changements de diathèse et les facteurs de TAM. En plus des marquages canoniques de l’agent et du patient d’un verbe transitif, les constructions impliquant des marquages non canoniques, comme celles engageant des verbes nominalisés ou un marquage différentiel, ont également été considérées.Cette étude non seulement révèle l’existence d’une grande diversité parmi les sous-types d’intransitivité scindée, mais propose les moyens de comprendre l’évolution diachronique de ces sous-types, avec laquelle ont pu interférer les effets du contact de langues. Les hypothèses avancées sur l’évolution historique des systèmes grammaticaux mettent à jour les voies où plusieurs langues ont pu s’engager vers des alignements à coloration accusative vs. ergative.Au travers de cette orientation, l’étude nous éclaire sur les différentes manières qu’a l’intransitivité scindée d’affecter l’alignement des actants, apportant ainsi sa contribution à la typologie des langues. / In this thesis I study in depth the split intransitivity in the Arawak family of languages of South America. The grammatical analysis of the split intransitivity phenomenon is based on both their semantico-pragmatical motivations and their morphosyntactical realizations according to grammatical categories, valence changes and TAM. Besides, I also take into account constructions involving other types such as nominalized verbs and differential marking.This study not only reveals the existence of a rich diversity of split intransitivity patterns within this family, but it also proposes paths to understand the diachrony of such patterns, involving shifts from ergative alignment to accusative alignment, for which the effects of language contact may have played an important role. In this connection, the study sheds light onto the ways split intransitivity has implication for alignment-type and it is thus of interest for language typology.