Argument coding splits such as differential (= split) object marking and
split ergative marking have long been known to be universal tendencies, but the
generalizations have not been formulated in their full generality before. In particular,
ditransitive constructions have rarely been taken into account, and scenario
splits have often been treated separately. Here I argue that all these patterns can be understood in terms of the usual association of role rank (highly ranked A and R,
low-ranked P and T) and referential prominence (locuphoric person, animacy,
definiteness, etc.). At the most general level, the role-reference association
universal says that deviations from usual associations of role rank and referential
prominence tend to be coded by longer grammatical forms. In other
words, A and R tend to be referentially prominent in language use,while P and T
are less prominent, and when less usual associations need to be expressed,
languages often require special coding by means of additional flags (casemarkers
and adpositions) or additional verbal voice coding (e.g., inverse or
passive markers). I argue that role-reference associations are an instance of the
even more general pattern of form-frequency correspondences, and that the
resulting coding asymmetries can all be explained by frequency-based predictability
and coding efficiency.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:91595 |
| Date | 23 May 2024 |
| Creators | Haspelmath, Martin |
| Publisher | De Gruyter |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 1613-396X, https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2020-0252 |
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