LINGUIST List 14.1523

Tue May 27 2003

Qs: Ergative Langs

Editor for this issue: Naomi Fox <foxlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Jonathan Bobaljik, Q: Valency changing in Ergative langs

I am looking for Ergative languages (i.e., in their case and/or
agreement morphology) which have a construction or constructions which
are describable as:

	(i)	having a derived subject / 2 -> 1 advancement
	(ii)	being transitive on the surface

Such a situation could arise, for example, if the language has passive
(2->1 advancement) and applicative formation (3->2), and they can
combine, e.g. something like:

	Dog-Erg chased	cat-Abs	barn-Loc
	'The dog chased the cat into the barn'

	Cat-Abs chased-pass barn-Loc
	'The cat was chased into the barn'

	Cat-Erg chased-pass-appl barn-Abs
	'The cat was chased into the barn'

Passive of a double-object construction would work as well, so long as
the resulting construction is transitive, not subj + PP.

Similary, an unaccusative construction feeding an applicative
construction would work too.

Note to clarify: passive feeding causitivzation yields a transitive
clause on the surface (criterion (ii) above) but fails to meet
criterion (i).

Please direct responses to me, I will post a summary if there are
sufficient responses to warrant it.

Many thanks,

-Jonathan