LINGUIST List 8.429

Fri Mar 28 1997

Sum: Case marking and tense/aspect

Editor for this issue: Susan Robinson <suelinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Stuart Robinson, Lgs with case-marking split conditioned by tense and/or aspect

SUMMARY

This is a summary of the responses to my query concerning languages
with a case-marking split conditioned by tense and/or aspect
(Vol-8-352, Tue Mar 11 1997). Thanks to the following people from
whom I received replies:

Martin Weikmann <weikmanngewi.kfunigraz.ac.at>
Siamak Rezaei Durroei <siamakrcogsci.edu.uk>
Carsten Peust <cpeustgwdg.de>
Glenn Ayres <gayresns.inter.edu>
Lance Eccles <leccleslaurel.ocs.mq.edu.au>
Keith Goeringer <kegviolet.berkeley.edu>
Elly van Gelderen <ellyvangelderenasu.edu>
Mark Donohue <mark.donohueman.ac.uk>
Allan Wechsler <awechslebbn.com>
Stuart Luppescu <s-luppescuuchicago.edu>
Alan Dench <adenchcyllene.uwa.edu.au>

Since more than one respondent mentioned a single language, I will not
attempt to list who provided information on which language. Instead, I
will simply list all of the languages mentioned in the replies.

Respondents claimed that the following languages exhibit case-marking
splits along the dimension of tense/aspect:

Marathi
Iha
Hindi
Pilbara
Ixil
Georgian
Old Persian

Dixon (1994) claims that all of the following languages also show
case-marking splits along the dimension of tense/aspect are the
following:

various Iranian languages
various Mayan languages
Kashmiri
Sumerian
Classical Armenian
Burashaski

Martin Weikmann and Siamak Rezaei Durroei drew my attention to web
sites devoted to Kurdish and Marathi, respectively.

The URLs for these sites are as follows:

Kurdish Languages and Linguistics:	
http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~siamakr/kurd_lal.html

Marathi Homepage:
http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~ssavkar/marathi.html

In addition, I was given the following references:

R.M.W. Dixon. 1994. Ergativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Glenn Ayres. 1991. LA GRAMATICA IXIL. Antigua Guatemala: Centro de
	Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamerica.
Heinz Fahnrich, Kurze. 1987. Grammatik der georgischen Sprache Leipzig:
VEB Verlag 	Enzykopadie, p. 149 ff.
George Hewitt. 1996. Georgian: a Learner's Grammar. London: Routledge.
Hewitt, B. G. 1995. Georgian: a structural reference grammar. Amsterdam
; 	Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co.
Aronson, Howard I. 1982. Georgian : a reading grammar. Columbus, OH :
Slavica 	Publishers, Inc,
Miriam Butt, Tracy Holloway King, and Gillian Ramchand (eds.). 1994.
Theoretical 	perspectives on word order in South Asian languages.
Stanford: CSLI 	Publications.
Coenen, J. 1954. De Ihandin taal, gesproken op het schiereiland Onin, aan
de westkust 	van N-Guinea.

I would be happy to receive more information about languages with
case-marking splits conditioned by tense and/or aspect. In particular, I
would like to hear of possible exceptions to the following generalization,
made by Dixon (1994, p. 99):

"But if a split is conditioned by tense or aspect, the ergative marking is
always found either in past tense or in perfective aspect."

Stuart Robinson
<Stuart.Robinsonanu.edu.au>