Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 09:16:19 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199610171316.JAA09888@sarah.albany.edu>
In-Reply-To: <9610161344.AA13673@emunix.emich.edu>
To: linconf@emunix.emich.edu
From: George Aaron Broadwell <g.broadwell@albany.edu>
Subject: Reply to van Gelderen from Broadwell
Thanks to Elly van Gelderen for her questions. Here's
my reply to the first of them.
Switch-reference and case
********************************
As many people who have worked on switch-reference
have noticed, there are some extensive similarities
between the system of SR markers on clauses and
the system of case markers on NPs.
In Choctaw, the SS switch-reference markers are often
either identical to or quite similar to the nominative
case markers. DS switch-reference markers are often
either identical to or quite similar to the accusative
case markers.
There are two conclusions that one might draw from this
similarity. One is to claim that there is a diachronic
relationship between the two systems. The other is
to try to unite them synchronically.
In favor of the diachronic approach is the observation
that switch-reference systems often have case-marking
systems as their diachronic origins.
We see something like this in the Latin ablative absolute
construction. (See some discussion of this in John Haiman's
paper "On some origins of switch reference marking" in
Haiman, John & Pamela Munro *Switch-reference and
universal grammar*. John Benjamins. 1983).
If we say that the relationship between the two systems
is merely a diachronic one, then there is no particular
motivation to treat them by the same theoretical devices
synchronically -- one could be regulated by Case theory
and the other by binding theory.
Alternately, it may be possible to assimilate Case theory
to binding theory. Carson Schutze has pursued this analysis
of the Choctaw data in recent ESCOL and LSA papers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
George Aaron Broadwell, g.broadwell@albany.edu
Anthropology; Linguistics and Cognitive Science,
University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY 12222 | 518-442-4711
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hsun Tze, who lived about seventy years after Mencius, in his chapter on
the Rectification of the Names, repeats the recommendation found in the Li
Ki, Book III, iv, 16, that those who introduce new terms or make
unauthorized distinctions should be put to death."
--- I.A. Richards, *Mencius on the mind* (London: Kegan Paul. 1932.)