LINGUIST List 13.2132

Tue Aug 20 2002

Qs: Benue-Congo Cognates, Ergative/"that-trace"

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>



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Directory

  • Paul Duerksen, Benue-Congo cognates
  • Yehuda N. Falk, "that-trace" effect/ergative languages

    Message 1: Benue-Congo cognates

     Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 13:50:53 +0000
    From: Paul Duerksen <paulsvl.net>
    Subject: Benue-Congo cognates


    The Benue-Congo classification seems to depend almost entirely on grammatical characteristics like noun-classes. Is anyone aware of a set of words which have cognates in the non-Batoid languages (like Yoruba, Nupe, Igbo, Jukun, Tarok, Edo)?

    Language-Family: Niger-Congo; Code: NC

    Message 2: "that-trace" effect/ergative languages

     Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 17:59:35 +0200
    From: Yehuda N. Falk <msyfalkmscc.huji.ac.il>
    Subject: "that-trace" effect/ergative languages


    Does anyone out there have any information or references on "that-trace" effects in languages that are plausibly analyzed as syntactically ergative? What I want to know is whether, in such languages, "that-trace" effects relate to S/A, as they do in nominative-accusative languages, or S/P, as one might expect for a syntactically ergative language.

    Thanks muchly.

    Yehuda N. Falk Department of English, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel http://pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il/~msyfalk/