Split Ergativity

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the study of case marking patterns in language has aroused considerable interest over the last decade and how the animacy hierarchy is thought to play a key role in different case marking patterns. The paper explains that most ergative languages, however, do not have exclusively an ergative-absolutive basis and that the accusative-nominative patterns are usually present somewhere in the grammar. The result is a split ergativity in which A is marked for ergative case or left unmarked depending on the certain features in a language. This paper examines syntactic features of an unspecified language in the data and investigates the case marking system at the morphological level. The paper then argues how the split ergative patterns reflect the animacy hierarchy.

Outline:
Abstract
Introduction
The Syntactic Features
The Split Ergativity
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"At the morphological level, typological research has suggested that a tendency for a split between accusative and ergative patterns occurs based on the tense/aspect of the verb, the activity of the predicate and/or the relative animacy of the noun phrases (De Lancey, 1981). It is said that ergative patterns are associated with verbs in the perfective aspect or the past tense, with stative predicates, and with noun phrases low in animacy. In addition, the distribution of ergative and accusative case marking patterns seem to be constrained by a universal hierarchy of nouns. In recent years, it is the animacy hierarchy that has received increasing attention when applied to the area of the study. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Blake, B. J. (1994). Case. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Crowley, T., Lynch, J., Siegel, J., & Piau, J. (1995). The design of language. Auckland: Longman Paul.
• De Lancey, S. (1981). An interpretation of split ergativity and related patterns. Language, 57, 626-657.
• Dixon, R. M. L. (1994). Ergativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Garrett, A. (1990). The origin of NP split ergativity. Language, 66, 261-296.

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