Julie Legate
University of Delaware
In this talk, I examine the roles of syntax and morphology in case
realization, focusing on ergative-absolutive languages.
The literature on ergativity contains various solutions to the following
problem: how do we assign the same case to the intransitive subject and
the transitive object in ergative-absolutive languages? I argue that for
a diverse class of ergative-absolutive languages the problem is
ill-formed: the same case is not assigned to the intransitive subject and
transitive object. Rather, understanding these languages requires taking
seriously the notion of abstract syntactic case assignment and its
imperfect realization in a post-syntactic morphology. In the syntax, the
intransitive subject is assigned abstract nominative case, while the
transitive object is assigned abstract accusative case. In the
morphology, no realization of the nominative and accusative case features
is available; therefore the "elsewhere" morphological realization of case
must be inserted. For these languages, this elsewhere morpheme is
standardly labeled "absolutive", whereas in a language like English the
elsewhere has no designated label.
I illustrate with Niuean (Polynesian), Enga (East New Guinea Highlands),
Hindi (Indo-Aryan), and Warlpiri (Pama-Nyungan). I discuss consequences
of this analysis, including a new morphological approach to differential
case marking.
Reception to follow in 1413 Marie Mount Hall.