Re: Lexicalising Ergativity

--- Leo Caesius <leo_caesius@...> wrote:
> { 20040621,0245 | Peter Bleackley } "Suppose a
> language has a split-S
> system, whereby there are two verb classes, one of
> which takes an
> Erg/Abs argument structure, and one of which takes a
> Nom/Acc argument
> structure. What are those classes likely to be?"
>
> Emily replied:
> "In fact, as far as I am aware this happens in ALL
> ergative systems, but
> the split isn't exactly lexical, it's grammatical.
> Usually the present
> or other unmarked form of the verb uses, say, the
> ergative form, while
> the preterite/past/etc. uses the accusative system."
>
I may have misunderstood you here, but are you saying
that ALL erg/abs languages are in fact split-S
systems? Because i thought that that Split-S was less
common than one or the other.
                            Travis

> There's a rather obvious split in Pahlavi (Middle
> Persian); transitive and
> intranstive verbs are declined differently in the
> past, due to the
> split-ergative system in that language.  Transitive
> verbs use the ergative
> form in the past alone; in the present they use the
> accusative system:
>
> Present:
> Man dew-an wen-em
> 1SG demon-PL see.PRS-1SG
> "I see demons"
>
> Past:
> Man dew-an did h-end
> 1SG demon-PL see.PRF.PTCP COP-3PL
> "I saw demons"
>
> I'm using a plural example because the copula is
> often omitted in the 3rd
> sing., and it would be impossible to tell which was
> the grammatical subject
> of the verb.
>
> Intransitive verbs, obviously, are inflected
> according to the subject in
> either tense:
>
> Ardaxshir o naxchir shud estad
> Ardaxshir to hunting go.PRF stand.PRF
> "Ardaxshir went hunting"
>
> The system is somewhat obscure, of course, because
> the verbs (and
> prepositions, and some of the more common nouns) are
> generally written in
> Aramaic.  The above sentence would be written
> something like this: 'lthshyl
> OL nhcyl OZLWN-d YKOYMWN-'t with the capital letters
> representing Aramaic
> words instead of Pahlavi words.  In the past, kardan
> ("to do") is often
> written out, which is good because the Aramaic
> equivalents of "to do" and
> "to seize" are identical when written in Pahlavi
> shorthand.
>
> cheers
>
>
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