Re: Lexicalising Ergativity

From:    =?iso-8859-1?Q?J=F6rg?= Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>
> Georgian is actually accusative in the present
> and split-S (rather than purely ergative) in the aorist.
I wouldn't say that's exactly the case.  In the present series,
NP-1 is marked with a nominative case, NP-2 is marked with dative,
and any NP3 is also dative.  In the aorist, NP-1 is ergative,
NP-2 is nominative, and NP-3 is dative.  Thus, superficially,
the present series looks more like a kind of obligatory antipassivization,
but for a number of reasons this is probably not a good synchronic
analysis (whatever the case diachronically).  The Georgian present
series, I would say, is neither accusative, nor ergative, nor Split-S,
nor Fluid-S, nor hierarchical, nor any other system of which I am
aware.

> And third, there are languages such as Dyirbal (an aboriginal
> Australian language) with ergative marking on nouns and accusative
> marking on pronouns.  (See also Thomas Wier's Phaleran for a
> conlang example of such marking.)
Thanks for the plug :)

More specifically, first and second person pronouns have an accusative
system; regular nouns and third obviative pronouns have an ergative
system.  Third proximate pronouns have neither:  all three roles of
S, A, and O are morphologically distinct (in the standard at any rate;
some dialects have collapsed some distinctions).

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Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
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