Re: CHAT: natural active case lang

Daniel Andreasson skrev:

>Excuse this off-topic natlangy question, but this is
>getting frustrating. At least five times today, in three
>different classes at uni, we've been discussing case
>and semantic roles. Separately. I've been trying to
>say something about langs that use case to mark
>semantic roles, but then they ask me for examples
>and I can't really say Tokana, now can I? :)
>Then I start rambling about native American langs
>and perhaps Papua New Guinea, but then they
>just laugh. Hmm...
>
>I've had it with this ridicule of me. I don't know
>where to look, so if any of you can give me some
>examples of natlangs and where they are spoken
>I would be ever so grateful.
If you can, try to find out something about the
Chibchan languages, which are spoken in Central
America.  In "Describing Morphosyntax", Thomas
Payne gives some examples from the Chibchan
language Guaymi, which seem to indicate that this
language has a species of "active" case marking.

Volitional subjects appear in the Ergative case
(whether the verb is intransitive or transitive),
while non-volitional subjects of intransitive
verbs (as well as direct objects of transitives)
appear in the unmarked Absolutive case:

  Toma-gwe Dori d"ma-ini
  Tom-ERG Doris greet-PAST
  "Tom greeted Doris"

  Dori-gwe blit-ani
  Doris-ERG speak-PAST
  "Doris spoke"

  Nu ngat-ani
  dog die-PAST
  "The dog died"

Experiencers generally appear in Dative case:

  Davi-e Dori gare
  David-DAT Doris know-PRES
  "David knows Doris"

Involuntary actors are often put in the Locative case:

  Jose-biti Maria koeinigwit-ani-nggoe
  Jose-LOC Maria forget-PAST-ASP
  "Jose forgot Maria"

This is rather similar to the pattern found in Tokana...
Hope that helps you one-up your classmates!

Matt.