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Pronouns in Split Ergative systems

From:Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>
Date:Monday, September 13, 2004, 10:48
Describing Morphosyntax says that ergative marking in split ergative
systems is always applied to less animate entities, whereas more animate
entities take accusative marking. Where the split occurs varies, but my
question is this: suppose you have a split ergative language where
people take accusative marking and everything else takes ergative
marking. According to the heirarchy in Describing Morphosyntax the
pronoun system would be accusative. Are there any natural languages with
a split ergative system divided like this where the split also occurs in
the pronoun system, with pronouns referring to humans taking accusative
marking, and pronouns referring to non humans taking ergative marking?

Reply

Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>