Re: Help in Determining Asha'ille Typology

Arthaey Angosii sikyal:

> >1) I eat food.
> >2) I run.
> >3) I fall.
>
> 1)  Échiv en'i ne chodál.
>     eat   self OBJ: food
>
> 2)  Mmasaev en'i.
>     walk    self
>
> 3)  Nesheiv en'i.
>
> >An accusative language is one in which "I" in all three sentences is
> >marked the same (nominative), while "food" is marked differently
> >(accusative).
>
> So Asha'ille looks solidly accusative.
Yep.

> I found this in the Wikipedia:
>
> >Another common classification is whether the language is ergative or
> >accusative. If the language has cases, this is determined by whether the
> >subject of an intransitive verb has the same case as the subject or the
> >object of a transitive verb. If it doesn't, but the order is SVO or OVS,
> >this is determined by whether the subject of the intransitive verb is on the
> >same side as the subject or the object of the transitive verb.
>
> Now, I realize that anyone could have written that explanation and could
> therefore be totally wrong.  But if it is correct, then I should point out
> that Asha'ille doesn't have cases (at least as I understand the meaning of
> what case is).  Is Asha'ille accusative anyway?
Yes, indeed. Accusativity/ergativity is determined by *patterns*, and the
author of the Wikipedia article is simply trying to illustrate two
different kinds of patterns. One is the morphological pattern determined
by case affixes, the other is the syntactic pattern determined by word
order. But these are not the only possible kinds of patterns, and typology
can be established on plenty of other grounds.

BTW, Asha'ille seems to have case to me. What is 'ne' if not an accusative
case marker? It doesn't have to be an affix to be a case.

--
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/blog

Jesus asked them, "Who do you say that I am?"

And they answered, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground
of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our
interpersonal relationship."

And Jesus said, "What?"

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