Re: Help in Determining Asha'ille Typology

Quoting Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>:

> > 1) I eat food.
> > 2) I run.
> > 3) I fall.
[...]

> What would we call a language that marks "I" from (1) the same as "I" in
> (3), and "I" in (2) the same as "food" in (1)? Beyond weird, that is.
This would still be a split-S language.  Split-S languages are
defined, in contrast to fluid-S languages, by the fact that verbs
simply subcategorize for whether the single argument patterns as
the NP-1 of transitives or NP-2 of transitives.  It is also
characteristic of such languages that many verbs take the unexpected
marking, such as patientive for run or agentive for fall.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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