Re: CONLANG Digest - 21 Feb 2004 to 22 Feb 2004 (#2004-52)

Quoting John Quijada <jq_ithkuil@...>:

> Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> >PS If I've got it right, all ergative languages are really split-ergative,
> but
> >plenty of accusative languages have only the faintest traces of ergativity
> >(like the -ee suffix in English). If so, it would seem to suggest that
> >accusativity, for some reason, is the "default" for human language, yes?
>
> ------
> In _Ergativity_ (1994) Dixon disagrees with you here.
I'm not really arguing any point here - merely trying to make sense of what
I've been told.

> He states outright
> that there are many ergative languages which do not show any splits
> (although he doesn't appear to list any examples).
OK. I've been told a couple of times there are no such languages, but I'm
happy to believe Dixon here.

> As I believe someone
> else noted, I don't think Basque utilizes any accusative patterning at all
> or any antipassive alternative patterning.  Dixon himself is the world's
> leading expert on Australian languages, so presumably he makes this claim
> based on his knowledge of those languages.  As for accusativity being
> the "default" for human language, Dixon would disagree here as well.
> Chapter 1 of his book makes his position quite clear.  He believes the
> underlying (what I would call the cognitive-level) "default" for human
> language is a 3-way distinction between S (intransitive subject), A
> (transitive subject), and O (transitive object), to which languages then
> morpho-syntactically map either by grouping S with A distinct from O
> (accusative pattern) or by grouping S with O distinct from A (ergative
> pattern).  Given the evidence that languages switch from one pattern to the
> other over time (e.g., the loss of Proto-IE ergativity in its present-day
> daughter languages except Armenian, then seeing it re-arise in modern
> Hindi), it seems to me difficult to say which is more "natural" or
> more "primitive."  (I believe some of the more obscure Uralic languages
> show ergativity as well.)
Well, as you describe Dixon's position, he seems to be arguing that tripartite
is the "default". If so, clearly most languages opt for something more exotic!

                                                  Andreas

Reply