Another victory for the principle of ANADEWism

Some time ago, Carsten wrote:

> > Would the Ergative lang make more use of
> > causatives as well? (Causative in Ayeri = someone/-thing
> > caused someone/-thing to do something)
and I responded:

> AFAIK causativization has nothing to do with the subjective
> alignment system a language has.
Well, it now appears that I will have to eat crow.  Last week
I was speaking with a young Kurdologist at the Oriental Institute's
weekly social hour (long may its intoxications continue!) who told
me off hand that she'd found this interesting construction in the
Kurdish dialects spoken in Turkey.  Apparently, although most past
tense verbs have shed their ergative constructions inherited from
Proto-Iranian, there is a small class of causative verbs that agree
with the direct object only, and not the notional subject. She wasn't
clear on whether only causative verbs so agree, or whether there are
other transitive verbs that preserve the older system, or whether
these causatives are the causatives of base-intransitive verbs,
or base-transitive verbs. Nonetheless, it appears to uphold the
glorious principle of A Natlang Already Does it Even Worse, and
should serve as inspiration for all sorts of conlangers determined
to engineer willful languages! :)

 =========================================================================
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