Re: conjugating by object

Quoting Pavel Iosad <pavel_iosad@...>:

> > This thus constitutes an entirely separate system for grammatical
> > relations, to stand beside nominative-accusative, ergative-absolutive,
> > Split-S, and Fluid-S systems.
>
> What are Split-S and Fluid-S?
Ergative and accusative systems, as you know, differ in how they
treat the subject of intransitive verbs, but they share
the characteristic that in both ergative and accusative systems,
the subject of intransitive verbs (hereinafter S) is always marked
in the same way, either like the subject (A) of transitive verbs
(as in accusative systems) or the object (O) (ergative systems).
Split-S and Fluid-S systems do not have this characteristic: in
both the S can be marked the same as either A or O. The difference
between the two is as follows:

Split-S:  each intransitive verb subcategorizes for whether its
S is marked as A or O.  There is a strong tendency in such languages
for the S-marked-as-A to be prototypically agentive (_run_) and
the S-marked-as-O to be prototypically patientive (_fall asleep_),
but in no case can any intransitive take both types of marking.

Fluid-S:  intransitive verbs optionally choose either agent or
patient marking, depending on the context.  Many verbs will almost
always take one or the other, but the other marking is always
available if volitionality/nonvolitionality is invoked (e.g. usually
one doesn't fall on purpose, but if you do, you use the agentive
marking).

Both of these categories are traditionally conflated into
"active" systems, but there is abundant evidence that they
operate differently, and so deserve separate theoretical
treatment.

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