Re-labeling "Ergative": Evidence from Formosan
Victoria Chen, Shin Fukuda
February 2017
 

This paper examines the distributional restrictions on two basic case markers in morphologically conservative Philippine-type languages: (i) the morphological marking on the pivot, conventionally labeled “absolutive”/“nominative”, and (ii) the morphological marking on non-pivot external arguments, conventionally labeled “ergative”/“genitive”, and demonstrates that they are better analyzed as a marker of informational structure status (topic) and the reflex of structural nominative Case, respectively. With novel data from Puyuma, Amis, and Seediq, we present a nominative-accusative analysis for Philippine-type Formosan languages with an A’-agreement analysis for Philippine-type voice affixes, and argue for the presence of an A/A’-distinction in Philippine-type voice system.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/003935
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: Proceedings of AFLA 23
keywords: philippine-type voice system, austronesian-type voice system, ergative case, ergativity, western austronesian languages, formosan languages, syntax
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