Tripartite alignment
| Linguistic typology |
|---|
| Morphological |
| Morphosyntactic |
| Word order |
| Lexicon |
poo shiesty
In the above examples, we see the first person singular pronoun taking different forms for each of the S, A, and O arguments (marked NOM, ERG and ABS respectively), indicating the tripartite alignment in pronominal morphology.
Syntactic surveys of Wangkumara suggest this is generally true of the language as a whole.[1] Hence, Wangkumara represents a case of a full tripartite alignment.
Mixed systems
More common than full tripartite systems, mixed system tripartite alignments either demonstrate tripartite alignment in some subsection of the grammar, or else lacks the ergative, the accusative, or both in some classes of nominals.[2] An example of the former kind of mixed system may be Yazghulami, which exhibits tripartite alignment but only in the past tense.[3] An example of the latter would be Nez Perce, which lacks ergative marking in the first and second person.[2]
The following examples from Nez Perce illustrate the intransitive-ergative-accusative opposition that holds in the third person:[4]
Hi-páay-na
3SG-arrive-PERF
háama-Ø
man.NOM
'The man arrived.'
Háamap-im
man-ERG
'áayato-na
woman-ACC
pée-'nehne-ne
3SG-3SG-take-PERF
'The man took the woman away.'
In the above examples, (2a) demonstrates the intransitive case marking (here coded as NOM), while (2b) demonstrates differential ergative and accusative markings. Thus, Nez Perce demonstrates tripartite differentiations in its third person morphology.
Realizations of tripartite alignment
Morphological tripartite alignment
Syntactic tripartite alignment
Passive and anti-passive constructions
Ainu also shows the passive voice formation typical of nominative-accusative languages and the antipassive of ergative-absolutive languages. Like Nez Percé, the use of both the passive and antipassive is a trait of a tripartite language.
Distribution of tripartite alignments
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References
- ^ Breen, J. G. (1976). 'Ergative, locative, and instrumental case inflections - Wangkumara', in Dixon, R.M. (ed.), Grammatical Categories in Australian Languages. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, pp. 336-339.
- ^ a b Blake, Barry J. (2001). Case. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 125. ISBN 9780521807616.
- ^ Dixon, R.M.W. (1994). Ergativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 40.
- ^ Nez Perce examples from Rude, 1985: 83, 228.
Bibliography
- Blake, Barry J. (2001). Case. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Nicole Kruspe, 2004. A Grammar of Semelai. Cambridge University Press.
- Nez Perce Verb Morphology
- Noel Rude, 1988. Ergative, passive, and antipassive in Nez Perce. In Passive and Voice, ed. M. Shibatani, 547-560. Amsterdam: John Benjamins