“Optional” “ergativity” in Tibeto-Burman languages
The case-marking systems of Tibeto-Burman languages are a long standing problem in both synchronic description and analysis and historical reconstruction. Early research on the family tended to characterize the family, and especially the Tibetan languages, as ergative. But work over the last two...
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1776572024-06-03T06:02:18Z “Optional” “ergativity” in Tibeto-Burman languages DeLancey, Scott University of Oregon Arts and Humanities Tibeto-Burman Ergativity The case-marking systems of Tibeto-Burman languages are a long standing problem in both synchronic description and analysis and historical reconstruction. Early research on the family tended to characterize the family, and especially the Tibetan languages, as ergative. But work over the last two decades has demonstrated, first with respect to Tibetan, and then to other languages of the family, that the prevalent “alignment” is a “pragmatic ergative” pattern in which a case marker is optionally present on A and some S arguments of the clause. The “optional” presence of the ergative marking is determined by semantic factors, especially agentivity and perfectivity, and pragmatic factors, particularly contrast. It is now clear that this grammatical phenomena characterizes the family as a whole, although there are a few languages which show more familiar typological profiles. Published version 2024-06-03T06:02:18Z 2024-06-03T06:02:18Z 2011 Journal Article DeLancey, S. (2011). “Optional” “ergativity” in Tibeto-Burman languages. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 34(2), 9-20. https://dx.doi.org/10.32655/LTBA.34.2.02 0731-3500 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177657 10.32655/LTBA.34.2.02 2 34 9 20 en Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area © 2011 The Editor(s). All rights reserved. application/pdf |
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Arts and Humanities Tibeto-Burman Ergativity DeLancey, Scott “Optional” “ergativity” in Tibeto-Burman languages |
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The case-marking systems of Tibeto-Burman languages are a long standing problem in both synchronic description and analysis and historical
reconstruction. Early research on the family tended to characterize the family, and
especially the Tibetan languages, as ergative. But work over the last two decades
has demonstrated, first with respect to Tibetan, and then to other languages of the
family, that the prevalent “alignment” is a “pragmatic ergative” pattern in which a
case marker is optionally present on A and some S arguments of the clause. The
“optional” presence of the ergative marking is determined by semantic factors,
especially agentivity and perfectivity, and pragmatic factors, particularly contrast. It
is now clear that this grammatical phenomena characterizes the family as a whole,
although there are a few languages which show more familiar typological profiles. |
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University of Oregon |
author_facet |
University of Oregon DeLancey, Scott |
format |
Article |
author |
DeLancey, Scott |
author_sort |
DeLancey, Scott |
title |
“Optional” “ergativity” in Tibeto-Burman languages |
title_short |
“Optional” “ergativity” in Tibeto-Burman languages |
title_full |
“Optional” “ergativity” in Tibeto-Burman languages |
title_fullStr |
“Optional” “ergativity” in Tibeto-Burman languages |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Optional” “ergativity” in Tibeto-Burman languages |
title_sort |
“optional” “ergativity” in tibeto-burman languages |
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2024 |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177657 |
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1800916449684881408 |