Meaning and grammar seminar
Speaker: Jens Hopperdietzel (University of Manchester)
Title: Marked unergatives in Samoan: Deverbal nominalizations and syntactic ergativity
Abstract: In Samoan (Polynesian, Austronesian) nominalizations, unergative subjects are distinctly marked by alienable case. This is true for both regular nouns which in the nominal domain show a tripartite/inactive alignment and clitic pronouns which show a marked unergative alignment. In this talk, I argue that the two cross-linguistically rare case pattern found in Samoan nominalizations naturally follow from a combination of independent properties, including split-possessive marking, syntactic ergativity, and the unaccusativity restriction on nominalizations, and thus provide further independent morphological evidence for the special status of agentive subjects in deverbal nominalizations across languages.
Contact
Seminars are organised by the meaning and grammar research group.
Meaning and grammar research group
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Meaning and grammar seminar
Room 2.11, Appleton Tower, 11 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9LE