Download or read book Ergativity in German written by Günther Grewendorf and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-10-25 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

Download or read book Ergativity written by Robert M. W. Dixon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994-06-02 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although there is only one ergative language in Europe (Basque), perhaps one-quarter of the world's languages show ergative properties, and pose considerable difficulties for many current linguistic theories. R. M. W. Dixon here provides a full survey of the various types of ergativity, looking at the ways they interrelate, their semantic bases and their role in the organisation of discourse. Ergativity stems from R. M. W. Dixon's long-standing interest in the topic, and in particular from his seminal 1979 paper in Language. It includes a rich collection of data from a large number of the world's languages. Comprehensive, clear and insightful, it will be the standard point of reference for all those interested in the topic.

Download or read book Ergativity and Other Alignment Types in Neo Aramaic written by Paul M. Noorlander and published by Studies in Semitic Languages a. This book was released on 2021-08-26 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains a comprehensive study of constructional splits and alignment typology, especially ergativity, as found in the Neo-Aramaic languages spoken in the Mesopotamian region of West Asia.

Download or read book Alignment and Ergativity in New Indo Aryan Languages written by Saartje Verbeke and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-03-22 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume investigates the different alignment patterns in Indo-Aryan and shows that the variation of alignment patterns in Indo-Aryan goes beyond the opposition between accusativity and ergativity. The book includes a thorough discussion of the concepts and terminology relating to alignment patterns. The study draws extensively on new language data from Indo-Aryan. It includes discussions of examples taken from Hindi, Sanskrit, Apabhramsa, Asamiya, Bangla, Oriya, the Bihari languages, Nepali, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Siraiki, Poguli, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marwari, Harauti, the Hindi varieties, and Shina. The volume offers a comprehensive overview of various alignment patterns in Indo-Aryan based on a wide range of data. By focusing on lesser known Indo-Aryan languages, the study questions the central position of Hindi-Urdu in the research on ergativity. Each language is treated in its own right, with a focus on language-specific data and analyses, rather than relying on a notional format that starts with pre-established linguistic concepts. In accordance with this methodology, much attention is paid to "indirect" connections between ergative constructions and other syntactic and semantic patterns in the various languages.

Download or read book Deconstructing Ergativity written by Maria Polinsky and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nominative-accusative and ergative are two common alignment types found across languages. In the former type, the subject of an intransitive verb and the subject of a transitive verb are expressed the same way, and differently from the object of a transitive. In ergative languages, the subject of an intransitive and the object of a transitive appear in the same form, the absolutive, and the transitive subject has a special, ergative, form. Ergative languages often follow very different patterns, thus evading a uniform description and analysis. A simple explanation for that has to do with the idea that ergative languages, much as their nominative-accusative counterparts, do not form a uniform class. In this book, Maria Polinsky argues that ergative languages instantiate two main types, the one where the ergative subject is a prepositional phrase (PP-ergatives) and the one with a noun-phrase ergative. Each type is internally consistent and is characterized by a set of well-defined properties. The book begins with an analysis of syntactic ergativity, which as Polinsky argues, is a manifestation of the PP-ergative type. Polinsky discusses diagnostic properties that define PPs in general and then goes to show that a subset of ergative expressions fit the profile of PPs. Several alternative analyses have been proposed to account for syntactic ergativity; the book presents and outlines these analyses and offers further considerations in support of the PP-ergativity approach. The book then discusses the second type, DP-ergative languages, and traces the diachronic connection between the two types. The book includes two chapters illustrating paradigm PP-ergative and DP-ergative languages: Tongan and Tsez. The data used in these descriptions come from Polinsky's original fieldwork hence presenting new empirical facts from both languages.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Ergativity written by Jessica Coon and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 1297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the phenomenon of ergativity, a grammatical patterning whereby direct objects are in some way treated like intransitive subjects, to the exclusion of transitive subjects. It includes theoretical approaches from generative, typological, and functional paradigms, as well as 16 language-specific case studies.

Download or read book Indo Aryan Ergativity in Typological and Diachronic Perspective written by Eystein Dahl and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2016-06-14 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a state-of-the-art survey of synchronic and diachronic dimensions of Ergativity in the Indo-Aryan language family. It contains an introduction drawing on the most important recent typological and theoretical contributions to this field, plus seven papers about the origin, development and distribution of ergative alignment in ancient and modern Indo-Aryan languages written by well-established expert authors. The articles provide detailed explorations of language-specific synchronic systems or patterns of change, and large-scale studies of the distribution of ergative morphosyntax across the Indo-Aryan languages. The papers have a typological-functional approach and are based on thorough fieldwork experience and/or philological investigation. As the Indo-Aryan language family has played a paramount role in recent theories of Ergativity and of alignment typology and change, this volume is highly relevant to experts working on these languages and to scholars interested in grammatical relations and it will figure in all future debates in these fields

Download or read book Bilingual First Language Acquisition written by Jürgen M. Meisel and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributions in this volume are based on an analysis of data from bilingual children acquiring French and German simultaneously. The longitudinal studies started at approximately age one year and six months and continued till age six. The papers focus on the development of specific grammatical phenomena; explanations are given within the framework of the Principle and Parameter approach. The study is primarily concerned with the acquisition of so-called 'functional categories' and the consequences of their acquisition for the development of grammar. Specific points dealt with in these papers include: gender, number and case and their internal structure (DP vs NP); inflection and its consequences for agreement marking; and word order phenomena (subject-raising constructions (incl. passives), word order in subordinate clauses). The basic hypothesis underlying this study is that early child grammars consist only of lexical categories and that functional categories are implemented later in the child's grammar. How this happens exactly is the central issue explored in this book.

Download or read book Arguments and Case written by Eric J. Reuland and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2000-09-15 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ideas presented by the contributions in this volume originated in a workshop on Burzio’s generalization. Burzio’s Generalization (BG) states that a verb which does not assign an external theta-role to its subject does not assign structural accusative Case to an object and conversely. It connects cross-linguistic similarities between e.g. passives, raising verbs, and unaccusatives. However, it does so by linking very different properties of a predicate. This raises fundamental questions about its theoretical status. The contributions in this volume explore BG’s theoretical basis. A consensus emerges that BG is, in fact, an epiphenomenon, due to the interaction of different principles of grammar. Moreover, the contributions show a striking convergence as to how BG is ultimately derived. The results obtained make a significant contribution to the further development of theories of Case and thematic relations.

Download or read book Ergativity written by Alana Johns and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-02-05 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The overarching theme of this volume is the formal expression of the range and limits of ergativity. The book contains cutting-edge theoretical papers by top authors in the field, who also conduct original field work and bring new data to light. It contains articles that apply the most recent theoretical tools to the area of ergativity, and then explore the issues that emerge. Languages investigated in the text include Basque, Georgian, and Hindi.

Download or read book The Acquisition of Ergativity written by Edith L. Bavin and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2013-11-15 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ergativity is one of the main challenges both for linguistic and acquisition theories. This book is unique, taking a cross-linguistic approach to the acquisition of ergativity in a large variety of typologically distinct languages. The chapters cover languages from different families and from different geographic areas with different expressions of ergativity. Each chapter includes a description of ergativity in the language(s), the nature of the input, the social context of acquisition and developmental patterns. Comparisons of the acquisition process across closely related languages are made, change in progress of the ergative systems is discussed and, for one language, acquisition by bilingual and monolingual children is compared. The volume will be of particular interest to language acquisition researchers, linguists, psycholinguists and cognitive scientists.

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of North American Languages written by Daniel Siddiqi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-25 with total page 839 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of North American Languages is a one-stop reference for linguists on those topics that come up the most frequently in the study of the languages of North America (including Mexico). This handbook compiles a list of contributors from across many different theories and at different stages of their careers, all of whom are well-known experts in North American languages. The volume comprises two distinct parts: the first surveys some of the phenomena most frequently discussed in the study of North American languages, and the second surveys some of the most frequently discussed language families of North America. The consistent goal of each contribution is to couch the content of the chapter in contemporary theory so that the information is maximally relevant and accessible for a wide range of audiences, including graduate students and young new scholars, and even senior scholars who are looking for a crash course in the topics. Empirically driven chapters provide fundamental knowledge needed to participate in contemporary theoretical discussions of these languages, making this handbook an indispensable resource for linguistics scholars.

Download or read book Ergativity and causativity written by Regina Männle and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2008-08-05 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, University of Freiburg (English Department), course: The Syntax and Semantics of the English Verb Phrase, language: English, abstract: The term ‘ergativity’ is used to describe a grammatical pattern in which there is a formal parallel between the object of a transitive clause and the subject of an intransitive clause. The subject of the transitive clause, however, is treated differently. Dixon, in his standard survey of ergativity, uses the following symbols for these three elements: S = intransitive subject, A = transitive subject, and O = transitive object (1994:6). Initially, the term ‘ergativity’ was only associated with case marking on constituents of a noun phrase. Manning summarises this as folllows: “The more patient-like argument of a transitive verb appears in the same absolutive case as the single argument of an intransitive verb, while the more agent-like argument of a transitive verb is marked differently, in what is known as the ergative case” (1996 : 3). Thus, ergativity is the counterpiece to accusativity, where one case is employed for the intransitive (S) and the transitive subject (A) (nominative) and another case marks the transitive object (O) (accusative). The term ‘ergativity’ derives from the Greek words ergon ‘work, deed’ and ergátēs ‘doer (of an action)’ (Bussmann 1996 : 151) and thus relates to the active – the “more agent-like” – member of the pair involved in a transitive structure. Dixon states that the first use of this term was in 1912 in a study on the Dagestanian language Rutul (1994 : 3).

Download or read book Let Us Go Up to Zion written by Iain Provan and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-07-23 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume honours Professor H. G. M. Williamson, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University through a collection of essays by colleagues and former students from across the globe. The various contributions intersect with the previous work of Professor Williamson related to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and Hebrew language and texts.

Download or read book Language Typology and Syntactic Description Volume 1 Clause Structure written by Timothy Shopen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-10-04 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique three-volume survey brings together a team of leading scholars to explore the syntactic and morphological structures of the world's languages. Clearly organized and broad-ranging, it covers topics such as parts-of-speech, passives, complementation, relative clauses, adverbial clauses, inflectional morphology, tense, aspect, mood, and diexis. The contributors look at the major ways that these notions are realized, and provide informative sketches of them at work in a range of languages. Each volume is accessibly written and clearly explains each new concept introduced. Although the volumes can be read independently, together they provide an indispensable reference work for all linguists and fieldworkers interested in cross-linguistic generalizations. Volume I covers parts-of-speech systems, word order, the noun phrase, clause types, speech act distinctions, the passive, and information packaging in the clause.

Download or read book The Composition of Meaning written by Alice ter Meulen and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2004-10-31 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the modular design of generative theory the syntax–semantics interface has accounted all along for meanings at the level of Logical Form. The syntax–pragmatics interface, on the other hand, is the result of what one may call the ‘pragmatic turn’ in the linguistic theory, where content is partitioned into given and new information. In other words, the structural division of the clause has been subjected to criteria of information, or discourse structure. Both interfaces require a structurally descriptive inventory whose specific shapes can be motivated on theory-internal grounds only. The present collection of original articles develops the concept of these interfaces further. The papers in the first section focus on the syntax–semantics interface, those in the second section on the syntax–pragmatics interface.

Download or read book Subject Voice and Ergativity written by N Bennett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-12 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.