The Blue Bird of Ergativity - celia

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25) iwínsh-ni,-m=nam i-q'ínu-sha (ima-náy)man-ERG2=2sg 3Subj-see-PROG (you-OBJ)'The man sees you.'This fact by itself points up the centrality of deixis to the system, and thefundamentally deictic basis of the system is further attested in the apparent origin ofthe Sahaptin inverse ergative morpheme in an old cislocative form (Rude 1991).And the evidence for the grammatical prominence of the deictic center doesnot stop here. Phonologically independent 1 st and 2 nd person pronouns such as ínand ináy in the preceding examples occur only in emphatic or contrastivefunction. Ordinary 1 st and 2 nd person reference is accomplished by obligatorypronominal clitics, which occur cliticized to the first word of the sentence. Theseclitic pronouns are not marked for case:26) á-q'inu-sha=ash iwinsh-na3Obj-see-PROG=1st man-OBJ'I see the man.'27) i-q'inu-sha=ash iwinsh-nim3Subj-see-PROG=1st man-ERG'The man sees me.'They occur even in the presence of independent pronouns (see also ex. 23):28) ín=ash á-tuXnana yáamash-naI-1sg 3Obj-shot deer-OBJ'I shot a deer.'And they occur indexing SAP possessors of arguments:29) nishá-pa=sh wá kusikusihouse-in=1st be dog'My dog is in the house.'30) Xlák=nash wá núsuXlots=1sg be salmon'I have lots of salmon.' (lit. something like 'Me, there's lots of salmon')To summarize this picture, Sahaptin has invariable 1 st and 2 nd personpronominal forms which must be present in any clause which makes reference to a1 st or 2 nd person. Put otherwise, the language has forms whose only function isobligatory reference to the participants at the deictic center. Combined with the12
emarkably deictic system of ergative marking, this shows the central place of thedeictic center in Sahaptin morphosyntax.Now, to bring this discussion back to our main thread of argument, we cansee that the function of "ergativity" in Sahaptin is completely unrelated to that ofwhat we called "ergativity" in either Tibetan or Mizo, and that in fact thesephenomena have hardly anything in common structurally either -- which leaves uswith the question of what use is a word, and more to the point, what use is aconcept, which tries to subsume them both as examples of a single category?Deictic marking in Kuki-ChinIn several languages of the Kuki-Chin branch of Tibeto-Burman (to whichMizo also belongs), a simple inverse marking system has developed from themarking of deictic orientation on motion verbs (DeLancey 1980). In theselanguages a motion verb *hong 'come' has become partially or completelygrammaticalized as a cislocative 'hither' prefix on motion verbs (see DeLancey1985b for details). In some languages this morpheme has developed the additionalfunction of optionally marking some transitive or ditransitive configurations with1 st or 2 nd person object. In Sizang (Stern 1963) we find the cislocative marker usedat least optionally with any transitive or ditransitive verb with 1st or 2nd personobject or goal, as in (exx. from Stern 1984:52, 56):31) na-lá:i hong thák ka-ngá: a:2nd-letter CIS send 1st-receive NF'I having received your letter which [you] sent to me ...'32) k-ong thûk kí:k lâ-lê:u hî:1st-CIS reply again once more FIN'... I in turn reply to you.'33) hong sá:t thê:i lê:CIS beat ever INTER'Do [they] ever beat you?'34) hong sá:t lé: ká-pe:ng tál dong ká-ta:i tû:CIS beat if 1st-leg break until 1st-flee FUT'If [they] beat me I'll run till my legs break.'(Note that (31) has an easily recoverable 2nd person subject which howeveris not indexed in the verb, and both (33) and (34) have a specific anaphoric thirdperson plural subject, the second speaker's parents, which is explicitly mentioned in13
Page 1 and 2: The Blue Bird of ErgativityScott DE
Page 4 and 5: what we mean by unmarked. I suppose
Page 6 and 7: elative markedness in this terminol
Page 8: 'A dog bit me.'In this language, I
Page 14 and 15: a full NP two clauses previous to t
Page 16 and 17: Even in a consistent dative-subject
Page 18 and 19: talk about it. That is, a great man
Page 20 and 21: DRYER, Matthew. 1986. Primary objec

The Blue Bird of Ergativity - celia

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