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Ergativity in Basque

Ergativity in Basque The currently held view that Basque, like many other ergative languages, is ergative only in morphology but accusative in syntax is shown to be superficial. On the morphological level, Basque represents the rather rare type of both nominal and verbal ergativity without any split. Syntactically, it functions ergatively as far as overt marking of grammatical relations reaches. Beyond, there is no grammaticalized ergative or accusative syntax. What is unmarked is neutral. The semantic interpretation of neutral constructions depends largely on pragmatic probability. In narrative texts, in fact, pragmatic probability leads to a statistical predominance of 'accusative' sequences. But in contrast to languages like English, in Basque such statistical preferences never have crystallized into rigid syntactic patterns. The conclusion can be drawn that speculations about 'deep' accusativity of most, if not all, ergative languages are premature. 1. Introduction In recent years, ergativity has become one of the most intensely discussed topics in general linguistics. Like a kind of antiworld, it continues to fascinate a great many linguists whose mother tongue is some Western Indo-European, and therefore accusative, language. Relationships seem to stand on their heads; most basic grammatical categories look like the exact mirror-images of that to which a http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Linguistics - An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences de Gruyter

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References (17)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Walter de Gruyter
ISSN
0024-3949
eISSN
1613-396X
DOI
10.1515/ling.1984.22.3.341
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The currently held view that Basque, like many other ergative languages, is ergative only in morphology but accusative in syntax is shown to be superficial. On the morphological level, Basque represents the rather rare type of both nominal and verbal ergativity without any split. Syntactically, it functions ergatively as far as overt marking of grammatical relations reaches. Beyond, there is no grammaticalized ergative or accusative syntax. What is unmarked is neutral. The semantic interpretation of neutral constructions depends largely on pragmatic probability. In narrative texts, in fact, pragmatic probability leads to a statistical predominance of 'accusative' sequences. But in contrast to languages like English, in Basque such statistical preferences never have crystallized into rigid syntactic patterns. The conclusion can be drawn that speculations about 'deep' accusativity of most, if not all, ergative languages are premature. 1. Introduction In recent years, ergativity has become one of the most intensely discussed topics in general linguistics. Like a kind of antiworld, it continues to fascinate a great many linguists whose mother tongue is some Western Indo-European, and therefore accusative, language. Relationships seem to stand on their heads; most basic grammatical categories look like the exact mirror-images of that to which a

Journal

Linguistics - An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciencesde Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 1984

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