The Typology of Semantic Alignment

482 Pages·2008·3.09 MB·English

by  Mark Donohue

The Typology of Semantic Alignment
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The Typology of
Semantic Alignment
Editedby
MARK DONOHUE AND SØREN WICHMANN
1
3
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Contents
Notesonthecontributors vii
Abbreviationsandglossingconventions xi
PartI. IntroductoryandGeneral
1. Thestudyofsemanticalignment:retrospectandstateoftheart 3
SørenWichmann
2. Semanticalignmentsystems:what’swhat,andwhat’snot 24
MarkDonohue
3. Splitintransitives,experiencerobjects,and‘transimpersonal’
constructions:(re-)establishingtheconnection 76
AndrejMalchukov
4. Thematicroles,eventstructure,andargumentencodingin
semanticallyalignedlanguages 101
PeterM.Arkadiev
PartII. Eurasia
5. Whyarestative-activelanguagesrareinEurasia?Atypological
perspectiveonsplit-subjectmarking 121
JohannaNichols
6. Losingsemanticalignment:fromProto-YeniseictoModernKet 140
EdwardJ.Vajda
7. IntransitivesplitinTundraNenets,orhowmuchsemantics
canhidebehindsyntacticalignment 162
OlesyaKhanina
8. Fromergativecasemarkingtosemanticcasemarking:thecase
ofhistoricalBasque 197
GontzalAldai
PartIII. ThePacific
9. ThesemanticsofsemanticalignmentineasternIndonesia 221
MarianKlamer
vi Contents
10. TheriseandfallofsemanticalignmentinNorth
Halmahera,Indonesia 252
GaryHolton
11. VerbclassificationinAmis 277
NaomiTsukida
PartIV. TheAmericas
12. Theemergenceofagentivesystemsincoreargumentmarking 297
MarianneMithun
13. ArgumentdereferentializationinLakota 334
ReginaPustetandDavidS.Rood
14. Theemergenceofactive/stativealignmentinOtomi 357
EnriqueL.Palancar
15. VoiceandtransitivityinGuaraní 380
MauraVelázquez-Castillo
16. AgreementintwoArawaklanguages:BaureandKurripako 396
SwinthaDanielsenandTaniaGranadillo
17. AffectednessandviewpointinPilagá(Guaykuruan):
asemanticallyalignedcase-markingsystem 412
AlejandraVidal
References 431
Authorindex 453
Indexof languages 457
Indexof terms 461
Notes on the contributors
Gontzal Aldai is Professor of Linguistics and Basque Studies at the University of the
Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. His research interests include typology, gram-
maticalizationtheory,andhistoricallinguistics,particularlyregardingtense-aspect-mood,
ergativeandsemanticalignments,verbalmorphology,andrelativeclauses.Thetitleofhis
Ph.D. dissertation (University of Southern California, 2002) is ‘The Grammaticalization
of Present and Past in Basque’. He is the author of ‘Is Basque morphologically ergative?
WesternBasquevs.EasternBasque’(forthcominginStudiesinLanguage)andiscurrently
workingonabookonthehistoryoftheBasqueverbalsystem.
PeterM.ArkadievisaJuniorResearchFellowattheDepartmentofTypologyandCom-
parativeLinguistics,InstituteofSlavicStudies,RussianAcademyofSciences.Hisscholarly
interestsarelinguistictypology,grammaticalcategories,andthesemantics–syntaxinterface
(includingsuchtopicsasmorphologicalcase,eventstructure,andaspect).His2006Ph.D.
dissertation(writteninRussian)wasentitled‘Thetypologyoftwo-termcasesystems’,anda
summaryofthisresearchisforthcomingasacontributiontoTheHandbookofCase(Oxford
UniversityPress,editedbySpencerandMalchukov).
Swintha Danielsen held a Ph.D position in the Spinoza Program Lexicon and Syn-
tax at the Linguistics Department of the Radboud University Nijmegen and the Max
Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics from August 2003 until March 2007, and has
now completed a descriptive dissertation on the grammar of Baure (Bolivia, Arawak),
including the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the language. She is interested in
typology, morphology, language change, and, more specifically, in comparative Arawak
linguistics.
MarkDonohueisaProfessorofLinguisticsatMonashUniversity.Heworksin(lexicalist)
syntax, phonology, historical linguistics and typology, focused on the Indonesian/New
Guineaarea.Hehaspublishedfourbooks,includingAGrammarofTukangBesi(1999),and
I’saka(2004),aswellasarticlesdealingwithtonology,historicallinguistics,andsyntax.He
continuestodocumentthelinguisticprehistoryofMelanesia,includingtheevidencefora
largeprehistoriclinguisticareaininsulareasternIndonesia.
TaniaGranadilloisAssistantProfessorofAnthropologyandLinguisticsatUniversity
ofWesternOntario.ShecompletedherPh.D.inAnthropologyandLinguisticsfromthe
University of Arizona in 2006. Since 1996 she has worked on the indigenous languages
Mapoyo and Kurripako of the Venezuelan Amazon. Her research interests are varied,
encompassingbothlinguisticsandanthropology.HerPh.D.dissertationderivesfromher
languagedocumentationprojectamongtheKurripako,andhighlightstheimportanceof
communityinterestsandlocalcontextsinsuchprojects.
GaryHoltonisAssociateProfessorofLinguisticsattheUniversityofAlaskaFairbanks.
Hisresearchinterestsincludetypology,argumentstructure,grammaranddiscourse,lan-
guagedocumentation,languagerevitalization,andlanguagearchiving.Heistheauthorof
viii Notesonthecontributors
agrammaticalsketchoftheWestPapuanlanguageTobelo(2003),co-authorofagrammar
andphrasebookoftheAthabascanlanguageTanacross(2003),andiscurrentlycompiling
agrammarofthePapuanlanguageWesternPantar(Lamma).Hehasconductedextensive
fieldworkinbothAlaskaandeasternIndonesia.
Olesya Khanina is a post-doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institutefor Evolutionary
Anthropology.Hermainresearchinterestsincludemorphosyntacticandsemantictypol-
ogy,languagecontact,anddocumentarylinguistics.Shehasdonefieldworkonanumber
of Turkic and Samoyedic languages, and is currently involved in the documentation of
Enets,undertheauspicesofELDP(SchoolofOrientalandAfricanStudies,London).Sheis
preparingatypologicalmonographonthemorphosyntaxandsemanticsofdesideratives,
withdetailedcasestudiesonTurkicandCentralPacificlanguages.
MarianKlamerteachesattheLeidenUniversityCentreofLinguistics,andspecializesin
thestudyofAustronesianandPapuanlanguagesinEasternIndonesia.Herareasofinterests
includelanguagedescription,historicalandcontact-inducedchange,andlexicalsemantics.
ShehasdonefieldworkinSumba,EastTimor,Alor,andPantar,andpublicationsinclude
a grammar of Kambera (1998) and the overview ‘Ten years of synchronic Austronesian
linguistics(1991–2001)’(Lingua,2002).Furtherpublicationsdealwiththeanalysisofclitic
clusters,phrasalemotionpredicates,andmulti-categorialitems;herpaperonDutchand
KamberaexpressivesinLanguage(2002)challengesSaussureandogmasofthearbitrariness
ofthelinguisticsign.CurrentlysheiswritinggrammarsofTeiwa(Papuan)andAlorese
(Austronesian).
Andrej Malchukov is a member of St Petersburg Typology Group (Institute of Lin-
guistic Research, Russian Academy of Sciences), and is currently affiliated with the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. He specializes in Tungusic languages,
andhas written ahabilitation thesis on aspects of themorphosyntaxof Even. His main
interestisinmorphosyntacticandsemantictypology.RecentpublicationsincludeNom-
inalization/Verbalization:ConstrainingTypologyofTranscategorialOperations(2004),and
‘Transitivityparametersandtransitivityalternations:constrainingco-variation’(2006,in
StudiesonCase,ValencyandTransitivity,editedbyKulikov,Malchukov,anddeSwart).He
currentlyparticipates ina project onthetypology ofditransitiveconstructions (withB.
ComrieandM.Haspelmath)andeditsTheHandbookofCase(withA.Spencer).
MarianneMithunisProfessorofLinguisticsatUniversityofCalifornia,SantaBarbara.
Sheisinterestedintypologyandlanguagedescriptionanddifferentaspectsofgrammar.
ShehasworkedwithavarietyofNorthAmericanlanguagesbelongingtotheIroquoian,
Pomoan, Eskimo-Aleut, Athapaskan, Algonquian, and Siouan families, as well as with
AustronesianlanguagessuchasKapampanganandSelayarese.Amonghermanyinfluential
publications is The Languages of Native North America (1999). She currently works on
issuesinlanguagecontactandgrammaticalchange,relationsamongprosody,syntax,and
discourse,aswellasondescriptionsofMohawk,Tuscarora,andCentralPomo.
Johanna Nichols is a Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Litera-
tures at University of California, Berkeley. Her work has focused on language typology,
linguistic prehistory, languages of the Caucasus, and Slavic languages. Her most recent
publicationsincludeseveralcontributionstotheWorldAtlasofLanguageStructures(2005,
edited by Haspelmath et al.), dictionaries of Ingush (2004) and Chechen (2004), and
Notesonthecontributors ix
(withD.A.PetersonandJ.Barnes)‘Transitivizinganddetransitivizinglanguages’(2004,
LinguisticTypology).Her1992bookLinguisticDiversityinSpaceandTimewasawardedthe
LeonardBloomfieldBookAward.
Enrique L. Palancar is Professor of Philology and Linguistics at the Universidad
AutónomadeQuerétaro,Mexico.HeobtainedaPh.D.inPhilologyfromtheUniversidad
Complutense de Madrid, Spain, in the Department of Old Indo-European Languages.
Hismajorresearchinterestsincludelanguagetypology,historicallinguistics,syntax,and
language description. He has a special interest in indigenous languages of Mesoamerica
aswellasoldIndo-Europeanlanguages,andiscurrentlyinvolvedinthedocumentation
ofOtomilanguages.PublicationsincludeTheOriginofAgentMarkers(2002)andseveral
journalarticlesonOtomigrammarandothertopics.
Regina Pustet teaches general and typological linguistics at the University of Munich.
Herresearchactivitieshavefocusedonvariousaspectsoffunctional-typologicallanguage
theory,suchaslexicalcategorization,quantitativediscourseanalysis,comparativeseman-
tics,andgrammaticalization,andincludedescriptivework,especiallyonNativeAmerican
languages.AmongherrecentandforthcomingpublicationsareCopulas:Universalsinthe
CategorizationoftheLexicon(2003)andLakotaTexts (toappear).
David S. Rood is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He
haspublishedgrammarsandtechnicalpapersontwoNativeAmericanlanguages,Lakota
(Siouanfamily)andWichita(Caddoan),andiscurrentlyarchivingdatafromtheseendan-
geredlanguages.Hismostrecentpublicationsdiscussissuesinmorphologicaltheoryraised
bythepolysyntheticstructureofWichita,arguingthatthecompositionofwordsinthis
languagerequiressyntaxinadditiontoinflectionandderivation.
NaomiTsukidaisanAssistantProfessoratAichiPrefecturalUniversity,Japan.Hermain
interestsarelanguagetypologyandAustronesianlanguages.SheworksonFormosanlan-
guages,expeciallySeediq.Recentpublicationsinclude‘Seediq’(2005,inTheAustronesian
LanguagesofAsiaandMadagascar,editedbyAdelaarandHimmelmann)and‘Adverbial
functionofSeediqConveyanceVoiceFutureForm’(2006,inStreamsConvergingintoan
Ocean: Festschrift in Honor of Professor Paul Jen-kuei Li on his 70th Birthday, edited by
Chang,HuangandHo).
Edward J. Vajda is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Center for East Asian
Studies at Western Washington University. His areas of expertise include complex verb
morphologiesandhistorical-comparativelinguistics,withaspecialfocusonthelanguages
of Native Siberia. His current work is primarily devoted to Ket, an endangered isolate
spoken in central Siberia, along with its extinct relatives, which constitute the Yeniseic
family.HeisaneditorofthelinguisticsjournalWord.
MauraVelázquez-CastilloteachesintheDepartmentofForeignLanguagesandCul-
tures, Colorado State University. Her areas of interest include functional/cognitive mor-
phosyntax, semantics, and contact linguistics, with special reference to Guaraní and
Spanish.AmongherpublicationsisTheGrammarofInalienabilityinParaguayanGuaraní
(1996).SheiscurrentlyfinishingavolumeonrepresentativeareasofGuaranímorphosyn-
tax,andisengagedinstudyingtheroleofGuaraníinfluenceonverbalaspectinParaguayan
Spanish.