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3 - Why Ergative Case Requires Structure in Basque and Ch’ol

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2022

Andrew Nevins
Andrew Nevins
Affiliation:
University College London and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
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Summary

In this chapter, two languages spoken far apart from one another – Basque and Ch’ol – jointly show that once one considers sentences expressed in the progressive aspect, the entire theory of ergative case as lexically determined begins to unravel. In particular, verbs that are not supposed to be lexically assign ergative end up with ergative-marked subjects (and vice versa) as a result of the larger clausal structure. Ergative case cannot solely be chalked up to a semantic encoding of agentivity or volitionality of the predicates involved. It is the details of the structure wrought around such predicates that will predestine their arguments to be ergative or not.

Keywords

BasqueCh'olergative casealignmentraising-to-ergativeprogressive aspect
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Chapter
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When Minoritized Languages Change Linguistic Theory , pp. 26 - 41
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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