Samenvatting
In this article, as a follow-up of Rojas-Berscia and Bourdeau (2017), we study
morphological ergativity in Shawi (Kawapanan) using a dedicated experimental
design. Shawi displays ergative-marking in an opposite direction from Silverstein’s
Nominal Hierarchy (NH) (Silverstein 1976). We claim this pattern to be antifunctional,
given the lack of internal syntactic cues that explain why ergativity is omitted or
completely obligatory in cases where the NH predicts the opposite.
To test this hypothesis, we carried out a grammaticality judgment experiment in the
field with 47 Shawi participants from four sites. We found a significant overall effect of
the Antifunctional Ergativity Constraint Expectation (AECE): sentences that violated
this constraint were in general deemed less acceptable. Finally, we provide a tentative
hypothesis on the historical origin of this pattern, resorting to discussions on the
origins of ergativity in historical syntax (Gildea 2004; Gildea and Queixalós 2010),
the reconstruction of Proto-Kawapanan morphosyntax, and antifunctional patterns in
language (Seuren and Hamans 2010).
morphological ergativity in Shawi (Kawapanan) using a dedicated experimental
design. Shawi displays ergative-marking in an opposite direction from Silverstein’s
Nominal Hierarchy (NH) (Silverstein 1976). We claim this pattern to be antifunctional,
given the lack of internal syntactic cues that explain why ergativity is omitted or
completely obligatory in cases where the NH predicts the opposite.
To test this hypothesis, we carried out a grammaticality judgment experiment in the
field with 47 Shawi participants from four sites. We found a significant overall effect of
the Antifunctional Ergativity Constraint Expectation (AECE): sentences that violated
this constraint were in general deemed less acceptable. Finally, we provide a tentative
hypothesis on the historical origin of this pattern, resorting to discussions on the
origins of ergativity in historical syntax (Gildea 2004; Gildea and Queixalós 2010),
the reconstruction of Proto-Kawapanan morphosyntax, and antifunctional patterns in
language (Seuren and Hamans 2010).
| Originele taal-2 | Engels |
|---|---|
| Pagina's (van-tot) | 17-55 |
| Aantal pagina's | 39 |
| Tijdschrift | Revista Brasileira de Linguistica Antropológica |
| Volume | 15 |
| DOI's | |
| Status | Gepubliceerd - jun. 2023 |