<OT> New Posting: ROA-874

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 874-1006

Typological Variation in the Ergative Morphology of Indo-Aryan Languages

Ashwini Deo <ashwini.deo at yale.edu>
Devyani Sharma <devyani.sharma at kcl.ac.uk>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=874


Abstract:
While New Indo-Aryan languages are a common example of morphologi
cal ergativity, the range of variation in ergative marking
and agreement among these languages has not been examined
in detail.  The goals of this paper are twofold.  We first
present a typology of ergative marking and agreement in
Indo-Aryan languages, demonstrating that a progressive loss
of ergative marking has occurred to varying degrees in different
systems.  This process is manifested in two distinct strategies
of markedness reduction: loss of overt subject marking in
the nominal domain and loss of marked agreement in the verbal
domain.  Using the framework of Optimality Theory (OT; Prince
& Smolensky 1993), we account for the typology in terms
of universal subhierarchies of markedness (Aissen 1999;
Woolford 2001). Extending the analysis to dialect variation
in one language, Marathi, we show that the dialect typology
parallels the  cross-linguistic typology, but only within
the range permitted by changes already present in the parent
language (Old Marathi). Furthermore, the dialect typology
includes additional hybrid case-agreement systems predicted
by our analysis.

Comments: To appear in Linguistic Typology
Keywords: Indo-Aryan languages, typology, ergativity, agreement, Optimality Theory, syntax
Areas: Syntax, Typology
Type: Journal Article

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=874