ENG 3306 Unaccusativity ( 비대격 ) and Ergativity ( 능격 - PowerPoint Presentation

ENG 3306 Unaccusativity ( 비대격 ) and Ergativity ( 능격 )

2 Intransitives so far: John sneezed.

Cognate Objects 3 Normally, intransitives cannot take an object. I dreamed a wonderful dream. I sneezed a terrible sneeze. I yawned myself to sleep. I laughed myself silly. I sighed a huge sigh of relief. cognate objects dummy reflexives resultatives Resultatives require an object: John pounded the metal flat. (=The metal became flat as a result of John pounding it.) John yelled. * John yelled himself. * John yelled hoarse. John yelled himself hoarse.

Cognate Objects 4 Some intransitives can never take a cognate object or a dummy reflexive. * I arrived an exhausting arrival. * I arrived myself exhausted. * I fell an almost fatal fall. * I fell myself almost dead. Let’s call this the arrive-set of verbs.

Existential Constructions 5 Some intransitives can appear in there -type existential constructions (although it is somewhat stilted or literary for some speakers). There arrived several passengers. There fell many leaves. There left several angry travelers.Generally, intransitive verbs cannot do this:*There sneezed several sick children. *There cried several movie-goers at the end of Joy Luck Club.*There laughed a bunch a patrons at the comedy club.Only verbs in the arrive-set can appear in the there-existential construction.

Nominative Locations in Korean 6 In Korean, locations are typically marked with a locative morpheme. 이 공장에서 철수가 일한다 . i kongcang-eyse chulswu-ka il-ha-n-ta DEM factory-LOC Chulsoo-NOM work-do-PRS-DECL ‘Chulsoo works in this factory.’*이 공장이 철수가 일한다. *i kongcang-i chulswu-ka il-ha-n-taDEM factory-NOM Chulsoo-NOM work-do-PRS-DECL(‘Chulsoo works in this factory.’)

Nominative Locations in Korean 7 With verbs from the arrive -set, however, the location can optionally be marked with nominative Case. 이 공장에 불이 났다 . i kongcang-ey pul-i na-ss-taDEM factory-LOC fire-NOM break.out-PST-DECL‘Fire broke out in this factory.’이 공장이 불이 났다. i kongcang-i pul-i na-ss-taDEM factory-NOM fire-NOM break.out-PST-DECL‘Fire broke out in this factory.’

Nuclear Stress 8 Sentences are not uttered with a flat intonation, but have peaks and valleys in terms of stress. In a sentence with no special information structure (focus, emphasis, etc.) the main stress of the sentence (called the nuclear stress ) is on the last element. John stole my bike. JOHN stole my bike…not Mary. – not nuclear stressWith most intransitive verbs, nuclear stress falls on the verb. John sneezed.In passives, the subject receives nuclear stress.My bike was stolen. ‘my bike’ is the underlying object.Curiously, with the arrive-type verbs, the subject receives nuclear stress.The passengers arrived.

Ne -Cliticization in Italian 9 Italian has a partitive clitic that picks out a part of a pre-specified set. ne can only refer to object…not to subject.I ragazzi hanno letto tre librithe.M.PL boys have.3.PL read.PART three books‘The boys have read three books.’ I ragazzi ne hanno letto tre the.M.PL boys NE have.3.PL read.PART three‘The boys have read three of them.’m masculine pl plural3 third person part participle

Ne -Cliticization in Italian 10 ne can only refer to object…not to subject. Tre regazzi hanno letto i libri three boys have read the books ‘Three boys have read the books.’*Ne hanno letto tre i libri NE have read three the books (‘Three of them have read the books.’)*Tre ne hanno letto i libri three NE have read the books(‘Three of them have read the books.’)

Ne -Cliticization in Italian 11 Subject of verbs in the arrive -set can be referenced by ne .Tre uomini sono arrivati.Three men are arrived ‘Three men have arrived.’  Ne sono arrivati tre.NE are arrived three‘Three (of them) have arrived.’

Noun Incorporation Pervasive phenomenon in many languages around the world – very common in polysynthetic languages A noun (often the direct object) appears as a bound root inside the verbal complex.Incorporated form often freely alternates with non-incorporated formIncorporated root is typically bare (no plural marking or determiners) 12

Noun Incorporation Yucatec Mayan tinč’akah če’ t- in- č’ak- Ø- ah če’ COMP- I- chop- it- ASP tree ‘I chopped a tree.’ free-standing word č’akče’nahen č’ak- če’- n- ah- en chop- tree- APASS- ASP- I.ABS ‘I chopped wood.’ incorporated root Yucatec Mayan is a Mayan language spoken by about 700 000 people in Mexico and to a small extent in Belize. It is an SVO language.comp complementizer asp aspectapass antipassive abs absolutive (a kind of case) 13

Noun Incorporation direct object – typically can incorporate subject – typically cannot incorporate Onondagaowiyäˀ wáˀek neˀ ohä:hgwaˀ.o-wiy-äˀ wáˀ-e-k-Ø neˀ o-hähgw-aˀAGR-baby-NFS FACT-3.SG.FEM-eat-PUNC NE AGR-bread-NFS ‘The baby ate the bread.’ owiyäˀ wáˀehä:hgwak. owiyäˀ wáˀ-e-hähgw-a-k-Ø AGR-baby-NFS FACT-3.SG.FEM-bread-EPEN-eat-PUNC‘The baby ate the bread.’ *wáˀewiyak neˀ ohä:hgwaˀ.wáˀ-e-wiy-a-k-Ø neˀ o-hä:hgw-aˀFACT-3.SG.FEM-baby-EPEN-eat-PUNC NE AGR-bread-NFS(‘The baby ate the bread.’) Onondaga is an Iroquoian language spoken by about 100 people in Ontario and New York. Onondaga is a polysynthetic language with relatively free word order.agr agreementnfs noun forming suffixfact factualsg singularfem femininepunc puntualne a kind of determinerepen epenthetic vowel 14

Noun Incorporation Unsurprisingly, the subject of an intransitive such as cough cannot be incorporated.waˀhasáˀgaˀ hę́:gweˀwaˀ-ha-saˀk-aˀ hękwe ˀ FACT-3.SG.M.NOM-cough-PUNC man ‘The man coughed.’ *waˀhǫgwesáˀgaˀ waˀ-ha-ǫgwe-saˀk-aˀFACT-3.SG.M.NOM-man-cough-PUNC(‘The man couged.’) 15

Noun Incorporation What’s interesting is that some verbs allows incorporation of the subject. ohahaná:węh o- ahah- a- nawę- h3.SG.NT.ACC- road- EPEN- wet- STAT ‘The road is wet.’ Thus, for a set of intransitive verbs, the subject behaves as an object with respect to noun incorporation.This set of verbs is very similar to the arrive-set discussed above. 16

Cognate Objects in Cantonese 17 Cognate objects are optional in English: John slept (the sleep of the dead). Cognate objects are obligatory in Cantonese: 瞓覺 畫畫fan3 gaau3 waak6 wa2sleep sleep draw drawing ‘to sleep’ ‘to draw’There is a set of verbs for which cognates objects are not available:去 嚟heoi3 lei6go arrive‘to go’ ‘to arrive’Again, this set of verbs is very similar to the arrive-set discussed above.

Auxiliary Selection 18 To form the present or past perfect, the auxiliary have is used in many languages. English French Italian German I have eaten. J’ai mangé ho mangiato Ich habe gegessen I have eaten have.1SG eaten I have eaten ‘I have eaten.’ ‘I have eaten.’ ‘I have eaten.’In French, Italian, and German, a restricted set of verbs form the perfect with be rather than with have. Je suis arrivé sono arrivato Ich bin angekommen I am arrived be.1SG arrived I am arrived ‘I have arrived.’ ‘I have arrived.’ ‘I have arrived.’This was once productive in English:Joy to the world, the Lord is come! – popular Christmas carol

Auxiliary Selection 19 Old English: Se halga fæder wæs in agan the holy father was in gone ‘The holy father had gone in.’ We wæron gecumene we were come‘We had come.’ Up-resyne es a sowdaneup-risen is a sultan‘A sultan has arisen.’

Auxiliary Selection 20 Other verb forms use be instead of have ; namely passives (in German and Italian). Ich habe den Apfel gegessen Der Apfel ist gegessen wordenI have the apple eaten the apple is eaten become‘I have eaten the apple.’ ‘The apple has been eaten.’Thus, when the direct object is passivized, becoming the subject, be is used as an auxiliary rather than have .Recall that verbs of the arrive-set always use be has an auxiliary.Thus, the subjects of passives and the subjects of the arrive-set have something in common  they both trigger the use of the auxiliary be.

Agreement on Participles 21 There is agreement on the past participle in French and Italian when the direct object appears to the left of the participle. J’ai mangé la pomme. Je l’ai mangé-e I have eaten the.FEM apple I it.FEM have eaten-FEM ‘I have eaten the apple.’ ‘I have eaten it.’ Verbs of the arrive-set also show agreement on the participle. Marie est arrivé-eMarie is arrived-FEM‘Mary has arrived.’Again, the subject of an arrive-type verb and the direct object have something in common – they both trigger agreement on the past participle.

Summary arrive -set standard intransitivesne-cliticization: available to subjects not available to subjectsnormally available onlyto objectsnoun incorporation: available to subjects not available to subjectsnormally available onlyto objectscognate objects:English unavailable optionalCantonese unavailable obligatory Auxiliary selection: be have Participle agreement: yes no normally with preceding direct object 22

Summary arrive -set standard intransitivesthere-expletives: available not availablenuclear stress: on subject on verbfound on last elementexcept in passives 23

Review of Passives 24 A passive construction consists of an underlying object that has been raised to subject position: Mary ate the apple. The apple was eaten (by Mary). I saw him. He was seen (by me). Recall the role of v (aka ‘little v’)v introduces the subject (aka the external argument) v assigns accusative Case to the direct objectA passive lacks both an external argument and accusative Case.These two facts are captured by assuming that passives lack v.

25 Burzio’s Generalization: A verb which lacks an external argument (subject) fails to assign accusative Case. A verb which fails to assign accusative Case fails to θ -mark an external argument (subject). Such verbs are unaccusative .Standard intransitives are called unergative.arrive is a prototypical unaccusative. single argument of arrive is an internal argument (object)no vP  no accusative Case, single argument must raise to get nominative Case

26 Three men arrived. There arrived three men.

27 What does v assign accusative Case to in unergatives? John coughed. Sometimes cognate object is present (optional in English, obligatory in Cantonese)  assigns Case to cognate object.If cognate object is absent, assume an empty cognate object???empty verb takes bare noun as complement: VP V N | coughtwo types of v: vtrans and vintrans

28 Psycholinguistic evidence for unaccusatives Lexical decision task: Are the following items words in English? dog house ballet blick ftorkdog, house  quickly determined to be real words (common)ballet  longer reaction time (rarer word)ftork  short reaction time (not a possible word) blick  longer reaction time (possible word, but doesn’t exist)Rare words are semantically primed by similar words:dancerballet  now has faster reaction time

29 Psycholinguistic evidence for unaccusatives Semantic priming effects found at extraction sites: The dancer was awarded t a prize yesterday. The dancer won a prize yesterday. Semantic priming effects recently found on unaccusatives.The dancer arrived yesterday. green dot – semantic priming effects found red dot – no semantic priming effects found

30 John broke the vase. The vase broke. “causative” “inchoative” “The vase” has the same theta-role in both sentences…<patient>…the thing that got broken.

31 The travellers arrived yesterday. John was told that the cat shattered the window in the kitchen. John was told that the window in the kitchen shattered. It appears that the chair in the kitchen broke.

32 John laughed. John is the S UBJECT John kicked the wall. John is the A GENT ; the wall is the P ATIENT He laughed. He kicked the wall. John kicked him. John1 kicked the wall and he1/2 laughed. John1 kicked the wall and __1/*2 laughed.he can refer to John or to someone else.empty subject can only refer to John.If the nominative arguments are identical, the second one can be dropped.

33 Dyirbal (spoken in Australia) Absolutive arguments must be identical for second one to be dropped.

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35 Passive subject is demoted to by -phrase or is absent object is promoted to subject (usually direct object) John kicked the wall. The wall was kicked (by John).Antipassive ergative argument becomes absolutive argument in an intransitive constructionabsolutive of transitive demoted to “oblique” or is absent.Dyirbal

36 Ergative-absolutive languages typically have both passives and antipassives. Nominative-accusative languages usually have only passives. Closest equivalent in English: John shot the bear. John shot at the bear. John ate the forbidden fruit. John ate of the forbidden fruit.highly restricted and lexically idiosyncraticGeorgian: What kind of Case system does Georgian have? /-i/ – absolutive Case marker /-ma/ – ergative Case marker

37 Chukchi (Chukotko–Kamchatkan): əllʔa puture-ɣʔi-ø mother.(ABS.SG) sing-3SG.S-PAST ‘The mother sang a song’ əllʔa-ta puture-nin-ø nenenə mother-ERG dance-3SG.S/3SG.O-PAST child.(ABS.SG) ‘The mother danced for the child.’ʔətt-e piri-nin-ø melota-lɣəndog-ERG catch-3SG.S/3SG.O-PAST hare-ABS.SG‘The dog caught the hare.’ʔətt-ə-n milute-piri-ɣʔi-ødog-E-ABS.SG hare-catch-3SG.S-PAST‘The dog caught a hare.’

38 Tree Practice Were those leaves eaten in the park by bugs? Did you tell Bill that the thieves left with our new TV? (leave is unaccusative) It seems that those apples were stolen from the supermarket.