Chapter 9. Zero-marking or nothing to mark?
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William B. McGregor
Abstract
Gooniyandi (Bunuban, Kimberley, north-west Australia), according to McGregor (1990a), has an ergative case-marker. Unusually, McGregor’s grammar does not identify a corresponding zero absolutive case-marker or case; nor does it discuss why there is none. This paper rectifies this lacuna and outlines the evidence against the recognition of an absolutive case-marker. The arguments concern both evidence for the absence of an absolutive case-marker, and absence of evidence for one. Thus it is possible to find ergativity in a grammatical subsystem of a language without corresponding absolutivity. I discuss some implications for the typology of ergativity, and examine conditions under which it is viable to identify an absolutive case and/or case-marker.
Abstract
Gooniyandi (Bunuban, Kimberley, north-west Australia), according to McGregor (1990a), has an ergative case-marker. Unusually, McGregor’s grammar does not identify a corresponding zero absolutive case-marker or case; nor does it discuss why there is none. This paper rectifies this lacuna and outlines the evidence against the recognition of an absolutive case-marker. The arguments concern both evidence for the absence of an absolutive case-marker, and absence of evidence for one. Thus it is possible to find ergativity in a grammatical subsystem of a language without corresponding absolutivity. I discuss some implications for the typology of ergativity, and examine conditions under which it is viable to identify an absolutive case and/or case-marker.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- General acknowledgments vii
- Introduction. Reconnecting form and meaning 1
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Section 1. Information structure
- Chapter 1. On the use of there -clefts with zero subject relativizer 17
- Chapter 2. Impersonal passives in English and Norwegian 45
- Chapter 3. Atopicality as the unmarked logical structure in Scottish Gaelic 71
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Section 2. Usage-based approaches to grammar and the lexicon
- Chapter 4. On the rise of a marker of disaffiliation from Others’ discourse 99
- Chapter 5. Towards a radically usage-based account of constructional attrition 123
- Chapter 6. The compound pronouns someone / somebody and everyone / everybody in present-day spoken English 145
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Section 3. Theoretical issues in functional linguistics
- Chapter 7. Iconicity in spatial deixis 185
- Chapter 8. A cognitive-functional approach to watch as a verb of perception 209
- Chapter 9. Zero-marking or nothing to mark? 237
- Chapter 10. Enation and agnation in multi-level models 267
- Author index 299
- Language index 301
- Subject index 303
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- General acknowledgments vii
- Introduction. Reconnecting form and meaning 1
-
Section 1. Information structure
- Chapter 1. On the use of there -clefts with zero subject relativizer 17
- Chapter 2. Impersonal passives in English and Norwegian 45
- Chapter 3. Atopicality as the unmarked logical structure in Scottish Gaelic 71
-
Section 2. Usage-based approaches to grammar and the lexicon
- Chapter 4. On the rise of a marker of disaffiliation from Others’ discourse 99
- Chapter 5. Towards a radically usage-based account of constructional attrition 123
- Chapter 6. The compound pronouns someone / somebody and everyone / everybody in present-day spoken English 145
-
Section 3. Theoretical issues in functional linguistics
- Chapter 7. Iconicity in spatial deixis 185
- Chapter 8. A cognitive-functional approach to watch as a verb of perception 209
- Chapter 9. Zero-marking or nothing to mark? 237
- Chapter 10. Enation and agnation in multi-level models 267
- Author index 299
- Language index 301
- Subject index 303
