Chapter 6. From ergative case-marking to hierarchical agreement
-
Antoine Guillaume
Abstract
This paper reconstructs the history of a set of innovated 1st and 2nd person verbal prefixes in Reyesano which manifest the phenomenon of ‘hierarchical agreement’ in transitive clauses, according to a 2>1>3 hierarchy. I argue that these prefixes come from independent ergative-absolutive pronouns which first became case-neutral enclitics in 2nd position in main clauses and then verb prefixes. And I show that the hierarchical effects that the prefixes manifest in synchrony have nothing to do with the working of a hierarchy during the grammaticalization process. In doing so, the paper contributes to the growing body of diachronic evidence against the idea that the person hierarchy is a universal of human language reflecting a more general principal of human cognition.
Abstract
This paper reconstructs the history of a set of innovated 1st and 2nd person verbal prefixes in Reyesano which manifest the phenomenon of ‘hierarchical agreement’ in transitive clauses, according to a 2>1>3 hierarchy. I argue that these prefixes come from independent ergative-absolutive pronouns which first became case-neutral enclitics in 2nd position in main clauses and then verb prefixes. And I show that the hierarchical effects that the prefixes manifest in synchrony have nothing to do with the working of a hierarchy during the grammaticalization process. In doing so, the paper contributes to the growing body of diachronic evidence against the idea that the person hierarchy is a universal of human language reflecting a more general principal of human cognition.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Part I. Setting the stage
- Synchronic vs. diachronic approaches to typological hierarchies 3
-
Part II. Foundational issues
- Chapter 1. Evolutionary Phonology and the life cycle of voiceless sonorants 31
- Chapter 2. The Obligatory Coding Principle in diachronic perspective 59
- Chapter 3. Deconstructing teleology 111
-
Part III. Hierarchical effects and their origins
- Chapter 4. The development of referential hierarchy effects in Sahaptian 131
- Chapter 5. Diachrony and the referential hierarchy in Old Irish 191
- Chapter 6. From ergative case-marking to hierarchical agreement 217
- Chapter 7. The direction(s) of analogical change in direct/inverse systems 257
- Chapter 8. Are the Tupi-Guarani hierarchical indexing systems really motivated by the person hierarchy? 289
- Chapter 9. Incipient hierarchical alignment in four Central Salish languages from the Proto-Salish middle 309
-
Part IV. Conflicting hierarchical patterns and how to deal with them
- Chapter 10. Deictic and sociopragmatic effects in Tibeto-Burman SAP indexation 345
- Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic coding of proper names and its implications for the Animacy Hierarchy 377
- Chapter 12. Generic person marking in Japhug and other Gyalrong languages 403
- Author index 425
- Language Index 429
- Subject Index 433
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Part I. Setting the stage
- Synchronic vs. diachronic approaches to typological hierarchies 3
-
Part II. Foundational issues
- Chapter 1. Evolutionary Phonology and the life cycle of voiceless sonorants 31
- Chapter 2. The Obligatory Coding Principle in diachronic perspective 59
- Chapter 3. Deconstructing teleology 111
-
Part III. Hierarchical effects and their origins
- Chapter 4. The development of referential hierarchy effects in Sahaptian 131
- Chapter 5. Diachrony and the referential hierarchy in Old Irish 191
- Chapter 6. From ergative case-marking to hierarchical agreement 217
- Chapter 7. The direction(s) of analogical change in direct/inverse systems 257
- Chapter 8. Are the Tupi-Guarani hierarchical indexing systems really motivated by the person hierarchy? 289
- Chapter 9. Incipient hierarchical alignment in four Central Salish languages from the Proto-Salish middle 309
-
Part IV. Conflicting hierarchical patterns and how to deal with them
- Chapter 10. Deictic and sociopragmatic effects in Tibeto-Burman SAP indexation 345
- Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic coding of proper names and its implications for the Animacy Hierarchy 377
- Chapter 12. Generic person marking in Japhug and other Gyalrong languages 403
- Author index 425
- Language Index 429
- Subject Index 433