John Benjamins Publishing Company
On the non-canonical marking of the highest-ranking argument in Lithuanian and Icelandic
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Abstract
This paper is a first report on an ongoing project aiming at building up a database of non-canonical argument marking in Lithuanian in contrast to other languages with relatively rich systems of morphological cases. The language with which we begin the comparison is Icelandic. The overarching aim consists not only in a unified inventorisation of relevant units, but in disclosing (i) regularities in the alternation of coding patterns and (ii) the factors underlying such variation. We will concentrate on case marking; this however implies agreement patterns as well, insofar as in these two languages only nominatival NPs trigger agreement on the finite verb (= predicate of the clause). We further concentrate on verbs with non-canonical marking of their highest-ranking argument (HRA); the notion of HRA is defined on the basis of the Actor-Undergoer Hierarchy as developed in Role & Reference Grammar (see 2.1). What we present here is not yet a comprehensive description of the whole body of data, but rather a problem paper which details some conceptual issues and highlights some prominent types of argument coding and their relation to lexical groups.
Abstract
This paper is a first report on an ongoing project aiming at building up a database of non-canonical argument marking in Lithuanian in contrast to other languages with relatively rich systems of morphological cases. The language with which we begin the comparison is Icelandic. The overarching aim consists not only in a unified inventorisation of relevant units, but in disclosing (i) regularities in the alternation of coding patterns and (ii) the factors underlying such variation. We will concentrate on case marking; this however implies agreement patterns as well, insofar as in these two languages only nominatival NPs trigger agreement on the finite verb (= predicate of the clause). We further concentrate on verbs with non-canonical marking of their highest-ranking argument (HRA); the notion of HRA is defined on the basis of the Actor-Undergoer Hierarchy as developed in Role & Reference Grammar (see 2.1). What we present here is not yet a comprehensive description of the whole body of data, but rather a problem paper which details some conceptual issues and highlights some prominent types of argument coding and their relation to lexical groups.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Argument marking and grammatical relations in Baltic 1
- Case and word order in Lithuanian infinitival clauses revisited 43
- Non-canonical grammatical relations in a modal construction 97
- Alternations in argument realization and problematic cases of subjecthood in Lithuanian 137
- Subjecthood in specificational copular constructions in Lithuanian 181
- Differential object marking in Latgalian 207
- The independent partitive genitive in Lithuanian 257
- On the non-canonical marking of the highest-ranking argument in Lithuanian and Icelandic 301
- Language index 363
- Name index 365
- Subject index 367
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Argument marking and grammatical relations in Baltic 1
- Case and word order in Lithuanian infinitival clauses revisited 43
- Non-canonical grammatical relations in a modal construction 97
- Alternations in argument realization and problematic cases of subjecthood in Lithuanian 137
- Subjecthood in specificational copular constructions in Lithuanian 181
- Differential object marking in Latgalian 207
- The independent partitive genitive in Lithuanian 257
- On the non-canonical marking of the highest-ranking argument in Lithuanian and Icelandic 301
- Language index 363
- Name index 365
- Subject index 367
