On the syntax of ergativity ın Kurdish
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Yadgar Karimi
Abstract
This paper is an attempt to develop an analysis of ergativity syntax, focusing on the past transitive structures in Kurdish where ergativity manifests itself. Adducing evidence from a diverse array of structures that share formal characteristics with the past transitive structure in Kurdish, I will argue that ergativity emerges in transitive structures where (a) the transitive verb, subcategorizing for a complement DP, is defective in terms of accusative case assignment (i.e. unaccusative) and (b) the external argument, i.e. the subject DP, is licensed as the specifier of a high applicative head that takes vP as its complement. Thus analyzed, ergativity is construed as a natural computational corollary deriving from the interaction of independently motivated operations of the narrow syntax.
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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- Evidence for minimal pairs in Turkish Sign Language (TİD)
- On the syntax of ergativity ın Kurdish
- Targets, triggers, and directionality in non-local and local place assimilation in child and adult language
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Articles in the same Issue
- Evidence for minimal pairs in Turkish Sign Language (TİD)
- On the syntax of ergativity ın Kurdish
- Targets, triggers, and directionality in non-local and local place assimilation in child and adult language
- Grammaticalization of causatives and passives and their recent development into stance markers in Korean
- Probabilistic tree-generating binary grammars
- Colour word Stroop test in Polish learners of English: No evidence that L2 proficiency matters
