This paper presents a case study of what we will call ergative/nominative paradoxes, which we claim are found in the Tsimshianic language family, but which are possibly found in other languages as well. Such paradoxes are said to arise when both nominative and ergative morphology is simultaneously indexed or related to the same subject. Although these languages manifest this subject marking paradox in different ways, we conjecture that the paradox itself is the result of an ergative system decaying into an accusative one, and that one strategy for languages to relieve the pressure of such a paradox is to develop new paradigms of differential subject marking.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anderson, S.R. (1977). On mechanisms by which languages become ergative. Mechanisms of syntactic change. Ed. by C.N. Li. Austin: University of Texas Press, 317-363.
Beck, D. (2002). Tsimshianic from a Central Northwest areal perspective: I*. ICSNL XXXVII: The Thirty-Seventh International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. Ed. by C. Gillon, N. Sawai and R. Wojdak. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics (UBCWPL), 35-60.
Bittner, M. and K. Hale (1996). Ergativity: toward a theory of heterogenous class. Linguistic Inquiry 27, 531-604.
Blake, B.J. (2001). Case (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Boas, F. (1911). Tsimshian. Handbook of American Indian languages, Bulletin No. 40, Pt. I, 287-422.
Cabral, A.S. (2001). Observações sobre a história do morfema -a de família Tupí-Guaraní.’ Des noms et des verbes en tupi-guarani: état de la question. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 37. Ed. by F. Queixalós. LINCOM EUROPA, 135-162.
Comrie, B. (1978). Ergativity. Syntactic Typology. Ed. by W. Lehmann. Austin: University of Texas Press, 329-94.
Davis, H. (1999). Subject inflection in Salish. UBCWPL volume 1, current research on language and linguistics. Ed. by M.Caldecott, S. Gessner and E. Kim, 181-240.
Dixon, R.M.W. (1994). Ergativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dryer, M. (1986). Primary objects, secondary objects, and antidative. Language 62, 808-845.
Dunn, J.A. (1979a). A Reference Grammar for the Coast Tsimshian Language. Canadian Ethnology Service, Mercury Series Paper No. 55. Ottawa: National Museum of Man.
Dunn, J.A. (1979b). Tsimshian Connectives. International Journal of American Linguistics 45, 131-140.
Dunn, J.A. (1990). The government of oblique/local grammatical relations in Lower Tsimshian. Handout from a paper presented at Conference on American Indigenous Languages, New Orleans, 1990.
Franchetto, B. (1990). Ergativity and nominativity in Kuikúro and other Carib languages. Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages. Ed. by D.L. Payne. Austin: University of Texas Press, 407-427.
Galloway, B. (1980). The Structure of Upriver Halkomelem, A Grammatical Sketch and Classified Word List for Upriver Halkomelem. Sardis (B.C.): Coqualeetza Education Training Center.
Galloway, B. (1993). A grammar of Upriver Halkomelem. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gerdts, D.B. (1988). Object and absolutive in Halkomelem Salish. New York: Garland.
Hale, K.L. (1982). Some essential features of Warlpiri verbal clauses. Working Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics - Australian Aborigines Branch. A6, 217-315.
Hopper, P. and E. Traugott (2000). Grammaticalization (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hunt, K. (1993). Clause Structure, Agreement, and Case in Gitksan. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of British Columbia.
Jacobs, R.A. (1976). A passive continuum in Austronesian. Papers from the parasession on diachronic syntax. Ed. by S.B. Steever, C.A. Walker and S.S. Mufwene. Chicago Linguistic Society, 118-125.
Koch, K.A. (2005). Double subject marking in NÅeɁkepmxcin. Papers for the fortieth International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. (UBCWPL) vol. 16, 125-139.
Kroeber, P. (1999). The Salish language family: reconstructing syntax. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Mel’cuk, I.A. (1986). Toward a definition of case. Case in Slavic. Ed. by R.D. Brecht and J.S. Levine. Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 35-85.
Mulder, J. (1994). Ergativity in Coast Tsimshian Sm’algyax. University of California Publications in Linguistics 124. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Murasugi, K. (1992). Crossing and nested paths: NP movement in accusative and ergative languages. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Payne, J.R. (1979). Transitivity and intransitivity in the Iranian languages of the U.S.S.R. The Elements: A Parasession on Linguistic Units and Levels. Ed. by P.R. Clyne, W.F. Hanks and C.L. Hofbauer Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society, 436-447.
Peterson, T. (2004). The (Re)organization of Semantic Roles in Tsimshian Connectives’ ICSNL XXXIX: Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. Ed. by J.C. Brown and T. Peterson. Vancouver: UBCWPL, 323-340.
Peterson, T. (2003). Issues of Morphological Ergativity in the Tsimshian Languages: Determiners, Agreement and the Reconstruction of Case. Case, Valency and Transitivity in Studies in Language Companion Series 77. Ed. by L. Kulikov, A. Malchukov and P. de Swart. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 65-90.
Rigsby, B. (1986). Gitksan Grammar. Ms, University of Queensland.
Rigsby, B. (1989). A Later View of Gitksan Syntax. General and Amerindian Ethnolinguistics. Ed. by M. R. Key and H. Hoenigswald. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 245-260.
Rodrigues, A. (2001). Sobre a Natureza do Caso Argumentativo. Des noms et des verbes en tupi-guarani: état de la question. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 37. Ed. by F. Queixalós. LINCOM EUROPA, 135-162.
Stebbins, T. (2001). Sm’algyax. Grammatical sketch prepared for the Research Center for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University.
Stebbins, T. (2003). Fighting language endangerment: community directed research on Sm'algyax (Coast Tsimshian). Osaka: The Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim Project.
Tarpent, M.-L. (1982). Ergative and accusative: A single representation of grammatical relations with evidence from Nishga. Working Papers of the Linguistic Circle of Victoria 2/1, 50-106.
Tarpent, M.-L. (1987). A Grammar of the Nisgha Language. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Victoria.
Tarpent. M.-L. (1988). Below the surface of Nisgha syntax: arguments and adjuncts. Paper presented at the International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages.
Timberlake, A. (1977). Reanalysis and actualization in syntactic change. Mechanisms of syntactic change. Ed. by C.N. Li, 141-177.
Trask, R.L. (1979). On the origins of Ergativity. Ergativity: Towards a theory of grammatical relations. Ed. by F. Plank, 385-404.
Ura, H. (2000). Checking theory and grammatical functions in generative grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wiltschko, M. (2000). Is Halkomelem (split) ergative? Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. Mount Currie, BC, 249-268.
Wiltschko, M. (2006). On ergativity in Halkomelem (and how to split and derive it). A. Johns, D. Massam and J. Ndayiragije. Ergativity: Emerging Issues. Dordrecht: Springer, 197-228.
Woolford, E. (2000). Ergative agreement systems. University of Maryland Working Papers in Linguistics 10, 157-191.
Woolford, E. (2001). Case patterns. Optimality-Theoretic Syntax. Ed. by G. Legendre et al. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brown, J., Peterson, T. (2009). Grammaticalization and Strategies in Resolving Subject Marking Paradoxes: The Case of Tsimshianic. In: de Hoop, H., de Swart, P. (eds) Differential Subject Marking. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, vol 72. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6497-5_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6497-5_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6498-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6497-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)