The rise and fall of ergativity in Aramaic. Cycles of alignment change

404 Pages·2016·2.17 MB·English

by  Coghill

The Rise and Fall of Ergativity in Aramaic
OXFORDSTUDIES IN DIACHRONICANDHISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
GENERAL EDITORS: AdamLedgewayandIanRoberts,UniversityofCambridge
ADVISORY EDITORS: CynthiaAllen,AustralianNationalUniversity;RicardoBermúdez-
Otero, University of Manchester; Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge;
CharlotteGalves,UniversityofCampinas;GeoffHorrocks,UniversityofCambridge;
Paul Kiparsky, Stanford University; Anthony Kroch, University of Pennsylvania;
DavidLightfoot,GeorgetownUniversity;GiuseppeLongobardi,UniversityofYork;
GeorgeWalkden,UniversityofManchester;DavidWillis,UniversityofCambridge
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TheRiseandFallofErgativityinAramaic
CyclesofAlignmentChange
EleanorCoghill
The Rise and Fall of
Ergativity in Aramaic
Cycles of Alignment Change
ELEANOR COGHILL
1
3
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Contents
Seriespreface xi
Acknowledgements xii
Listofmapsandtables xiv
Abbreviationsandglosses xvi
 Introduction 
 Alignment 
. Alignmentofverbalarguments 
.. Syntacticalignment 
.. Semantic/Split-Salignment 
.. Manifestationofalignment 
. Pathwaysofalignmentchange 
.. Introduction 
.. Accusative>ergative 
.. Ergative>accusative 
.. Tense-conditionedalignmentarisingvianewconstructions 
.. Shiftfromtense-conditionedtoconsistentalignment 
.. Accusative>semanticalignmentviademotion/suppression
ofagent 
.. Accusative>semanticalignmentviaextension 
.. Ergative>semanticalignmentviademotion/suppression
ofobject 
.. Similaritiesanddifferencesbetweenthepathwaysfrom
syntactictosemanticalignment 
.. Semantic>syntactic(accusativeorergative)alignment 
.. Reconstructingalignmentchangeonthebasisofmarkedness 
.. Processesinvolvedinalignmentchange 
.. Theroleoflanguagecontact 
. Thedevelopmentoftense-conditionedergativityinAramaic,Iranian,
andIndic 
. Afullcycleofalignmentchange 
viii Contents
 Aramaic 
. HistoricalstagesofAramaic 
. MorphosyntactictypologyofAramaic 
.. Root-and-patternsystem 
.. Argumentmarking 
.. Wordorder 
.. Nominalmorphology 
 AlignmentinEasternNeo-Aramaicdialects 
. Overview 
. Dialectswithonlyaccusativealignment 
.. Definition 
.. Dialectswithfullinversionofsubject/objectindexes 
.. DialectswhichonlyallowS-suffixobjectsinthethirdperson
ornotatall 
.. Summary 
. JewishSouth-EasternTrans-Zabdialects 
.. Definition 
.. Alignmentinargumentindexes 
.. Semantic/Split-Salignment 
. Excursus:IstheresyntacticergativityinNENA? 
.. Indexation 
.. Coreferentiality 
.. Wordorder 
.. Controlofreflexives 
.. Relativization 
.. Summary 
. Dialectswithnon-accusativealignmentintheperfect 
.. Definition 
.. JewishSETrans-Zabdialectswithnon-accusativeperfect 
.. Non-SETrans-Zabdialectswithatransitive/intransitive
distinctionintheperfect 
.. Summary 
. ṬuroyoNeo-Aramaic 
.. Alignmentinargumentindexes 
.. Alignmentinargumentmarkingonnounphrases 
.. AbsenceofergativealignmentelsewhereintheṬuroyoGroup 
. Split-S/semanticalignmentinNENA,Ṭuroyo,andbeyond 
. AlignmentpatternsinNENAandṬuroyoargumentindexes 
Contents ix
 TheverbalsystemandalignmentinearlierEasternAramaic 
. Predicationandtense–aspect–mood(TAM)categories 
. Alignment 
. ThemorphosyntaxoftheQtịlliconstructioninLate
EasternAramaic 
.. Patientmarking 
.. Agentmarking 
.. Theroleofinformationstructureinagentexpression 
.. OthersyntacticbehaviourofQtịlli 
.. Tense–aspect–mood(TAM)valuesofQtịlli 
 TheoriginanddevelopmentoftheQtịlliconstruction 
. Introduction 
. InfluenceofIranianlanguages 
. Qtịlli:Fromapossessiveconstruction? 
. Linktoperfectaspect 
. PossessiveversusPassiveTheory 
. Passive+ExperiencerDativeTheory 
. ExperiencerDativeversusPossessiveTheory 
. l-markinganothersemanticrolewithnon-experientialverbs 
. Qtịlliandpassivity 
.. Claimsastothepassivenatureoftheconstructionat
variousdiachronicstages 
.. IsNENAQtə̣ llipassive? 
.. IsLateAramaicQtịllipassive? 
.. DoesQtịlliresultfromthereanalysisofapassiveplusagent? 
. OriginofQtịlli:Summary 
. ReconstructingthedevelopmentofQtịlli 
.. Reanalysisofl-asagentmarker 
.. Qtịllitakesoverasthegeneralpastperfective 
.. DevelopmentofpersonindexesonthePresentand
PastBases 
.. Thedisappearanceinmostdialectsofergativeflaggingof
nounphrases 
. l-asmarkeroffocusedagentinNENA 
. ThefateofQtịlliinNeo-Mandaic 
. Roleoflanguagecontactandthelinguisticarea 
. Summaryofthedevelopmentoftense-conditionedergativityin
EasternAramaic 