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dc.contributor.authorDeal, Amy Rose
dc.date.accessioned2010-06-28T12:34:50Z
dc.date.issued2010
dc.identifier.citationDeal, Amy Rose. 2010. Ergative case and the transitive subject: A view from Nez Perce. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 28(1): 73-120.en_US
dc.identifier.issn0167-806Xen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4263737
dc.description.abstractErgative case, the special case of transitive subjects, raises questions not only for the theory of case but also for theories of subjecthood and transitivity. This paper analyzes the case system of Nez Perce, a ”three-way ergative” language, with an eye towards a formalization of the category of transitive subject. I show that it is object agreement that is determinative of transitivity, and hence of ergative case, in Nez Perce. I further show that the transitivity condition on ergative case must be coupled with a criterion of subjecthood that makes reference to participation in subject agreement, not just to origin in a high argument-structural position. These two results suggest a formalization of the transitive subject as that argument uniquely accessing both high and low agreement information, the former through its (agreement-derived) connection with T and the latter through its origin in the specifier of a head associated with object agreement (v). In view of these findings, I argue that ergative case morphology should be analyzed not as the expression of a syntactic primitive but as the morphological spell-out of subject agreement and object agreement on a nominal.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipLinguisticsen_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherSpringer Verlagen_US
dc.relation.isversionofdoi:10.1007/s11049-009-9081-5en_US
dash.licenseLAA
dc.subjectNez Perceen_US
dc.subjectergativityen_US
dc.subjecttransitivityen_US
dc.subjectcaseen_US
dc.subjectagreementen_US
dc.subjectanaphor agreement effecten_US
dc.subjectSahaptinen_US
dc.titleErgative Case and the Transitive Subject: A View from Nez Perceen_US
dc.typeJournal Articleen_US
dc.description.versionAccepted Manuscripten_US
dc.relation.journalNatural Language and Linguistic Theoryen_US
dash.depositing.authorDeal, Amy Rose
dc.date.available2010-06-28T12:34:50Z
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s11049-009-9081-5*
dash.contributor.affiliatedDeal, Amy Rose


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