Editing Split ergativity

{{Short description|Feature in the typology of certain languages}}
{{Linguistic typology topics}}

In [[linguistic typology]], '''split ergativity''' is a feature of certain languages where some constructions use [[ergative–absolutive language|ergative]] syntax and morphology, but other constructions show another pattern, usually [[nominative–accusative language|nominative–accusative]]. The conditions in which ergative constructions are used vary among different languages. <ref name=Dixon>{{cite book| last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |year=1994 |title=Ergativity |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>

==Nominative–accusative vs. ergative–absolutive==

{{main|Ergative–absolutive alignment}}

[[Nominative–accusative language]]s (including European languages, with the notable exception of [[Basque language|Basque]]) treat both the actor in a clause with a [[transitive verb]] and the experiencer in a clause with an [[intransitive verb]] in the same way grammatically. If the language uses [[case marker]]s, they take the same case. If it uses word order, it is parallel.

For example, consider these two English sentences:
* Jane was chasing Max.
* Jane was sweating.

The grammatical role of "Jane" is identical. In both cases, "Jane" is the [[subject (grammar)|subject]].

In [[ergative–absolutive language]]s (such as [[Basque language|Basque]] and [[Georgian language|Georgian]], or the [[Eskaleut languages|Eskaleut]] and [[Mayan language|Mayan]] languages), there is a different pattern. The patient (or target) of a transitive verb and the experiencer of an intransitive verb are treated the same grammatically. If the two sentences above were expressed in an ergative language, "Max" in the former and "Jane" in the latter would be parallel grammatically. Also, a different form (the ''ergative'') would be used for "Jane" in the first sentence.

For example, in the following [[Inuktitut language|Inuktitut]] sentences, the subject 'the woman' is in ergative case (''arnaup'') when occurring with a transitive verb, while the object 'the apple' (''aapu'') is in absolutive case. In the intransitive sentence, the subject 'the woman' ''arnaq'' is in absolutive case.<ref>{{cite book |last=Compton |first=Richard |chapter=Ergativity in Inuktitut |year=2017 |editor1=Jessica Coon |editor2=Diane Massam |editor3=Lisa Demena Travis |title=The Oxford Handbook of Ergativity |pages=832–850}}</ref>
* ''Arnaup nirijanga aapu.'' 'The woman is eating the apple.'
* ''Arnaq pisuktuq.'' 'The woman is walking.'

In split ergative languages, some constructions pattern with nominative–accusative, and others with ergative–absolutive.

==Split conditions==
The split is usually conditioned by one of the following:

# The presence of a '''discourse participant''' (a first or second person) in the proposition. The Australian language [[Dyirbal language|Dyirbal]] behaves ergatively in all [[morphosyntax|morphosyntactic]] contexts unless one of those is involved. When a first- or second-person pronoun appears, however, it is marked according to a [[nominative–accusative language|nominative–accusative]] pattern (with the least-marked case, when it is the agent or intransitive, or with the most marked case, when it is the patient). That can be explained in terms of the high [[animacy]] of a first-person or second-person speaker in the animacy hierarchy.
# The use of certain '''[[grammatical aspect|aspect]]s''' and/or '''[[grammatical tense|tenses]]''' in the verb. The [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]] family, for example, shows a split between the [[Perfective aspect|perfective]] and the [[imperfective aspect]]. In [[Hindustani grammar|Hindustani]] ([[Hindi]]-[[Urdu]]), a [[transitive verb]] in the [[perfective aspect]] causes its arguments to be marked by an ergative pattern, and the [[imperfective aspect|imperfective aspects]] trigger accusative marking.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Piepers |first1=J. |title=Optional ergative case marking in Hindi |date=19 May 2016 |url=https://theses.ubn.ru.nl/handle/123456789/2440  |s2cid=197863131 }}</ref>
# The '''agentivity of the intransitive subject'''.  In languages like [[Dakota language|Dakota]], arguments of active verbs, such as ''to run'', are marked like transitive agents, as in accusative languages, but arguments of inactive verbs, such as ''to stand'' are marked like transitive objects, as in ergative languages. Languages with such a marking are known as [[split-S language]]s and are formally a subtype of [[active language]]s.
# Pragmatic considerations or for '''emphasis, contrast, or clarity'''. In certain [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burmese languages]], elicited data has consistent ergative, aspectually split-ergative or active-stative case marking pattern, and in natural discourse the “ergative” marking is found only in some clauses, often a minority, usually with some pragmatic sense of emphasis or contrast (DeLancey, 2011).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=DeLancey |first1=Scott |title='Optional' 'ergativity' in Tibeto-Burman languages |journal=Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area |date=October 2011 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=9–20 |url=https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/INFORMIT.980387710679676 }}</ref>

==Examples==
===Hindi–Urdu===
{{main|Hindi verbs#Ergativity and Light verbs}}
An example of split ergativity conditioned by the [[grammatical aspect]] is found in [[Hindustani grammar|Hindustani]] ([[Hindi]]-[[Urdu]]); in the [[perfective aspect]] of transitive verbs (in active voice), the subject takes [[ergative case]] and the direct object takes an unmarked [[absolutive case]] identical to the [[nominative case]], which is sometimes called [[direct case]]. However, in all other aspects ([[Habitual aspect|habitual]] & [[Continuous and progressive aspects|progressive]]), subjects appear either in the [[direct case|direct]]/[[nominative case]] or [[dative case]] (see [[Dative subject|dative subjects]]), while direct objects continue to appear in the [[direct case]] (the subject of such sentences is differentiated from the direct object not from a difference in case but from the agreement of the verb with the subject as well as other syntactic and contextual cues such as word order and meaning{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}).

In the following perfective sentence, the agent ''laṛke-ne'' ''(boy)'' is marked for [[ergative case]], while the undergoer ''kitāb'' ''(book)'' is in unmarked nominative case. The verb ''kharīdī'' (bought) has the feminine ending ''-ī'', showing [[Agreement (linguistics)|gender agreement]] with the undergoer ''kitāb (book)''.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2
|लड़के-ने किताब ख़रीदी है
|laṛke-ne kitāb xarīdī hai.
|boy:MASC.SG.ERG book:FEM.SG.NOM buy:PRF.FEM.SG be:3P.SG.PRS
|'The boy has bought a book'
|abbreviations=PRF:perfective participle; ERG:ergative case; SG:singular; MASC:masculine; FEM:feminine; DIR:direct case; ACC:accusative case; 3P:third person; HAB:habitual aspect participle; PRS:present tense}}

In the corresponding [[Imperfective aspect|imperfective]] ([[habitual aspect]]) sentence, the agent ''laṛkā'' ''(boy)'' is in unmarked [[nominative case]]. The habitual participle form ''kharīdatā'' ''(buy)'' has the masculine ending ''-ā'' and thus agrees with the agent ''laṛkā (boy)''.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2
|लड़का किताब ख़रीदता  है
|laṛkā kitāb xarīdatā hai.
|boy:MASC.SG.NOM book:FEM.SG.NOM buy:HAB.MASC.SG be:3P.SG.PRS
|'The boy buys a book'
|abbreviations=PRF:perfective participle; ERG:ergative case; SG:singular; MASC:masculine; FEM:feminine; DIR:direct case; ACC:accusative case; 3P:third person; HAB:habitual aspect participle; PRS:present tense}}

Perfective constructions with certain VV (verb-verb) complexes do not employ ergative case marking (see: [[Hindi verbs|light verbs in Hindi-Urdu]]). In perfective constructions, the agent argument is ideally assigned with an ergative case; however in cases like the first example shown below that does not happen. This is because the explicator verb ''gayī'' (gone) which although undergoes [[semantic bleaching]] but still retains its intransitivity which does not allow for an ergative case assignment to the agent argument (i.e., ''ninā''). This is why as shown in the second example below, VV complexes involving a transitive [[explicator verb]] (e.g., ''phẽkā'' "threw") can employ ergative case to agent arguments.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Atreyee|date=2017|title=Revisiting Ergativity in Hindi|journal=Jadavpur Journal of Languages and Linguistics|volume=1|issue=1|pages=18–28|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325734608|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-02-05}}</ref>

{{fs interlinear|indent=2
|नीना आम खा गयी 
|ninā ām khā gayī.
|nina:FEM.SG.NOM mango.MASC.SG.NOM eat.NF go:PRF.FEM.SG
|'Nina has eaten the mango.'
|abbreviations=PRF:perfective; ERG:ergative case; SG:singular; MASC:masculine; FEM:feminine; DIR:direct case; ACC:accusative case; 3P:third person; HAB:habitual aspect participle; PRS:present tense; NF:non-finte
}}

{{fs interlinear|indent=2
|नीना-ने तकिया उठा फेंका
|ninā-ne takiyā uṭhā phẽkā.
|nina:FEM.SG.ERG pillow.MASC.SG.NOM pick.NF throw:PRF.MASC.SG
|'Nina (picked up and) threw the pillow.'
|abbreviations=PRF:perfective; ERG:ergative case; SG:singular; MASC:masculine; FEM:feminine; DIR:direct case; ACC:accusative case; 3P:third person; HAB:habitual aspect participle; PRS:present tense; NF:non-finte
}}

===Chol (Mayan)===
The [[Mayan languages|Mayan]] language [[Chol language|Chol]] has split-ergative person marking.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Coon |first=Jessica |year=2010 |title=Rethinking Split Ergativity In Chol |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=76 |issue=2 |pages=207–253 |doi=10.1086/652266 |jstor=10.1086/652266|s2cid=144864177 }}</ref>

In transitive clauses, verbs are framed by a person marking prefix (called "set A" in Mayan linguistics) that expresses the subject, and a suffix that expresses the object (= "set B").
{{interlinear|indent=2|abbreviations=IMPF:imperfective; A:prefixed person marker; B:suffixed person marker
|Mi a-mek'-oñ
|IMPF 2SG.{{sc|A}}-hug-1SG.B
|'You hug me.'}}

In intransitive clauses, the subject can either be represented by a set A-person marker, or a set B-person marker, depending on [[Grammatical aspect|aspect]].

In ''perfective'' aspect, Chol has ''ergative–absolutive'' alignment: the subject of the intransitive verb is expressed by a suffixed person marker, thus in the same way as the object of transitive verbs.
{{interlinear|indent=2|abbreviations=PRV:perfective; B:suffixed person marker
|Tyi wayi-yoñ
|PRF sleep-1SG.B
|'I slept.'}}

In ''imperfective'' aspect, Chol has ''nominative–accusative'' alignment: the subject of the intransitive verb is expressed by a prefixed person marker, thus in the same way as the subject of transitive verbs.
{{interlinear|indent=2|abbreviations=IMPF:inperfective; A:prefixed person marker
|Mi a-wayel
|IMPF 2SG.{{sc|A}}-sleep
|'You sleep.'}}

===Sahaptin===
In [[Columbia River]] [[Sahaptin language|Sahaptin]], the split is determined by the person of both subject and object. The ergative suffix ''-nɨm'' occurs only for third-person subjects for which the direct object is in the first or the second person.

{{interlinear|indent=3
|ku{{=}}š i-q̓ínu-šan-a ína wínš-'''nɨm'''
|and{{=}}1SG 3.NOM-see-IPFV-PST me man-ERG
|"And the man saw me."}}

{{interlinear|indent=3
|ku{{=}}nam i-q̓ínu-šan-a imaná wínš-'''nɨm'''
|and{{=}}2SG 3.NOM-see-IPFV-PST you.ACC man-ERG
|"And the man saw you."}}

{{interlinear|indent=3
|ku i-q̓ínu-šan-a paanáy wínš
|and 3.NOM-see-IPFV-PST him/her/it man
|"And the man saw him."}}

Another ergative suffix, ''-in'', marks the subject in the inverse. Both subject and object are then always in the third-person.

Direct (same as above example):

{{interlinear|indent=3
|ku i-q̓ínu-šan-a paanáy wínš
|and 3.NOM-see-IPFV-PST him/her/it man-ERG
|"And '''the man''' saw him."}}

Inverse:

{{interlinear|indent=3
|ku pá-q̓inu-šan-a paanáy wínš-'''in'''
|and INV-see-IPFV-PST him/her/it man
|"And the man saw '''him'''."}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
* Dixon, R. M. W. (1994). ''Ergativity''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-44898-0}}.
{{refend}}

[[Category:Grammar]]