Referential Hierarchies in Morphosyntax: description, typology, diachrony - "Differential agreement in Chintang"

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Balthasar Bickel
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2009 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 135496473

The goal of this project is to elucidate the nature of referential scale effects on verb agreement in comparison to case marking. Both marking systems can be affected by referential scales. The most obvious parallel is between differential (i.e. optional) object agreement and differential case marking on objects, which both seem to follow similar principles: higher ranking arguments favor overt agreement and overt case, lower-ranking arguments disfavor overt agreement and overt case (cf., e.g. Swahili and Spanish). Less well-known is case marking that is sensitive to a direct vs. inverse scenario distinction. This is attested for example in Yurok or Sahaptin and parallels verb-coded direct vs. inverse distinction, but this is attested. But there are also systematic differences between referential scale effects on case vs. on agreement: (i) split alignment in agreement does not seem to follow a universal referential scale (Bickel in press) while for case, at least a handful of families reflect some versions of the scale (Bickel & Witzlack- Makarevich 2008); (ii) while differential case marking may be driven by Zipfian principles (favoring zero exponence on the most frequent NPs, i.e. high-ranking agents and low-ranking patients; cf. Jäger 2007), no such principle apparently underlies agreement, which is instead favored by high-ranking arguments regardless of their role (Siewierska 2004, Bickel in press). (iii) differential agreement can affect both nonagentive arguments of ditransitives simultaneously, while differential case marking is often blocked by ditransitives (as in Nepali) or extends only to themes (as in Spanish).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA
• Participating Persons: Spike Gildea; Dr. Katharina Haude; Professorin Dr. Anna Siewierska (†); Dr. Fernando Zúniga