Marked Absolutive and Marked Nominative Case Systems in Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Cysouw
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2006 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 22381922

The goal of this project is to study the geographical distribution, typology and diachrony of a rare type of case system, which we call `marked nominative/absolutive¿. The defining characteristic of these systems is that there is an overt case-morpheme for the nominative/ absolutive case (i.e. the case that is shared between intransitive and transitive constructions), in contrast to a non-overt (zero) morpheme for the accusative/ergative. This distribution of overt vs. zero marking goes against typological expectations and is even sometimes considered to be impossible. The most uncommon subtype, `marked absolutive¿, is found mainly in Mesoamerica, and the other, more widely known subtype, `marked nominative¿, is found mainly in Africa and in the general California area of North America. We shall be investigating commonalities and differences among the anomalous case systems and relate them to case systems in general, to issues of formal vs. functional markedness, and, where possible, we shall seek to shed light on the origins and developments of the case systems. Since the locus of variation among different instances of marked nominative/absolutive is case marking in intransitive clauses, particularly in ¿minor¿ clause types such as nominal predication, the investigation of marked nominative/absolutive will be supplemented with a general, typological study of case marking in different types of intransitive clauses. This will be based on a balanced, world-wide sample of languages of all alignment types that involve case-marking.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 742: Grammar and Processing of Verbal Arguments