The Evolution of Ergativity in Iranian Languages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.2.1.23-44Keywords:
ergative structure, resultatives, past participle, Old Persian, Iranian languagesAbstract
This paper presents an attempt to investigate the origins of ergativity in Iranian languages, drawing upon diachronic and synchronic analyses. In so doing, I will trace the development of the ergative structure back to Old and Middle Persian where, it is argued, the roots of ergativity lie. I will specifically show that the ergative pattern as currently obtained in the grammatical structure of some Iranian languages has evolved from a periphrastic past participle construction, the analogue of which is attested in Old Persian. It will further be argued that the predecessor past participle construction imparted a resultative construal in Old Persian and, subsequently, in the transition to Middle Persian, has assumed a simple past reading. The bottom-line of the analysis will be represented as a proposal regarding the nature of the ergative verb, to the effect that an ergative verb, as opposed to a regular (non-ergative) transitive verb, is semantically transitive, but syntactically intransitive.
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References
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Benveniste, E. (1966). La construction passive du parfait transitif. In E. Benveniste (Ed.) Probl`emes de linguistique generale (pp. 176–186). Paris: Gallimard.
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Bynon, T. (2005). Evidential, raised possessor, and the historical source of the ergative construction in Indo-Iranian. Transactions of the Philological Society, 103, 1–72.
Cardona, G. (1970). The Indo-Iranian construction mana krtam. Language, 46, 1–12.
Chomsky, N. (1970). Remarks on nominalizations. In R. Jacobs & P. Rosenbaum (Eds.) Readings in English Transformational Grammar (pp. 184–221). Waltham, MA: Ginn and Co..
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding. Foris: Dordrecht.
Cuervo, M. C. (2003). Datives at large. Cambridge, MA: MIT dissertation.
Dixon, R. M. W. (1994). Ergativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Drinka, B. (2003). The Perfect in Indo-European. Stratigraphic evidence of prehistoric areal influence. In H. Andersen (Ed.) Language contacts in prehistory. Studies in stratigraphy (pp. 77–105). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Embick, D. (2004). On the structure of resultative participles in English. Linguistic Inquiry, 35, 355-392.
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Haig, G. (2004). Alignment in Kurdish: A diachronic perspective. Unpublished Habilitationsschrift: Philosophische Fakultät der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Haig, G. (2008). Alignment change in Iranian languages: a construction grammar approach. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hale, K. & Keyser, S. J. (1993). On argument structure and the lexical expression of semantic relations. In K. Hale & S. J. Keyser (Eds.) The View from Building 20 (pp. 53–109). MIT Press, Cambridge Mass.
Hale, K. & Keyser, S. J. (2002). Prolegomenon to a Theory of Argument Structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Halle, M. & Marantz, A. (1993). Distributed morphology and the pieces of inflection. In K. Hale & S. J. Keyser (Eds.) The View from Building 20 (pp. 111–176). MIT Press, Cambridge Mass.
Holmberg, A. & D. Odden. (2004). Ergativity and role-marking in Hawrami. Paper presented at Syntax of the World’s Languages (SWL 1), Leipzig, Germany.
Karimi, Y. (2010a). Unaccusative transitives and the Person-Case Constraint effects in Kurdish. Lingua, 120, 693–716.
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Kent, R. (1953). Old Persian. New Haven, Connecticut: American Oriental Society.
Legate, J. (2008). Morphological and abstract case. Linguistic Inquiry, 39, 55–101.
Marantz, A. (1993). Implications of asymmetries in double object constructions. In S. Mchombo (Ed.) Theoretical aspects of Bantu grammar (PP. 113–150). Stanford, CA: CSLI.
Marantz, A. (1997). No escape from syntax: Don’t try morphological analysis in the privacy of your own lexicon. In A. Dimitriadis, L. Siegel, C. Surek-Clark, & A. Williams (Eds.) Proceedings of the 21st Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium (pp. 201–225). Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 4.2. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Penn Linguistics Club.
Pylkkänen, L. (2002). Introducing Arguments. Ph.D. dissertation. MIT, Cambridge, MA.
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Skjærvø, P. O. (1983). Case in Inscriptional Middle Persian, Inscriptional Parthian, and the Pahlavi Psalter. Studia Iranica, 12, 47–62.
Skjærvø, P. O. (1985). Remarks on the Old Persian verbal system. Münchner Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft, 45, 211–227.
Skjærvø, P. O. (2005). An introduction to Old Persian. Cambridge, Harvard.
Statha-Halikas, H. (1979). How not to tell a passive: the case of Old Persian mana krtam reconsidered. Berkeley Linguistic Society, 5, 350–361.
Sundermann, W. (1989). Mittelpersisch. In S. Rudiger (Ed.) Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum (pp. 138–164). Wiesbaden: Reichert.
Trask, L. (1979). On the Origins of Ergativity. In F. Plank (Ed.) Ergativity: Towards a Theory of Grammatical Relations (pp. 385-404). New York, New York: Academic Press.
Van de Visser, M. (2006). The marked status of ergativity. LOT Dissertation Series 141.
Benveniste, E. (1966). La construction passive du parfait transitif. In E. Benveniste (Ed.) Probl`emes de linguistique generale (pp. 176–186). Paris: Gallimard.
Bynon, T. (1979). The ergative construction in Kurdish. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 42, 211–224.
Bynon, T. (1980). From passive to active in Kurdish via the ergative construction. In E. C. Traugott, R. Labrum & S. Shepherd (Eds.) Papers from the 4th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (pp. 151–163). Amsterdam: Benjamîns.
Bynon, T. (2005). Evidential, raised possessor, and the historical source of the ergative construction in Indo-Iranian. Transactions of the Philological Society, 103, 1–72.
Cardona, G. (1970). The Indo-Iranian construction mana krtam. Language, 46, 1–12.
Chomsky, N. (1970). Remarks on nominalizations. In R. Jacobs & P. Rosenbaum (Eds.) Readings in English Transformational Grammar (pp. 184–221). Waltham, MA: Ginn and Co..
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding. Foris: Dordrecht.
Cuervo, M. C. (2003). Datives at large. Cambridge, MA: MIT dissertation.
Dixon, R. M. W. (1994). Ergativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Drinka, B. (2003). The Perfect in Indo-European. Stratigraphic evidence of prehistoric areal influence. In H. Andersen (Ed.) Language contacts in prehistory. Studies in stratigraphy (pp. 77–105). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Embick, D. (2004). On the structure of resultative participles in English. Linguistic Inquiry, 35, 355-392.
Haig, G. (1998). On the interaction of morphological and syntactic ergativity: Lessons from Kurdish. Lingua, 105, 149–173.
Haig, G. (2004). Alignment in Kurdish: A diachronic perspective. Unpublished Habilitationsschrift: Philosophische Fakultät der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Haig, G. (2008). Alignment change in Iranian languages: a construction grammar approach. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hale, K. & Keyser, S. J. (1993). On argument structure and the lexical expression of semantic relations. In K. Hale & S. J. Keyser (Eds.) The View from Building 20 (pp. 53–109). MIT Press, Cambridge Mass.
Hale, K. & Keyser, S. J. (2002). Prolegomenon to a Theory of Argument Structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Halle, M. & Marantz, A. (1993). Distributed morphology and the pieces of inflection. In K. Hale & S. J. Keyser (Eds.) The View from Building 20 (pp. 111–176). MIT Press, Cambridge Mass.
Holmberg, A. & D. Odden. (2004). Ergativity and role-marking in Hawrami. Paper presented at Syntax of the World’s Languages (SWL 1), Leipzig, Germany.
Karimi, Y. (2010a). Unaccusative transitives and the Person-Case Constraint effects in Kurdish. Lingua, 120, 693–716.
Karimi, Y. (2010b). Ergativity: Its origin and nature. PhD dissertation, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Teheran.
Kent, R. (1953). Old Persian. New Haven, Connecticut: American Oriental Society.
Legate, J. (2008). Morphological and abstract case. Linguistic Inquiry, 39, 55–101.
Marantz, A. (1993). Implications of asymmetries in double object constructions. In S. Mchombo (Ed.) Theoretical aspects of Bantu grammar (PP. 113–150). Stanford, CA: CSLI.
Marantz, A. (1997). No escape from syntax: Don’t try morphological analysis in the privacy of your own lexicon. In A. Dimitriadis, L. Siegel, C. Surek-Clark, & A. Williams (Eds.) Proceedings of the 21st Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium (pp. 201–225). Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 4.2. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Penn Linguistics Club.
Pylkkänen, L. (2002). Introducing Arguments. Ph.D. dissertation. MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Pylkkänen, L. (2008). Introducing Arguments. MIT Press, Cambridge MA.
Skjærvø, P. O. (1983). Case in Inscriptional Middle Persian, Inscriptional Parthian, and the Pahlavi Psalter. Studia Iranica, 12, 47–62.
Skjærvø, P. O. (1985). Remarks on the Old Persian verbal system. Münchner Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft, 45, 211–227.
Skjærvø, P. O. (2005). An introduction to Old Persian. Cambridge, Harvard.
Statha-Halikas, H. (1979). How not to tell a passive: the case of Old Persian mana krtam reconsidered. Berkeley Linguistic Society, 5, 350–361.
Sundermann, W. (1989). Mittelpersisch. In S. Rudiger (Ed.) Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum (pp. 138–164). Wiesbaden: Reichert.
Trask, L. (1979). On the Origins of Ergativity. In F. Plank (Ed.) Ergativity: Towards a Theory of Grammatical Relations (pp. 385-404). New York, New York: Academic Press.
Van de Visser, M. (2006). The marked status of ergativity. LOT Dissertation Series 141.
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22. 05. 2012
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Copyright (c) 2012 Yadgar KARIMI
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How to Cite
KARIMI, Y. (2012). The Evolution of Ergativity in Iranian Languages. Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 2(1), 23-44. https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.2.1.23-44
