Semantic Alignment in Chitimacha
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4987915 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel W Hieber (0000-0002-1411-3773, University of California, Santa Barbara, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 85 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 313-363 |
| Publication date | 2019-07-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of American Linguistics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7071 • E-ISSN: 1545-7001 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/703239 |
| OpenAlex | W2954359944 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 28 |
This paper describes the alignment system for verbal person-marking in Chitimacha, a language isolate of Louisiana. Using data from recently digitized versions of texts collected by Morris Swadesh in the 1930s, I show that Chitimacha exhibits a split alignment system with agent-patient alignment in the first person and nominative-accusative alignment in non-first persons. The agent-patient alternation is shown to cross-cut subjects of intransitives, objects and even subjects of transitives, and direct/indirect objects of ditransitives. The agent-patient system in Chitimacha is therefore sensitive not to transitivity but rather to the semantic categories of agent and patient, making it an exemplary case of semantic alignment. I also discuss evidence of the diachronic origins of the agent-patient pattern and show that it arose via a reanalysis of transitive verbs with impersonal subjects (“transimpersonals”) as intransitive verbs with patientive subjects
Alternation (linguistics · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Nominative case · Transitive relation · Verb · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Language and cultural evolution · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
American Indian Languages
Describing Morphosyntax
Linguistic Structures of Native America
Language universals and linguistic typology
Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time
Ergativity
What are S, A, and O
The Syntactic Status of Object Possessor Raising in Western Muskogean
Agent-Patient Languages and Split Case Marking Systems
Chitimacha Verbs of Derogatory or Abusive Connotation with Parallels from European Languages
The Proto-Gulf Word for "Water" (With Notes on Siouan-Yuchi)
The Proto-Gulf Word for "Land" (With a Note on Proto-Siouan)
Argument Marking in Ditransitive Alignment Types
Active-Stative Agreement in Tunica
Chitimacha
A Lexical Comparison of the Atakapa, Chitimacha, and Tunica Languages
Phonologic Formulas for Atakapa-Chitimacha
The Oto-Manguean Hypothesis and Macro Mixtecan
Split Intransitivity Revisited
The Phonetics of Chitimacha
Primary Objects, Secondary Objects, and Antidative
Active/agentive Case Marking and Its Motivations
Ergativity
The Languages of Native North America
Mesoamerican Historical Linguistics and Distant Genetic Relationship
| Highly cited | No |
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