Séminaire DTT - Atelier Morphosyntaxe - Extension de la transitivité
14h-16h
ISH, salle Léger
Sylvia Tufvesson (MPI Nijmegen): The role of transitivity in syntactic alignment in Semai (Austroasiatic, Malaysia)
Short abstract:
This talk will address the role of transitivity in syntactic alignment in Semai, an Austroasiatic language of Peninsular Malaysia. I will examine the importance, or non-importance, of transitivity in case marking of the clausal subject. Current data and analysis suggest an alignment pattern split between ergative and active. In addition to a potential split in alignment, Semai makes a fundamental distinction between active events (processes) versus inactive events (states and completed events). This split strongly resembles a division between situation types/aspect. The relation between a split in alignment and that between situation types will also be examined.