Cagliari, Italy  15-18 September 2003

ALT V Conference

Lea Brown

Nias: an exception to universals of argument-marking.
lbrown@eva.mpg.de

It is thought to be a universal of language that in languages with an ergative-absolutive system of case-marking, absolutive case is always unmarked with respect to ergative (Mallinson and Blake 1981:49; Dixon 1994:58). For example, if there is overt coding of absolutive then there is also overt coding of ergative (Croft 2001:141). It is also thought to be the case that in languages in which the verb is overtly indexed for argument agreement, if a verb agrees with the ergative it also agrees with the absolutive (Croft 1990:106).

This paper presents evidence from Nias (Austronesian, Sumatra) which challenges both of these claims.

In nouns in Nias, absolutive case is formally marked while ergative case is formally unmarked. This is illustrated in sentences (i)-(iii), in which the noun ama 'father' occurs in each of the roles of A, S and P. In (i) this noun occurs in ergative case and is in its citation form, ama. When it is in absolutive case, in S function in (ii) and in P function in (iii), it occurs in a different form, with an additional /n/ at the beginning.

Case-marking on vowel-initial nouns in Nias is realized in some nouns by the addition of an initial /n/, and in others by the addition of an initial /g/. In consonant-initial nouns, case is realized by initial mutation, a process most familiar from Celtic languages, in which the citation form of a noun alternates with a form in which the initial consonant takes a different (but phonologically related) shape. The consonant-initial noun si'ila 'village advisor' is shown in sentence (iii) in ergative case (i.e. in its citation form) and in (i) in absolutive case (i.e. in its mutated form zi'ila) as the object of the verb tolo 'help'. It is also shown in absolutive case in (iv) where it is the single argument of the intransitive verb mofanö 'leave'. Some examples of nouns in ergative and absolutive case are given in (v).

The reason that the absolutive form of nouns is regarded as the marked form in Nias is that vowel-initial nouns in this language require the addition of an initial segment, while consonant-initial forms require an increase in voicing, or more generally, sonority. Moreover, the ergative case-form is used for citation, while the absolutive case-form occurs only in syntactic contexts which require it. This contravenes another widely held assumption that in languages which display ergative-absolutive case-marking in nouns, it is the absolutive which is used for citation (see, e.g., Dixon 1994:62).

Sentences (vi) - (ix) show that in Nias the verb agrees only with the ergative, not with the absolutive. In sentence (vi) the only marker on the verb is the first singular ergative prefix u-. In (vii) the only marker on the verb is the third plural ergative prefix la-. In the intransitive sentences (vii) and (ix), there is no marking on the verb for the S argument.

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 Examples for Nias: an exception to universals of argument-marking

  (i)    I-tolo  zi'ila  ama-gu.         3s.RLS-help     ABS.village.advisor     ERG.father-1s.POSS

       'My father helped a/the/some village advisor(s).'      

  (ii)   Mofanö  n-ama-gu.

        leave   ABS-father-1s.POSS

       'My father left.'      

  (iii)  La-tolo n-ama-gu        si'ila.

  3p.RLS-help     ABS-father-1s.POSS      ERG.village.advisor

      'A/the/ village advisor(s) helped my father.'  

  (iv)   Mofanö  zi'ila.

  leave   ABS.village.advisor

      'A/The/Some village advisor(s) left.'  

 (v)     ergative        absolutive      meaning alternation         adu     nadu    'statue of ancestor'    additional n

     adulo   gadulo  'egg'   additional g

     fakhe   vakhe   'rice'  f       >       v      

         tanö    danö    'land'  t       >       d      

         si'o    zi'o    'stick' s       >       z [ò]         ci'aci'a        zi'aci'a        'gecko' c [ì]   >       z [ò]         kefe    gefe    'money' k       >       g      

         khamö   gamö    'wage'  kh [x]  >       g

        baßi    mbaßi   'pig'   b       >       mb [B]

   doi     ndroi   'thorn, fishbone'       d       >       ndr [dr]

 (vi)    U-tolo  ira.

     1s.RLS-help     ABS.3p

   'I helped them.'       

 (vii)   La-tolo ndrao.

   3p.RLS-help     ABS.1s

   'They helped me.'

 (viii) Mofanö  ndrao.

   leave   ABS.1s

   'I left.'      

 (ix)    Mofanö  ira.

     leave   ABS.3p

   'They left.'   

References 

Dixon, R. M. W., 1994. Ergativity. Oxford University Press.

Croft, William, 1990. Typology and Universals. Cambridge University Press.

Croft, William, 2001. Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford University Press.

Mallinson, Graham and Barry J. Blake, 1981. Language Typology: Cross-linguistic studies in syntax. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company.