Fernando Zúñiga

Randomization tests in language typology

Abstract Two of the major assumptions that common statistical tests make about random sampling and distribution of the data are not tenable for most typological data. We suggest to use randomization tests, which avoid these assumptions. Randomization is applicable to frequency data, rank data, scalar measurements, and ratings, so most typological data can be analyzed with the same tools. We provided a free computer program, which also includes routines that help determine the degree to which a statistical conclusion is reliable or dependent on a few languages in the sample.

Source-Goal (in)difference and the typology of motion events in the clause

Abstract Starting from the clause, the functional domain of motion events with the three loci Verbal, Adnominal, and Adverbal, the paper investigates various grammatical and lexical means of expression for the encoding of the local roles Source and Goal in a sample of 117 languages and in more detail in one language with grammatically indifferent Source-Goal encoding, Mapudungun. It is found that the feature Source-Goal (in)difference forms a global cline with Consistent languages clustering in Eurasia and Indifferent languages being most frequent in the New World.

Referential hierarchies: A new look at some historical and typological patterns

Abstract This paper proposes a diachronic typology for the various patterns that have been referred to as Hierarchical Alignment or Inverse Alignment. Previous typological studies have tried to explain such patterns as grammatical reflections of a universal Referential Hierarchy, in which first person outranks second person outranks third person and humans outrank other animates outrank inanimates. However, our study shows that most of the formal properties of hierarchy-sensitive constructions are essentially predictable from their historical sources. We have identified three sources for hierarchical person marking, three for direction marking, two for obviative case marking, and one for hierarchical constituent ordering. These sources suggest that there is more than one explanation for hierarchical alignment: one is consistent with Givón’s claim that hierarchical patterns are a grammaticalization of generic topicality; another is consistent with DeLancey’s claim that hierarchies reflect the deictic distinction between present (1/2) and distant (3) participants; another is simply a new manifestation of a common asymmetrical pattern, the use of zero marking for third persons. More importantly, the evolution of hierarchical grammatical patterns does not reflect a consistent universal ranking of participants – at least in those cases where we can see (or infer) historical stages in the evolution of these properties, different historical stages appear to reflect different hierarchical rankings of participants, especially first and second person. This leads us to conclude that the diversity of hierarchical patterns is an artifact of grammatical change, and that in general, the presence of hierarchical patterns in synchronic grammars is not somehow conditioned by some more general universal hierarchy.

Egophoricity, Involvement, and Semantic Roles in Tibeto-Burman Languages

Abstract In this study, we explore typological aspects of egophoricity marking based on selected Tibeto- Burman languages. Conceptualizing egophoricity as an autonomous grammatical category that marks access to knowledge, we first discuss how egophoricity marking interacts with evidentiality in the Tibeto-Burman languages Shigatse Tibetan and Bunan. We then go on to explore the differences between the egophoricity systems of Shigatse Tibetan and Bunan, arguing that the variability of egophoricity within and across languages can be captured if we distinguish (i) constructions in which egophoricity markers express privileged access to knowledge due to actional involvement in the role of an event participant from (ii) constructions in which egophoricity markers express privileged access to knowledge due to epistemic involvement in the role of a “knower” whose precise relation to the event is not specified. We additionally introduce a set of five semantic roles to offer a more detailed description of the egophoricity systems of Shigatse Tibetan and Bunan (and also, albeit marginally, Kathmandu Newar and Galo). This study thus offers a new perspective on the variability of egophoricity systems in Tibeto-Burman and propagates an analytical approach that may also be helpful for analyzing egophoricity systems in other language families of the world.

Inverse and symmetrical voice: On languages with two transitive constructions

Abstract In voice and alignment typology, a categorical distinction is generally made between inverse systems on the one hand and symmetrical voice systems on the other. A major reason for distinguishing between these two types is the assumption that inverse systems are governed by a hierarchy involving grammatical, semantic, and ontological criteria, while symmetrical voice systems are based on discourse-pragmatic factors. However, the two types also have several important properties in common, in particular the fact that they have more than one nonderived transitive construction. Based on data from three native languages of South America, we show that the line between the two types is not always easy to draw, and that features of the inverse type can coexist with those of the symmetrical-voice type in the same language.

Decomposing hierarchical alignment: Co-arguments as conditions on alignment and the limits of referential hierarchies as explanations in verb agreement

Abstract Apart from common cases of differential argument marking, referential hierarchies affect argument marking in two ways: (a) through hierarchical marking, where markers compete for a slot and the competition is resolved by a hierarchy, and (b) through co-argument sensitivity, where the marking of one argument depends on the properties of its co-argument. Here we show that while co-argument sensitivity cannot be analyzed in terms of hierarchical marking, hierarchical marking can be analyzed in terms of co-argument sensitivity. Once hierarchical effects on marking are analyzed in terms of co-argument sensitivity, it becomes possible to examine alignment patterns relative to referential categories in exactly the same way as one can examine alignment patterns relative to referential categories in cases of differential argument marking and indeed any other condition on alignment (such as tense or clause type). As a result, instances of hierarchical marking of any kind turn out not to present a special case in the typology of alignment, and there is no need for positing an additional non-basic alignment type such as “hierarchical alignment”. While hierarchies are not needed for descriptive and comparative purposes, we also cast doubt on their relevance in diachrony: examining two families for which hierarchical agreement has been postulated, Algonquian and Kiranti, we find only weak and very limited statistical evidence for agreement paradigms to have been shaped by a principled ranking of person categories.

Selected semitransitive constructions in Algonquian

Abstract The present paper surveys a number of selected constructions in Algonquian languages that fall between those expressing transitivity and those expressing intransitivity (Hopper & Thompson 1980; Dryer 2007). Socalled passives are mostly agentless and show different kinds of allomorphy in the particular languages. Antipassives are not fully understood yet but seem to be more idiosyncratic than passives, and are not found everywhere in the family. Lastly, systematic mismatches between morphological and syntactic valency (similar to constructions found in Oceanic and other languages) seem to play an important role in the inventory of constructions used to express less than full transitivity in Algonquian.

How strong is the case for contact-induced grammatical restructuring in Quechuan?

Pieter Muysken’s work since the late 1970s on Northern Quechua has suggested the possibility that grammatical structure may be restructured due to contact in a gradual, rather than an abrupt, fashion (cf. Muysken 1977, 1980, 2000, but especially Muysken 2009, which develops ideas found in Arends 1993, 1996, and also Cardoso 2009). Additionally, he has proposed that such a “gradual transformation of an expansion language, Incaic imperial Quechua, into a morphologically more simple variety as it spread northward into Ecuador” (Muysken 2009: 77) is best seen as showing not only contact-induced change without substrate influence (“koineization”) but also contact-induced change with substrate influence (“creolization”), and has offered some likely candidates for this development of Ecuadorian Quechua (henceforth EQ):

Referential hierarchies in three-participant constructions in Blackfoot: the effects of animacy, person, and specificity

This paper discusses alignment patterns in three-participant constructions in Blackfoot (Western Algonquian; Canada, USA). We demonstrate the effects of referential hierarchies relating to animacy, person and specificity. Blackfoot verbs stem are subcategorized for transitivity and the animacy of S (for intransitives) and P(atient), R(ecipient), T(heme), or B(eneficiary) (for (di)transitives), showing crossreference with at most two participants. Nonspecific participants are never crossreferenced, resulting in the possibility of constructions with three or even four participants, only one of which is crossreferenced on the verb. Even when all participants in a three-participant construction are specific, only two can be crossreferenced on the verb: the A and what is generally called the ‘primary object’ in Algonquian studies (T, R or B depending on the specific stem in question). Any remaining participants are not crossreferenced on the verb, irrespective of their specificity status. Whether T, R or B is chosen to be the primary object is lexically determined by the verbal stem, and more in particular by the so-called ‘final’, a derivational morpheme which closes every verb stem in Blackfoot. While Algonquian languages are often thought to display only secundative alignment, in line with the overwhelming importance of animacy in their grammars, we show that some stems require indirective alignment, while others allow for both configurations. Cross-referencing of A and B occurs as a result of applicativization with a benefactive final, which downgrades any potentially present T and/or R participants to noncrossreferenced objects. Finally, Blackfoot allows for a form of marking additional participants by a preverbal element called a ‘relative root’, which licenses a participant without influencing crossreferencing patterns and without indicating the specificity or animacy of the licensed participant.

The diachrony of morphosyntactic alignment: Diachrony of Morphosyntactic Alignment

With morphological and syntactic argument properties, some arguments behave alike (i.e., they align with each other) while others do not. Such alignment patterns have received significant attention in the literature, but claims as to their origin and development are sometimes difficult to assess, due to scant actual data. This paper surveys the main hypotheses proposed in early and recent work on the topic, focusing on alignment type change and on major alignment types (ergativity, accusativity, and split intransitivity) of morphological properties, with some remarks on syntactic properties. The survey shows that alignment type change may often occur when clauses denoting low transitivity are reanalyzed as clauses of either higher or lower syntactic valency, sometimes even introducing a partition in the verbal lexicon (occasionally being conditioned by semantic, pragmatic, or structural factors), or are extended from low‐transitivity predicates to most bivalent predicates. Lastly, alignment type change can be either functionally motivated or not.