Ergativity and Other Alignment Types in Neo-Aramaic: Investigating Morphosyntactic Microvariation

Description

This book contains a comprehensive study of constructional splits and alignment typology, especially ergativity, as found in the Neo-Aramaic languages spoken in the Mesopotamian region of West Asia. ‎Contents ‎Preface ‎Figures, Maps and Tables ‎Abbreviations and Symbols ‎Chapter 1. Introduction ‎1.1. Ergativity, an Enigma in Semitic Linguistics? ‎1.2. Neo-Aramaic Dialects in the Land of Rivers ‎1.2.1. Above the Tigris: Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) Dialect Bundle ‎1.2.2. Below the Tigris: Dialects of Ṭur ʿAbdin ‎1.2.3. Writing a Spoken Language: Sociolinguistic Factors ‎1.2.4. Converging Neighbors: Areal Factors ‎1.5. Previous Approaches to Alignment in Eastern Neo-Aramaic ‎1.5.1. Early Scholarship: Passive or Possessive ‎1.5.2. Recent Typological Approaches ‎1.6. Aims and Scope of This Book ‎1.7. Sources and Transcription Conventions ‎1.8. Outline ‎Chapter 2. Who Did What to Whom in the Context of Neo-Aramaic ‎2.1. Main Components of Verbal Inflection in Neo-Aramaic ‎2.1.1. Verbal Roots ‎2.1.2. Basic Stems qaṭəl-/qoṭəl–vs. qṭil–and Their Derivations ‎2.1.3. Sets of Person Markers: E-suffixes and L-suffixes ‎2.1.4. Preverbal TAM-marking and the -wa-affix ‎2.2. (Pro)nominals and Verbal Constructions Derived from (Pro)nominals ‎2.2.1. Nominal Inflection ‎2.2.2. Unmarked vs. Prepositional Pronouns ‎2.2.3. Possession ‎2.2.4. Nouns as Verbs and Verbs as Nouns: Non-verbal Clauses and Nominal Forms of the Verb ‎2.2.5. Objects on ‘Nouny’ Verbs ‎2.3. Defining and Identifying the Alignment of Who Did What to Whom ‎2.3.1. Arguments in the Clause and Their Core Functions ‎2.3.2. Alignment: Morphological Properties ‎2.3.3. Syntactic Properties: Role and Reference Inversion in Neo-Aramaic ‎2.4. Conclusion: A Construction-Specific Approach ‎2.5. Overviews of Inflection ‎Chapter 3. Ergativity and Its Typology: The Trans-Zab Jewish Dialects ‎3.1. Main Morphosyntactic Hallmarks ‎3.1.1. Verb-Final Word Order ‎3.1.2. Prepositional Marking of Objects ‎3.1.3. Verbal Inflection and Person Marking ‎3.2. Ergativity and Alignment Splits in Typological Perspectives ‎3.2.1. Clause- and Verb-Related Factors for Alignment Splits ‎3.2.2. Argument-Related Factors for Alignment Splits: Prominence ‎3.3. Ergativity and Patient-Related Splits in Trans-Zab Jewish NENA ‎3.3.1. Alignment of qṭil- in Southeastern Trans-Zab Jewish Dialects ‎3.3.2. Comparative Syntax of Trans-Zab Jewish Dialects ‎3.4. Ergativity and Splits along the Tense-Aspect-Mood Scale ‎3.4.1. Filling the Gap of the Transitive Perfect ‎3.4.2. Arbel: Accusative ‎3.4.3. Rustaqa: Ergative and Tripartite Resultative ‎3.4.4. Koy Sanjaq: Competing Resultatives ‎3.4.5. Urmi: Mixing Resultatives ‎3.4.6. Sulemaniyya: Gender-Conditioned Ergativity ‎3.4.7. Jewish NENA in West Iran: Ergative Third Person ‎3.5. Ergativity and Transitivity: Argument Omission and Valency Alternations ‎3.5.1. Patient Omission: Lexical Transitivity ‎3.5.2. Agent Omission: Ergative and Antipassive Typology ‎3.5.3. Agent Omission in Compound Verbal Forms in West Iranian Jewish Dialects of NENA ‎3.5.4. Transitivity and Alternations in Northwest Iranian Jewish Dialects of NENA ‎3.6. Conclusion: Construction-Specific, Not Alignment-Specific Factors ‎Chapter 4. Christian and Western Jewish Dialects of NENA ‎4.1. Preliminary Notes on Morphosyntax ‎4.1.1. Person Marking in Transitive Perfective Past Constructions ‎4.1.2. The Copula and Compound Veral Forms ‎4.1.3. Prepositional Marking of Agents ‎4.2. Ergative or Passive? Agents in and out of Focus ‎4.2.1. The Importance of Zero ‎4.2.2. On Agent (De)focusing and Passive Typology ‎4.2.3. Passive-Like Properties and Anticausatives ‎4.2.4. Ergative-Like Properties ‎4.3. Verb-Related Factors: Grammaticalization of Resultatives ‎4.3.1. Tense-Aspect Associated Person Marking: s and a ‎4.3.2. Transitivization of Compound Verbal Constructions ‎4.4. Argument-Related Factors: Harmonizing the Object ‎4.4.1. Person-Role Constraints ‎4.4.2. Alternative I: Independent Object Pronouns ‎4.4.3. Alternative II: Stacking of L-suffixes ‎4.4.4. Alternative III: Mixing of L- and E-suffixes ‎4.4.5. Alternative IV: qam-qaṭəl-construction ‎4.5. Conclusion: Cross-System Harmonization ‎Chapter 5. Below the Tigris: The Neo-Aramaic Dialects of Ṭur ʿAbdin and Mlaḥsó ‎5.1. Morphosyntactic Traits of Central Neo-Aramaic ‎5.1.1. Stems Disengaged: *məqṭol- vs. *qoṭəl- ‎5.1.2. Stems Entangled: Phonological Reduction ‎5.1.3. Unmarked and Prepositional Pronouns ‎5.1.4. Differential Object Marking and Word Order ‎5.2. The Neo-Aramaic Dialects of Ṭur ʿAbdin ‎5.2.1. Patient-Related Factors ‎5.2.2. Agent-Related Factors: Optional Flagging ‎5.2.3. Voice and Other Verb-Related Factors: *qṭil- vs. *qaṭṭil- ‎5.3. The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Mlaḥsó ‎5.3.1. Alignment of Person Marking ‎5.3.2. Neutralizing Subject Coding: Mediopassive with L-suffixes ‎5.3.3. Special Perfect Forms Based on *qaṭṭil- ‎5.4. The Primacy of Intransitive Coding ‎5.5. Summary from Stem to Stern ‎Chapter 6. Cross-Dialectal Synopsis of the Morphosyntax ‎6.1. Tense-Aspect-Sensitive Splits ‎6.1.1. The Tense-Aspect-Mood Scale ‎6.1.2. From Stative-Resultative to Preterit ‎6.2. Morphological Splits ‎6.2.1. Prepositional and Verbal Person Marking Entangled ‎6.2.2. Ergative-Like Markedness ‎6.2.3. Role Reference Inversion ‎6.2.4. What about Ditransitives? ‎6.3. Splits and Transitivity Alternations ‎6.3.1. Contextualizing the Agent ‎6.3.2. Recovering the Patient ‎6.3.3. Split Intransitivity ‎6.4. Splits Based on Argument Properties ‎6.4.1. Patient-Related Scales ‎6.4.2. Agent-Related Scales ‎Chapter 7. General Conclusion ‎7.1. Constructions Leading a Life of Their Own ‎7.1.1. Identifying Argument Groupings ‎7.1.2. Ergativity from Typological Perspectives ‎7.1.3. Recommendations for Future Research ‎7.2. A Taxonomy of Major Alignment Types ‎7.2.1. Accusative Alignment (a=s≠p) ‎7.2.2. Ergative Alignment (a≠s=p) ‎7.2.3. Other Basic Alignment Types ‎References ‎Index of Languages and Geographical Names ‎Index of Subjects