Arguments and Adjuncts in Warlpiri
Julie Legate
Tuesday, February 11, 2003, 12:30pm
Linguistics Conference Room, 719 Broadway, Room 433
This talk will examine the argumental status of noun phrases in Warlpiri. All previous analyses maintain that Warlpiri, and other "non-configurational" languages, lacks the standard projection of noun phrases into argument position. Moreover, this is taken to be the explanation for the peculiar properties of these languages, including for Warlpiri:
(i) free word order
(ii) discontinuous noun phrases
(iii) null anaphora
(iv) split ergativity
The most influential analysis claims that all phonologically overt nominals are clausal adjuncts, while argument positions are obligatorily filled by pronominals (see Jelinek 1984, Baker 1996).
This talk adds to an alternative approach I have been developing, whereby noun phrases in Warlpiri are merged into argument position, and "non-configurational" properties are given configurational explanations. I will focus on (iii), null anaphora, and (iv), split ergativity. I will show that Warlpiri null anaphora is Chinese-style topic drop, and present a new "split absolutive" analysis of ergativity. The broader implications of this work for non-configurationality and ergativity are considered.
References:
- Baker, Mark. 1996. The Polysynthesis Parameter. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Jelinek, Eloise. 1984. Empty categories, case, and configurationality. Natural language and Linguistic Theory 2, 39-76.
- Legate, Julie Anne. 2002. Warlpiri: Theoretical Implications. MIT Dissertation.
Last Modified: February 6, 2003