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Hi Ference,</div>
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Building on Marianne's response, this exact issue is why Donohue & Wichmann (2008), in the introductory chapters to their edited volume, adopt the term
<i>semantic alignment</i> for these kinds of systems. What motivates the differential marking in these kinds of systems is a distinction between the semantic roles of agent and patient, regardless of their syntactic status or the transitivity of the clause.
So as you suggest, the term "split intransitivity" is not really a good description of the phenomenon.</div>
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Even among researchers that frame these systems in terms of semantic alignment, you're quite right that the overwhelming focus is on intransitive clauses. As Hiroto pointed out, Mithun (1991) also discusses transitive cases, but this aspect of semantic alignment
systems is still not often discussed. In light of this, I try to provide a more balanced description of the semantic alignment system of Chitimacha (isolate, Louisiana) in a recent IJAL article (Hieber 2019), which includes discussions of intransitive, transitive,
ditransitive, and copula clauses, not just intransitives.</div>
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Regarding your question concerning what types of transitive verbs can exhibit patient marking, your prediction is right for Chitimacha in that most of them are verbs of emotion ('regret'), cognition ('know'), and experience ('taste'). However, patient forms
also appear with what are typically agentive transitive verbs like 'call' or 'plant' in instances where the discourse context motivates their use. While surprising at first, the appearance of patient forms on these otherwise agentive verbs makes sense if the
differential marking is understood as a type of semantic alignment.</div>
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best,</div>
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Danny</div>
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<b>References</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>Donohue, Mark & Søren Wichmann (eds.). 2008. <i>The typology of semantic alignment</i>. Oxford University Press.<br>
</li><li>Hieber, Daniel W. 2019. Semantic alignment in Chitimacha. <i>International Journal of American Linguistics</i> 85(3). 313–363. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/703239" title="https://doi.org/10.1086/703239">10.1086/703239</a>.<br>
</li><li>Mithun, Marianne. 1991. Active/agentive case marking and its motivations. <i>
Language</i> 67(3). 510–546. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/415036" title="https://doi.org/10.2307/415036">10.2307/415036</a>.<br>
</li></ul>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Marianne Mithun <mithun@linguistics.ucsb.edu><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, January 30, 2020 12:48 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Havas Ferenc <hfz@iif.hu><br>
<b>Cc:</b> lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Lingtyp] non-agentive transitives</font>
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<div dir="ltr">Dear Ference et al.
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<div>That's exactly the point in these systems. The grammatical agent is formally the same in transitive and intransitive sentences, and the grammatical patient is formally the same in transitive and intransitive sentences. So calling them 'split intransitive'
has always been Eurocentric.</div>
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<div>Of course not all languages are exactly the same. Marking patterns may be a bit different, and what is categorized as an agent or a patient in a particular language varies in interesting ways. (A nice one in Central Pomo is that if I win in gambling, I'm
a grammatical agent, but if I lose in gambling, I'm a grammatical patient.) And patterns have histories. So Mohawk 'throw' occurs with a grammatical patient, because it is the verb 'lose' with a directional prefix.</div>
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<div>Marianne</div>
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<div dir="ltr" class="x_gmail_attr">On Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 1:38 AM Havas Ferenc <<a href="mailto:hfz@iif.hu">hfz@iif.hu</a>> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="x_gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204); padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><a name="x_m_-3273632625215330540__Hlk30867244"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dear Colleagues,<u></u><u></u></span></a></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">My question is about the differential marking of agentive and non-agentive subjects in transitive sentences. It is well known that
in some languages, called active or agentive, the marking of the subject of intransitive verbs (whether by a case or by agreement) differs depending on whether the subject is agentive or patient-like. As Marianne Mithun puts it: “ln all of these languages
one case is used for semantic agents of most transitive verbs and the single argument of some intransitives while a different case is used for the semantic patients of most transitive verbs and the single argument of other intransitives. The sets of verbs
occurring with each case are largely the same from one language to the next. Most verbs in the first set denote events performed, effected, instigated and controlled by their participants (’jump', 'go', 'catch'). Most verbs in the second set denote state significantly
affecting their participants ('be sick', 'be tired', 'be caught’)”. (Language 1991, 67/3, 523)</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><a name="x_m_-3273632625215330540__Hlk30867746"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">So much about subjects of intransitive predicates. Less light seems to have been cast on
transitive subjects in the dedicated languages, though the pattern exists. Consider e.g. these Kaddoan sentences (selected from the same paper, 525–528):<u></u><u></u></span></a></p>
<ol start="1" type="1" style="margin-top:0cm">
<li class="x_gmail-m_-3273632625215330540MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left:17.35pt; margin-bottom:0.0001pt; text-align:justify; line-height:normal">
<span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">ci-hahyúnčah</span></i></span><span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> 'I'm going to go home.’<u></u><u></u></span></span></li><li class="x_gmail-m_-3273632625215330540MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left:17.35pt; margin-bottom:0.0001pt; text-align:justify; line-height:normal">
<span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">ku-táyʡayah</span></i></span><span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> 'I'm tired, disgusted, fed up.'<u></u><u></u></span></span></li></ol>
<p class="x_gmail-m_-3273632625215330540MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:53.35pt">
<span><u></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span>(3)<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><u></u><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">ci-kíʡčah</span></i></span><span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> 'I'm going to kill him.'<u></u><u></u></span></span></p>
<ol start="4" type="1" style="margin-top:0cm">
<li class="x_gmail-m_-3273632625215330540MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left:17.35pt; margin-bottom:0.0001pt; text-align:justify; line-height:normal">
<span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">kú-ʡnutah</span></i></span><span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> ’I like it.’<u></u><u></u></span></span></li></ol>
<p class="x_gmail-m_-3273632625215330540MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-right:0cm; margin-left:53.35pt; margin-bottom:0.0001pt; text-align:justify; line-height:normal">
<span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></span></p>
<span></span>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">(1) and (2) show that agentive and non-agentive subjects of intransitive sentences have distinct verbal prefixes:
<i>ci-</i> versus <i>ku-.</i> (3) and (4) in turn illustrate the differential marking of agentive and non-agentive subjects in transitive sentences with the very same prefixes as in intransitive sentences.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">So my questions are<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">a) WHICH SUBJECTS?<br>
Which subjects are non-agentively marked in transitive sentences? I would expect them to be passive experiencers (of verbs like ’see’, ’hear’ as opposed to ‘look at’, ‘listen to’), recipients (’get’, ’inherit’), possessors (’have’), undergoers of unintentional
mental processes (’remember’, ’forget’), emotions (’like’, ’dislike’, ’hate’).<br>
<br>
b) UNIFORM MARKING?<br>
If a language has splits in both transitive and intransitive sentences, are the agentive and non-agentive markers of the same form in the two types of sentences?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">At the end of the day, the central issue is whether the agentive – non-agentive split does or does not work the same way in intransitive
and transitive sentences. If it did, the mere “split intransivity” concept of agentive languages would be worth reconsidering.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Thank you for your assistance.<br>
<br>
Ferenc Havas<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Professor Emeritus of Linguistics<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">ELTE University, Budapest</span><span style="font-size:12pt; line-height:115%; font-family:Times,serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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