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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt">Hi all,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt">Is anybody familiar
with a case
of split ergativity in which the conditioning factor is the number
of the Agent
NP?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt">My reason for
asking:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>in Hebrew,
especially in a journalese
register, in a transitive A V P construction, when the A is
semantically plural,
typically denoting a collective entity, it is often marked with
the locative proclitic
<i>b-</i> while the verb takes plural subject agreement in an
apparent impersonal
construction.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For example,
in a sentence
about the Likud political party:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">balikud muxanim lidħot et hamahapexa hamišpatit
...</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">LOC-Likud prepare:3.PLM INF-postpone ACC
DEF-revolution
DEF-legislative.F ...</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">idiomatically: 'The Likud is willing to
postpone the
legislative revolution ...'</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt">literally: 'In the
Likud they're
willing to postpone the legislative revolution ...'</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt">Such constructions
are extremely
widespread in journalistic writing.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>The above
example, part of a newspaper headline, is followed by a string of
several
clauses <span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">all
exhibiting the
same construction, </span>each beginning with a semantically
plural agent marked
with locative <i>b-:</i> 'in the ruling party', 'in closed
rooms', 'in the
other side', etc. [<span style="mso-bidi-language:HE"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/bk5kubsin#autoplay">https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/bk5kubsin#autoplay</a>]</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span
style="mso-bidi-language:
HE">In the above construction, the locative proclitic <i>b-</i>
seems to be approaching
the function of an ergative marker, albeit a rather atypical
one: in
particular, when the P is definite, as in the above example, it
is marked with
the definite direct object, thereby retaining accusative
alignment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span
style="mso-bidi-language:
HE">I wonder whether anybody has come across similar
constructions, in which an
incipient or apparent ergative case marking system is licensed
by number
(rather than by more commonly-cited features such as aspect or
person).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span
style="mso-bidi-language:
HE">Thanks,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span
style="mso-bidi-language:
HE">David<br>
</span><span dir="RTL"
style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:
minor-latin;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"
lang="AR-SA"></span></p>
<p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-082113720302
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