29.489, Diss: Kwakiutl; Semantics: Katie Sardinha: ''The Semantics of Kʷak̓ʷala Object Case''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-489. Mon Jan 29 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.489, Diss: Kwakiutl; Semantics: Katie Sardinha: ''The Semantics of Kʷak̓ʷala Object Case''

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Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2018 13:39:31
From: Katie Sardinha [katie.sardinha at berkeley.edu]
Subject: The Semantics of Kʷak̓ʷala Object Case

 
Institution: University of California, Berkeley 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2017 

Author: Katie Sardinha

Dissertation Title: The Semantics of Kʷak̓ʷala Object Case 

Dissertation URL:  https://escholarship.org/uc/item/14r9s7t2

Linguistic Field(s): Semantics

Subject Language(s): Kwakiutl (kwk)


Dissertation Director(s):
Line Mikkelsen
Amy Rose Deal
William Hanks

Dissertation Abstract:

In this dissertation, I investigate factors underlying the distribution of
object case in Kʷak̓ʷala, an endangered Northern Wakashan language of British
Columbia, Canada.  Kʷak̓ʷala has two types of objects, instrumental (=s) and
accusative (=x̌).  To account for their distribution, I develop a semantic
theory of object case that is grounded in event structure.  The first central
claim of this theory is that instrumental case marks internal arguments which
participate in initiating subevents (Co-initiators), while accusative case
marks internal arguments which participate in non-initiating subevents
(Non-initiators).  Concomitantly, any internal argument which participates in
both the initiating and non-initiating subevents of an event can undergo
instrumental/accusative case alternation.  The second central claim of this
theory is that instrumental case adds semantic value, while accusative case is
a meaningless default. 

    Supporting evidence for these claims comes from field data.  On the one
hand, object case realization is constrained by verb meaning, as shown by the
existence of correlations between particular semantic verb classes and
particular case frames.  On the other hand, evidence that case realization is
determined by event structure comes from data showing that modifying event
structure affects case realization.  Three types of event structure
modification which license case alternation include the Direct Manipulation
Alternation, the Caused Motion Alternation, and semantic incorporation with
the affixal verb -(g)ila ‘make’.  The event-structural basis of object case is
also revealed in the vicinity of weak verbs (Ritter & Rosen 1996) where the
semantic value of object case is communicated independently of lexical
entailments.

    This analysis allows us to see how Kʷak̓ʷala’s object case system
manifests a wider cross-linguistic tendency for languages to grammaticalize a
link between object-encoding and event structure.  I illustrate this by
showing that Kʷak̓ʷala’s object case system is semantically the mirror image
of the object case system in Finnish, in which the final bound of events is
grammaticalized as an interpretable accusative case (Leino 1982, Heinämäki
1984, 1994, Kratzer 2004).  Taking an even wider view, Kʷak̓ʷala fits squarely
within the event-structural typology proposed in Ritter & Rosen (2000), where
languages are divided according to whether they grammaticalize the initial or
final bound of events.  Kʷak̓ʷala’s object case system thereby fits into
existing cross-linguistic patterns, while also expanding our notions of what a
possible case system looks like.




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